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Personal Effectiveness Courses
Quick course links... further course details below
Basic Psychology for Business (2 days)
An Introduction to Transactional Analysis in the Workplace
Are you interested in any of the following: conflict resolution, stress management, team building, leadership development, assertiveness, time management, work life balance, facilitation skills and other human related issues at work? To address any of these, a basic understanding of your own and other people’s behaviour, motivation and communication will underpin any approach.
Transactional Analysis (TA) is a powerful model for understanding relationships, communication and human behaviour. It is widely used in management and organisational development as well as in education, counselling, and other areas. This course will give you an opportunity to reflect on your own and others people’s ways of thinking and behaving in the workplace.
Basic Psychology Part 2 - (2 days)
Having a better understanding of our own and other people’s psychology can help us in the workplace as well as other areas of our life.
This two-day course is for those who have attended our introduction to Basic Business Psychology course and would like to learn more. On this course we will be build on your previous learning by going into more depth with some of the core Transactional Analysis concepts, and by introducing some new concepts.
Business Writing Skills
Who needs business writing skills these days – it’s all email, text and Twitter – isn’t it?
Clients, colleagues and customers make judgements about you and your business based on the standard of your written communication. Whether you are writing a letter to a client or an email to a colleague, the style and content of your document is of crucial importance in how they see you.
This course will help you put together written communication that is crisp, clear and readily understood.
Getting your message across, by whatever method, professionally and clearly is an essential business skill. The right balance of assertiveness and courtesy needs to be achieved in order to build and maintain a good business relationship.
This relaxed and friendly course will help you to overcome any issues you have in communicating your message.
Communicate Assertively and with Confidence
Communicating assertively and with confidence is vital to get your message across. We can be the best in our role, but if we cannot communicate our wishes to others, our skills will be undermined.
Whether building rapport with potential clients, dealing with customers, writing business correspondence or meeting with colleagues in the workplace, the ability to communicate with maximum impact is a skill that all business people need, yet many find difficult to master.
Understanding how we are perceived and how we perceive others is crucial to demonstrating assertion. Often we do not get what we want because our behaviour does not support what we say. This workshop will save you time in your discussions by learning a more effective style of communication both with your staff and your customers.
Assertiveness is when a person stands up for their rights without violating the rights of the other person. Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to say something, but didn't, in order to avoid having a row? Or perhaps you got so angry that you had a violent outburst and regretted it afterwards. These are examples of where assertive communication would have helped.
Confident and Effective Administrator
As an administrator in a busy office, you will be used to ‘juggling balls’. This course will show you how to deal with a variety of situations using effective communication skills and assertiveness techniques. You will explore ways to increase productivity and efficiency, and improve systems and procedures. Learn how to manage your time, organise projects, prioritise, and delegate.
Dealing Effectively with Conflict
Increasingly our workplace offers us the chance to work with a larger number and wider variety of people. This diversity provides many positive opportunities and can also increase the potential for conflict.
Whether it be experiencing consistently disruptive or aggressive behaviour or sensing more subtle underlying tensions, conflict is a major source of stress, which can affect morale, self-confidence and ultimately productivity.
This course is available as an in house only option and will be tailored to meet your specific requirements. Please contact the office for further details.
Influencing and Persuading
Would you like more experience in getting your point across in a concise and well thought out way? Day by day we must all influence the people around us: colleagues, superiors and customers.
In this active and practical programme, you will learn how to make a strong personal impact, the value of great listening and rapport, and how to tailor your message to the person you want to persuade. Starting with the fundamentals of human communication, we look at the psychology of effective persuasion and close with handling resistance.
Interviewing Skills
Whether you are recruiting staff, conducting a disciplinary interview or counselling an aggrieved employee, many of the interviewing techniques are the same. This workshop teaches participants how to control an interview and how to use listening and questioning techniques in a constructive way.
Delegates will learn how to probe with the right questions to get the interviewees talking, how to get all the facts, and how to clarify the information. They will also learn how to make the right decisions using the head rather than the heart.
Managing Yourself
This course is about maximising your contribution through improved personal effectiveness. It will equip you with the tools to deliver your best results whilst coping emotionally and professionally in a high-pressure environment. The course will help you to recognise your personal strengths and empower you take more control over your working life – increasing your enjoyment of your job and your self-esteem.
Meetings - making them work
Are your meetings viewed as a waste of valuable time?
Do you chair or facilitate at meetings?
Do you want to manage meetings more effectively?
Then this course is for you!
It gives you a full understanding of the meeting process and how to control and energise a discussion. You will learn how to structure the meeting to best effect; how to manage difficult attendees; and how to agree objectives and outcomes so that your meetings achieve real results.
Minute Taking with Confidence
Are you responsible for writing minutes? What happens if you miss something? What do you do about the “mumblers”? Do you have to take it in turns to record the minutes from departmental meetings? If so, how do you contribute to the meeting whilst taking down everything everyone says?
This extremely popular course will show you how to work effectively with the Chair, and how to take notes during a meeting by distinguishing the significant elements from the irrelevant. Delegates will be shown how to write up minutes which are accurate, concise and easy to use, ensuring that action points are followed up.
This course will improve participants' confidence, enabling them to minute formal and informal meetings effectively.
Negotiating Skills
With so much of modern business relying on the ability to reach mutually beneficial agreements - the so-called “win-win” situation - the modern manager needs to be able to plan, deliver and follow through on critical negotiations. This workshop will give you the skills to break stalemates and give you the edge in professional negotiations. It covers all aspects of negotiations, provides a framework for effective action, and shows you how to achieve the best possible and long lasting agreements.
Organising an Event
So what event have you been made responsible for?
- Charity Fundraising
- Business networking
- Christmas party
- Client entertainment
- Concert
- Exhibiting at Business Fayre
This one day workshop will give you the confidence to undertake whatever event you are responsible for. It will give you the essential tools to plan any event, to work effectively with project members and to ensure that the event comes in on budget - and is a great success!
Presentation Skills
Do you need to make presentations? Whether this is a one off to colleagues, regular presentations to clients or to a large audience, how many times have you longed to make it a clear, calm and effective presentation? Are you worried how to cope if it all goes wrong?
For the majority of presenters an effective presentation in whatever format is a skill that has to be developed through the use of proven techniques.
This course covers the basic elements of building a presentation using a structure through to delivery and managing nerves. The course blends the key skills with practicing the structuring and delivery techniques.
The day builds up the delegates’ skills addressing the key areas of preparing and delivering a presentation with confidence.
Presentation Skills Masterclass
“Polishing up the performance”
Making a good presentation excellent through the demonstration of advanced presentation/public speaking techniques.
An advanced masterclass for experienced presenters who want to hone skills still further. The class is limited to four participants to ensure you truly receive personal feedback on your presentation style.
In addition, it will include a half day of personal coaching on your speaking style or to prepare for a speaking event or presentation? Plus the opportunity to attend Presentation Skills (day 1) as a refresher which we strongly recommend.
Report Writing
Do you write reports for colleagues or customers? Would you like to enhance their look and content? Do you need them to make an IMPACT?
This course will strengthen the content of your reports and therefore others’ understanding of them. You will learn how to clarify your objectives, draw up an outline and organise your information; how to construct arguments; prepare summaries and write recommendations. You will also be shown how to write in plain English, using the correct grammar and demonstrate an effective layout to ensure that your reports are professional and contemporary.
The Receptionist - The Face of your Organisation
Does your Receptionist know just how important they are to your business? Are they inclined to say “I’m just the Receptionist”?
The first point of contact a customer has in any business is usually the receptionist who creates the first impressions of your company and this may affect any future relationships.
Surprisingly most receptionists are “thrown in at the deep end” and develop their skills and techniques as they go along. This course will enable you to handle customers, enquiries and complaints more professionally and with increased confidence.
Time Management
- Do you feel that you need 26 hours a day just to get your work done?
- Why do other people seem to get the same amount of work completed with such ease?
- Are you stressed, harassed, and under constant time pressures?
By organising your workload effectively rather than constantly reacting to events you can become more efficient and regain control of that most valuable resource... time.
Employers are constantly requiring their staff to take on more and more work. By becoming better organised in your working day, you can achieve greater efficiency, or leave for home on time without feeling guilty.
Tough Conversations
Are you worried about having that difficult conversation?
You know what needs to be done, but it isn’t always easy doing it. You have to sit someone down and say what needs to be said. It’s a difficult message. That’s tough, and you need to summon up your courage.
You also need to plan the conversation and be prepared to handle it, however it plays out. This might mean:
- Tackling a sensitive topic
- Dealing with conflict
- Addressing difficult behaviour – or worse
- Having to say “no”
- Coping with aggressive behaviours
This course has been designed to help you prepare effectively for that tough conversation, to feel confident as you approach it, to respond flexibly to whatever happens, to reflect on what you have learned, and to let go.
