Communication Skills

Below are our Communication Skills Courses. Please click for more information.

Assertiveness

This course will help participants speak with precision and power without damaging relationships or causing discomfort to others. Participants will learn that it is possible to disagree and to maintain one’s position while remaining collegial and professional.

Objectives:

• Understand the difference between assertiveness, and aggressive or submissive behavior.
• Know how to request consideration of your views.
• Learn how to disagree without disaster.
• Use language that is forceful but inclusive.
• Learn steps for engaging firmly and gracefully in stressful conversations.

Body Language: The Stealth Communicator

This course will help participants recognize the non-verbal communication elements that are sent with every message, by learning how attitude, emotion, facial expressions, and other elements affect meaning. Participants will learn to adjust their messages to account for non-verbal aspects, and to better recognize these elements in the messages of others.

Objectives:

• Understand the importance of non-verbal behavior in communication.
• Learn what some behaviors usually indicate.
• Know your own non-verbal communication.
• Adapt messages in response to audience reactions.
• Learn to control your non-verbal behavior.

Clear Communication

This course will help participants interact more effectively with others by sharpening their communication skills. Participants will build on their strengths and accommodate their challenges while learning the keys to successful and productive communication.

Objectives:

• Understand the basic principles of communication.
• Recognize and manage barriers to successful communication.
• Adapt to the behavior and communication of others.
• Understand importance of audience perceptions.
• Understand the effects of non-verbal behavior.

Communicating With Decision Makers

This course will help participants communicate their ideas and recommendations more effectively with those who make decisions and control policy. Participants will learn tips for getting their voices heard by crafting and delivering messages to which others will respond.

Objectives:

• Clarify the scope and relevance of your position.
• Find commonality in language, interests and goals.
• Consider your idea from the decision maker’s point of view.
• Be prepared to adjust your format according to time and reaction of your audience.
• Devise a closing and follow-up.

Dealing with Difficult People and Situations

This course will help participants work with, rather than against, colleagues whose attitudes and approaches are difficult, and to better manage situations that cause conflict and tension. Participants will learn to adapt their preferred operating style to different situations, and to promote problem-solving techniques that minimize conflict.

Objectives:

• Recognize the characteristics of different behavior and communication styles and consider ways of working with them.
• Consider one’s own possible contribution to tension or conflict.
• Recognize and manage the effects of emotion.
• Find language that is neutral and not emotionally loaded.
• Learn conflict management and problem-solving procedures.

Dealing with Negative Attitudes

This program will help participants work productively in the face of negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. Participants learn strategies for avoiding negative influences while advancing their own agendas and operating styles.

Objectives:

• Identify common types of negative behavior.
• Consider causes of dissatisfaction and tension in the workplace.
• Develop your own positive positions.
• Recognize factors that influence morale.
• Use communication strategies for countering negativity.

Emotion Management

This course will help participants explore the effects of emotion on communication, and will help them recognize and manage interactions in which emotion plays a role. Participants will understand that communication will be more successful when they consider their own emotions as well as the emotions of others.

Objectives:

• Review the elements of successful communication.
• Understand how emotion can affect the critical elements of the communication process.
• Use listening effectively to recognize, predict, and manage emotion.
• Learn to manage one’s own emotional triggers.
• Learn to acknowledge and express emotion appropriately.

Handling Sticky Situations

This course will help participants communicate more effectively in difficult situations. Participants will learn strategies for conducting themselves collegially and gracefully while deflecting unwanted behavior, solving problems, and initiating and participating in awkward conversations.

Objectives:

• Learn factors that make conversations difficult.
• Understand differences in behavior.
• Learn guidelines for assertiveness.
• Practice saying no.
• Learn to make and use effective language choices.

Listening for Results

This course will help participants become strong communicators by improving their ability to listen to and be present for others. Participants will discover how listening will bring clarity to interactions, and make their own communication easier and more effective.

Objectives:

• Know why it is important to understand the position of others before speaking.
• Learn how and why to use the needs of others in creating your message.
• Encourage others to express themselves.
• Maintain concentration and focus.
• Bring interactions to effective resolution.

Managing Up

This course will help participants develop a productive and collaborative relationship with their supervisors and others who are in positions of authority. Participants will learn techniques for taking an active role in their work relationships and will develop confidence in their ability to request adjustments and express opinions.

Objectives:

• Apply principles of good communication and assertiveness to work relationships.
• Recognize the importance of understanding the needs and behavior style of the supervisor.
• Guide the supervisor toward an effective style of work relationship.
• Make suggestions and request a more active role.
• Find ways to demonstrate your responsibility.

Multi-Cultural Communication

This course will help participants achieve better communication with coworkers in their multicultural work environments.  Participants will consider cultural influences on behavior, and will learn ways to work with those who may employ different means to reach common goals.

Objectives:

• Consider the key elements of culture that influence behavior.
• Understand the impact of culture on communication.
• Learn strategies for expanding understanding.
• Develop flexible operating styles.
• Adapt communication style to audience.

People Literacy

This course will help participants understand that effective communication depends on how people react to our messages, and on our ability to recognize and respond to their reactions. Participants will learn to adjust their communication in order to avoid conflict and misunderstanding.

Objectives:

• Apply basic communication skills to changing situations.
• Recognize signals and clues to audience reactions.
• Learn to frame messages to suit the situation.
• Recognize words and phrases that can trigger conflict.
• Learn to handle defensiveness and resistance.

Promoting Civility in the Workplace

This course will help participants contribute to and encourage civility and respect in the workplace.  Participants will consider behavior and communication that cause discomfort, and will develop strategies for promoting a positive environment.

Objectives:

• Identify and celebrate the variety of skills represented in the work environment.
• Recognize others for their contributions.
• Establish goals of collegiality and cooperation.
• Recognize and eliminate corrosive language.
• Develop processes for peer learning and idea exchanges.

Reframing: Turning Problems to Opportunities

This course will help participants better manage challenges by finding different ways to define and approach them.  Participants will consider the positive and negative aspects of situations, and will learn how to apply this attitude to achieve satisfactory outcomes.

Objectives:

• Understand the factors that make situations complex.
• Learn to restate problems to reflect different attitudes.
• Use the interest-based problem solving model.
• Use positive, collegial language to approach disagreement.
• Understand the practice of reframing a situation depending on one’s position.

Speaking with Power

This course will help participants speak with increased competence in a variety of professional settings, by quickly and easily adapting the principles of effective communication to any situation. Participants will speak at meetings, make presentations, and respond to impromptu requests with confidence.

Objectives:

• Know how to apply basic communication principles to all situations.
• Learn strategies for speaking on the spot.
• Know ways to organize ideas quickly and clearly.
• Learn ways to avoid feeling intimidated or put on the spot.
• Learn how to adapt communication style to the demands of any situation.

The Art of Conversation

This course will help participants conduct conversations and engage in small talk with ease and grace. Participants will learn to interact with others in the daily workplace encounters that are often necessary for building good working relationships.

Objectives:

• Learn to welcome casual workplace encounters as opportunities.
• Use conversation to promote your interests, and work more effectively with others.
• Reduce feelings of discomfort and awkwardness.
• Learn tips for beginning, continuing, and ending conversations.
• Be ready at any time for communication encounters.

The Power of Business Storytelling

This course will help individuals and organizations promote their services and ideas by incorporating stories into their presentations. Participants will learn why others respond to stories, and how they can learn to develop narratives that help them explain and persuade.

Objectives:

• Learn the use and role of story telling in business promotions and presentations.
• Understand why story telling can be more successful than data driven presentations.
• Learn the principles that guide the development and use of stories.
• Use listening and audience analysis for story development.
• Learn tips for creating meaningful and appropriate stories.

Watch Your Language

This course will help participants speak in ways that indicate their professional status, by strengthening word knowledge and by recognizing and eliminating unnecessary verbiage.  Participants will develop strategies for expanding vocabulary and adopting a professional speaking style.

Objectives:

• Eliminate filler words and phrases that weaken meaning.
• Understand the relationship between speaking style and professional image.
• Make informed language choices.
• Learn tips for expanding vocabulary.
• Recognize and eliminate from your lexicon jargon and tired words and phrases.