What if you had a difficult discussion with someone and instead of getting a defensive response, they thanked you?  By beginning with the end in mind, you will learn how to reverse engineer difficult conversations into simple, straightforward discussions that get results. From how you set-up and prepare for the conversation, to the very first words you say, to the conclusion, you can positively impact the way your message is received, as well as the final outcome of your discussion. In this course, you’ll be provided with a step-by-step guide for having even the most difficult workplace conversations.

What you will learn:

• Steps to achieve immediate positive results in your next difficult conversation
• Methods to create conditions that make it easier to have difficult conversations
• Keys on how to build confidence in giving and receiving difficult feedback in performance reviews, peer feedback and constructive upward feedback
• Skills to improve how you receive and understand the other person’s point of view in a difficult conversation

Excellent interpersonal communications skills are the hallmark of a thriving career.  In this course participants will learn communication skills that will enable them to connect effectively with people at all levels of the organization, customers, and other stakeholders. A critical and fundamental piece of delivering messages effectively is being able to quickly build trust and establish rapport with others. Accordingly, this course explores communication styles, how to build trust, best practices on professional communication, and methods for communicating effectively across all levels and functions of the organization.  Participants will gain practical skills that will help them deliver messages of all types effectively, efficiently and in a manner that demonstrates professionalism.

Participants will learn to:

• Develop rapport quickly and easily,
• Express ideas in ways that get the attention and support of others,
• Increase levels of collaboration and contribution with others,
• Encourage collaboration rather than resistance in difficult situations and conversations, and
• Address multiple contexts professionally (internal/external, up/down/lateral).

The goal of this course is to equip employees to deliver messages of all types effectively, diplomatically and in a manner that includes context necessary for the audience of that message to understand and appreciate the content of the message. Accordingly, this course teaches participants a communication model that will equip them to share information in a manner that it will be best heard and acted upon. The techniques and strategies presented in this workshop work when engaging with internal and external customers, members of your own team, and members of other departments. 

You will learn how to:

• analyze others’ needs, wants and concerns,
• craft clear messages that address others’ needs, wants and concerns,
• confidently deliver messages, and
• effectively handle questions and subsequent discussion.

We often think of listening as a passive exercise, but when we are truly listening, we are highly engaged and active in both our thoughts and our reactions. Research shows that left to our own devices, we only comprehend between 25 and 50 percent of what we hear.  In order to hear more, and get more out of the interaction with the other person, we need to engage in Active Listening. This is when you make a deliberate effort, and use corresponding tools, to hear the complete message that is being communicated.

Participants will learn how to:

• understand the critical difference between active and passive listening behaviors
• improve communication and relationships with others
• recognize the barriers to active listening
• elicit undisclosed data, thoughts, values, and feelings, and
• suspend preconceived notions.

Every conversation we have with our customers and coworkers is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken a relationship. So how do you maintain a positive relationship when you are talking with a potentially prickly person?

This fast paced workshop is designed to help communicators defuse potentially disastrous conversations with prickly people. This workshop introduces techniques to help you change the way people react to you in difficult situations.

Participants will learn how to:

• Listen for understanding, even when the other person is being difficult,
• Deescalate tense situations,
• Manage your own emotional responses when others are aggravated or angry, and
• Achieve resolution in trying situations with difficult people.

Work does not get done in isolation. Whether you enjoy being part of a group or team or would rather work independently, the reality of today’s workplace is that participating in small group interaction is critical to individual outcomes and organizational outcomes. And making sure everyone’s voice is heard is critical to achieving the best outcomes when working in groups and teams. This workshop will help you develop skills in leading and participating in small group interaction so that all voices are heard. Special emphasis will be placed on small group decision making, managing the conversation, and participation from all members.

You will learn how to:

• analyze the needs of the group,
• communicate effectively with all types of group members,
• use inclusive techniques to ensure participation from all members,
• address group conflict, and
• manage the flow of conversation in group and team meetings.

The pandemic has forever changed how we work. There are now more options to consider, more complexities than ever before, and more ambiguity as we navigate managing our employees’ work in these uncharted waters. As some staff go back to the office full-time, some remain working from home full-time, and many whose work assignments will cross over the two environments, one thing remains certain: you need an engaged and motivated workforce.

This workshop offers techniques to help you transition into the hybrid environment that will set you and your team members up for success. Whatever the exact circumstances may be in your department or functional area, you will leave this session better prepared to lead your team in these unprecedented times.

As a result of this session you will:

• Understand and overcome the impediments to collaboration among hybrid team members,
• Ensure that you are assessing performance based on output and other empirical data,
• Learn to keep your own biases in check and create fairness and inclusivity as you manage,
• Understand the importance of leading with compassion, especially with staff who may have resistance to returning to the office,
• Learn ways to keep the team together even when members are not physically together, and
• Understand the importance of how the interactive functions that take place in the office generate organizational culture.

Leaders must be able to convey their ideas in ways that drive effective decision-making, teamwork, and action when working within their own teams and community members and with other entities they collaborate with.

Grounded in empirical research and applied to practical scenarios, this program shows leaders how to put new communication techniques into practice, test out new approaches, and learn to communicate with greater clarity.

Participants will:

• Understand and connect with their audience quickly,
• Learn nonverbal communication techniques that help to establish rapport,
• Structure communication to adapt to different situations and audiences, and
• Practice delivery of high-impact messages that influence.

In order to retain top talent, you must coach in addition to manage. This session teaches managers coaching skills that will help their staff maximize their own growth. The session focuses on the tactical issues of how to integrate coaching techniques into conversations and relationships that already exist (i.e., manager-employee) as well as surveying methodologies such as peer coaching and self-coaching techniques that can help drive performance in the organization. This session is meant to be a survey of methodologies and techniques. The session includes experiential exercises to promote mastery of the methods and techniques presented.

Leadership and influence are distinct skills that enable leaders to successfully navigate change and lead others to a desired future state. This course is designed to demystify both leadership and influence and provide practical ways to grow as both a person of influence and as a leader in your organization, whether you are leading from the top or from the side.

What you will learn:

• What you can do to expand your influence at work
• How social connections are related to influence
• Multiple sources of power and influence
• How to lead from any place within the organization

Moving into a leadership role is often marked with ambiguity and uncertainty. This class builds key skills for the emerging leader including self-awareness, humility, communication, power and influence, and responsibility. 

What you will learn:

• How to overcome the challenges of being a new leader
• Techniques for developing greater self-awareness
• How to harness your power and influence
• How to lead from any place within the organization

Association leaders have a unique set of challenges in leading volunteers. Learn how get members involved both on and off the board. 

What you will learn:

• How to solicit effective volunteers
• Techniques for leading without direct authority
• How to drive engagement in your association or organization
• How to develop leadership in others

The mindset with which we approach our circumstances largely influences the results we get in given situations. This course uses Carol Dweck's seminal work on mindset and distinguishes between growth mindset and fixed mindset.

As a result of this session you will:

• understand the difference between growth and fixed mindsets,
• discover specific techniques that can shift you into a growth mindset, and
• learn methods that will assist others in moving out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset.

Change is all around us.  From the sudden shift in how work is performed in the face of a global pandemic to working with a new colleague on a project, changes both big and small are ever-present in organizational life.  In this transformational session, you will discover ways to navigate changes and rather than being defined by them. You will learn powerful tools to shift your thoughts about change so that you can adapt and adjust more readily, yielding results and actions that maximize your ability to contribute no matter what the circumstances.

Using the methods taught in this session, you will be able to move through changes both big and small with new velocity and not be stopped by your circumstances.

As a result of this session you will:

• find out how to work with the natural order of your mind to make sense of your change in new ways,
• discover specific self-coaching tools that will help you reorient to changing situations, and
• learn a neuroscience-based method for transforming your old thinking into new, more positive and powerful results.

Imagine if you could tap into your own wisdom to guide yourself through challenging moments, both professional and personal? It turns out you can, and the solutions you will come up with are most likely better than you would typically give yourself credit for.  Key findings from the fields of neuroscience and positive psychology shed light on why this is so. In this 90 minute workshop you will learn about the practice of self-coaching and you will learn several tools to increase your self-awareness, tap into your own wisdom, and be more mindful.  These skills will aid in your professional life as well as your personal life. 

As a result of taking this course, you will:

• Understand cognitive patterns
• Increase self-awareness
• Discover how to transcend limiting beliefs about yourself, and
• Learn to solve problems independently

Today’s work environment demands leaders and individual contributors be more adept when meeting at a distance than ever before. The challenges of working in a 24/7, global environment are significant.  This workshop teaches specific skills that assist in effectively holding meetings in virtual and hybrid environments. From developing effective agendas to managing turns and stimulating engagement, the skills you will take away from this session will help you get more agenda items across the finish line at each meeting.      

Participants will learn how to:

• stimulate participation from all participants in the conversation,
• effectively manage the flow of discussion in virtual environments,
• get and hold the attention of other participants in the conversation,
• listen effectively when there are multiple demands on your attention, and
• manage the technology challenges that are inherent when meeting virtually.

How do you create a sense of “teamwork” when remote employees are typically focused on their own deliverables and rarely interact with their colleagues and manager like they would in a traditional office setting?  Discover how to create a sense of team, whether all members work virtually or if you have a hybrid arrangement where some members are collocated and others are working remotely.  From icebreakers to team building events to everyday team behaviors, you’ll learn specific activities that will bring remote teams together like never before.

You will learn how to:

• Build trust among virtual team members
• Increase the level of cohesion and unity among team members
• Create team building experiences with your virtual team
• Increase the level of accountability among team members
• Learn more about your team members on both a person and professional level.

Today’s emerging work environment demands leaders be more skilled at getting work done and coaching their teams to get work done amidst greater challenges and distractions than ever before. This workshop teaches specific skills that assist in effectively leading and supervising in virtual and hybrid environments that may not come naturally in technology mediated settings. Participants will learn key actions that will assist in developing and nurturing trust, positively motivating employees at a distance, and cultivating accountability on goals that are already in play.  The session addresses the challenges of working in virtual and hybrid environments and provides specific, tactical skills that increase engagement and improve performance when managing those who work from a distance.

Participants will learn how to:

• earn and maintain trust in a virtual environment,
• stimulate motivation, participation and engagement from team members,
• hold employees accountable for goals and outcomes, and
• coach employees on performance issues as they arise.

With the sudden shift to working remotely behind us and a hybrid work environment on the very near horizon, it is time to plan for and strategize for how to best get work done in the new normal.  In order for employees to produce their best work as they work in blended work environment where some are working from home, some are working in the office, and many are doing either depending on the day of the week, several optimizations are in order.  In this short course, employees will learn new tools that will enable them to be successful and maintain maximum performance with the rest of their team, regardless of where they and their team members are working. They will learn strategies for meeting the challenges of balancing multiple work environments, remaining productive, managing their emotions regarding their work schedule (home versus office), and keeping their goals and outcomes in focus. 

Participants will learn how to:

• handle multiple work environments effectively,
• organize work amidst competing demands,
• address the challenges inherent in a split schedule,
• use focus time and fragmented time effectively, and
• focus on goals and outcomes in a disruptive environment.

Learn to collaborate effectively and gain input needed on issues and decisions, all with fewer meetings. Contemporary workplace cultures are highly meeting centric.  In this course, you'll learn ways to collaborate, effectively get input from important stakeholders, and make decisions, all without meeting (or meeting much less than you are now). You'll move with velocity like never before.

What you will learn:

• How to discern whether it make sense to meet
• How to gather input without meeting
• How to build buy-in for ideas without meeting
• How to make decisions without meeting
• How to run short, highly effective meetings when you do need to meet