Professional Development

Accountability: Flying Above the Clouds
What is it like to fly above the clouds – [SOAR]? You have a clear vision of the future, are focused on what matters, and can take responsibility for your actions. Why is it easier to fly below the clouds – [DIVE] – blame others, make excuses, and avoid taking responsibility for your actions? This class will look at both aspects of personal actions with an emphasis on learning to fly above the clouds. You will learn:

• What it looks and sounds like to take responsibility for your actions and behaviors
• How to avoid blaming others and making excuses for your actions and behaviors
• Language that triggers accountability
• The power of a culture that flies above the clouds

Assertiveness: How to Say What You Mean
Do you leave a meeting wishing you had said something? What keeps you from speaking up? Are your messages interpreted as you intend them? This 4-hour session will focus on getting your message across by saying what you mean and meaning what you say in a non-defensive manner.

Blending a Multi-Generational Workforce
Every organization in the United States is experiencing a new set of workplace dynamics based upon the phenomenon of four generations working together – either in its own workforce or in its client, customer and supplier base. Different expectations and loyalties exist within the different age groups now populating our workforce. Each group brings strengths and challenges.

This training helps employees and managers recognize, respond to, and resolve differences involving generational issues where productivity, teamwork and customer satisfaction could suffer if not handled effectively. Organizations that can draw on the different perspectives, skills and strengths of a multi-generational workforce will enhance creativity, productivity and innovation. When people believe that who they are and what they do is respected, conflict and missed opportunities decrease, and morale and productivity go up. You will learn:

• The prevalent characteristics and influences of the four generational groups
• How to identify strengths of each group
• What to do to incorporate each of the generational groups into one cohesive workforce

Sharpen Your Business Writing Skills
Learn the guidelines, techniques and exercises you need to improve your business writing skills. Topics may include:

• Using words, sentences, and punctuation to best convey your ideas
• Writing memos, reports, and proposals that are simple, logical and persuasive
• Using clear, concise writing that gets attention
• Using correct e-mail etiquette

Coaching for Improved Performance
Once team member performance has been assessed, the team leader identifies specific areas that need improvement. This training will show how to demonstrate the needed skills to the employee and how to motivate him or her to pursue them. Topics include:

• Counseling
• Encouraging/mentoring
• Training
• Confrontation

Communicating for Influence and Understanding
What do you do now that you are a Supervisor? What does it mean to Supervise? Learn the strategies of understanding and developing basic communication skills that Supervisors should use everyday. Topics may include:

• Supervising mixed generations
• Different ways of communicating
• Sending and receiving a communication

Developing Professionalism
In this 4-hour session, we will identify professional and unprofessional behaviors and actions, including, but not limited to, dress, language, topics of discussion and non-verbal communications. We will discuss the impact of unprofessional behavior on co-workers as well as customers.

DiSC Personal Profile – Understanding Yourself and Others
This program will help you learn how to increase your effectiveness and reduce frustrations in working with others so that everyone benefits — you, your colleagues, your teams and your organization. Using the DiSC Personal Profile System® participants will:

• Understand behavioral tendencies and develop an understanding of how behavior affects others
• Develop strategies for working together to increase productivity
• Enhance your effectiveness in accomplishing tasks by improving your relationships with others

Emotional Intelligence – A Key to Effective Communication
Emotional Intelligence is an understanding of self and others. Studies rank emotional intelligence atop the core competencies of successful leaders and successful companies. There is a considerable body of research suggesting that the ability to perceive, identify, and manage emotion provides the basis for helping us be more effective workers and better communicators. Furthermore, as the pace of change increases and the world of work makes ever-greater demands on a person’s cognitive, emotional, and physical resources, this particular set of abilities will become increasingly important. You will learn:

• The five competencies of emotional intelligence
• How to relate more effectively to others
• How to develop and raise your emotional intelligence to a higher level
• How to use EI to improve your productivity and well being in the workplace

Exceptional Customer Service: What is Your Role?
Do you know what role you play in serving your customers? Do you know who your customers are? This program is designed to empower you to deliver not just customer service, but exceptional customer service. Learn ways to better represent your organization and serve your customers. Items included in this program are:

• Introduction of the importance of Customer Satisfaction
• Identify who our customers are
• Costs of an unhappy customer – Why Customers Quit
• Barriers to good customer service
• How customers evaluate service
• Steps for Recovery Moments of Truth – any opportunity for an impressions to be made
• Customer Service and You – Self Check

Harassment in the Workplace
This workshop will give participants tools to recognize and prevent the appearance of harassment in their workplaces. Topics will include:

• The definition of harassment
• Description of the function of power in harassment in the workplace
• Recognition of signs of harassment in the workplace
• Identification of potential actions to address harassment

Interviewing: More Than a Gut Feeling
A behavior based interviewing model. Through behavioral examples, an interviewer discovers facts about a person’s history, and uses theses facts as a basis for predicting whether the individual demonstrates skills important for a specific job. This approach is based on the saying that, “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to do the following:

• Know why it is important to have an interview plan based on through knowledge of the job
• Be able to use interviewing skills such as: asking open ended questions, taking notes, seeking contrary evidence, allowing silence and controlling the interview
• Plan a logical, structured interview including pre-planned questions
• Know why it is important to make selection decisions on facts and information, not on a gut feeling
• Understand why some questions can not be asked legally in the interview process
  

Leadership Skills
This training is offered as a series of skills developed over several sessions. Companies customize the skill areas to be included in the training. Participants will use an assessment tool to help them understand the diverse ways of learning and interacting evidenced in the workplace. Training topics may include: leadership influence, effective communication, team building, problem solving, coaching, and time mastery.

Managing Conflict and Stress
Learning to deal effectively with diverse personalities can be the key to diffusing conflicting situations in the workplace. This workshop also looks at stress and the effect distress has on employee production and workplace moral. While not all stress is avoidable, having techniques to handle it is important. You will learn:

How to identify different personalities and their common communication traits

What causes difficult people

Ways to resolve conflict

Understanding stress

Managing anger

Coping with distress

Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory – Leadership through Understanding People
You probably have wondered why some people can really annoy you and why you seem to get along really well with others. Is there a good explanation for these differences? How can you use knowledge about these differences to interact more effectively with others, be more productive, support and motivate others or just feel more content? Workshop participants will take the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. This internationally used instrument will help you understand yourself, your motivations, your strengths, and potential areas for growth. It will also help you to better understand and appreciate those who differ from you. Awareness of MBTI types is self-affirming and enhances cooperation and productivity in the workplace. You will learn:

• The characteristics of the four preferences
• Your personality type
• How various types contribute to an organization in areas of leadership style, methods of communication, problem solving, and information gathering
• Appreciate the value of a variety of types within an organization.

Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships
‘Whale Done!’ is a Ken Blanchard program designed to teach people how to improve their relationships at work in order to become more productive and to achieve better results. Many work environments are not conducive to positive relationships. Instead they employ the GOTcha approach, catching people doing things wrong. Many times, GOTcha is the result of our upbringing, is inadvertent, or is a result of a lot of programs that focus on fixing problems. This training is based on the training techniques used by animal trainers at SeaWorld where five-ton killer whales perform for humans. ‘Whale Done!’ will help individuals learn how to build trust, accentuate the positive, and when a mistake occurs, redirect the energy for a more productive outcome. You will learn:
The impact that positive relationships can have on an organization

• Identify ways to build trust with others in an organization
• Identify and implement the five steps of redirection
• Identify and implement the four steps of the ‘Whale Done!’ response

Xtreme Project Management
When moving from the work group to supervision/management, most employees are not properly equipped to succeed. The skills necessary to complete a successful transition are not learned while performing the day-to-day job. Basic problems can be removed when employees are given adequate support and training. Through exercises and interaction, this course will give the new supervisor skills necessary to move from “one of the guys” to “the boss”. You will learn:

• How leadership and assertiveness are an expectation
• How to measure employee performance
• The value of goal setting
• Your role as a motivator

New Supervisor Road Map to Success
When moving from the work group to supervision/management, most employees are not properly equipped to succeed. The skills necessary to complete a successful transition are not learned while performing the day-to-day job. Basic problems can be removed when employees are given adequate support and training. Through exercises and interaction, this course will give the new supervisor skills necessary to move from “one of the guys” to “the boss”. You will learn:

• How leadership and assertiveness are an expectation
• How to measure employee performance
• The value of goal setting
• Your role as a motivator

Team Building
In today’s business environment, high performance work teams have become a necessity to improved performance and competitiveness. It is vital that team members gain the necessary skills to take action, solve problems, make improvements and achieve significant results. Topics covered may include:

• Team member roles
• Determining a shared purpose
• Making group decisions
• Team problem solving
• Facilitating groups
• Managing team conflict
• Managing team performance