Below are our Professional Development Skills Courses. Please click for more information.
Professional Development
Aligning Personal and Professional Goals
This course will help participants become more productive and satisfied in their professional and personal lives. Participants will identify professional and personal goals and will learn strategies for managing situations that put their roles in conflict.
Objectives:
- Learn ways to prioritize tasks and set realistic goals.
- Blend personal and professional needs in goal-setting.
- Develop strategies for managing your environments.
- Learn to compromise when necessary.
- Understand how and when to delegate and ask for help.
Build Better Boundaries
This course will help participants work more confidently with others by learning to establish clear boundaries for acceptable behavior. Participants will learn the benefits of having boundaries and will develop skills for setting them.
Objectives:
- Understand the benefits and importance of having boundaries.
- Recognize the presence of boundaries in daily living.
- Learn the language of assertiveness.
- Learn to have productive disagreements, and to maintain control of your position.
- Be comfortable with separating your needs from those of others.
Creating Work-Life Balance
This course will help participants experience more satisfaction in their work and personal lives as they find a balance between the goals and realities of each. Participants will identify situations in which the demands of their professional lives are in conflict with the realities of their personal lives, and will develop strategies for managing them.
Objectives:
- Clarify personal and professional values and interests.
- Find commonality in the tasks of work and home.
- Learn ways to prioritize tasks and routines.
- Blend personal and professional needs in goal-setting.
- Apply time management tips to action plans.
DEALING WITH AMBIGUITY
This course will help participants navigate and thrive in the workplace climate of uncertainty and change by recognizing and managing their attitudes and behaviors. Participants will learn strategies for anticipating, adjusting, and adapting to new and uncertain conditions.
Objectives:
- Understand that resistance to ambiguity is normal.
- Recognize the causes and conditions of change in your workplace.
- Identify and accept what you do and do not control.
- Work with others to develop processes and resources for facing risk and uncertainty.
- Maintain supportive relationships with your team.
DEVELOP STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS
This course will help participants expand their professional and personal networks by learning how best to help and be helped by others. Participants will consider the importance of relationships in their careers, and will learn tips for developing them.
Objectives:
- Understand the role of networking in career growth.
- Learn how networks are developed and maintained.
- Learn how to decide what your network should be.
- Develop strategies for approaching and working with others.
- Learn how to develop your own role in strategic relationships.
DEVELOP YOUR INNER LEADER
This course will help participants understand the qualities that underlie leadership, and will help them find those qualities in themselves. Participants will consider skills and behaviors that are typical of effective leaders, and will discover how to develop those characteristics.
Objectives:
- Recognize the skills that are common to good leaders.
- Consider the ways that good leaders use their skills, and find opportunities for adopting those behaviors.
- Learn why and how to demonstrate initiative, decision-making, and problem solving skills.
- Find ways to mentor and encourage your team members.
- Consider the importance of language in leadership.
Developing Credibility
This course will help participants develop behavior that will gain trust and respect from others. Participants will learn the elements that underlie credibility, and will learn to adjust the ways they present themselves and their work in order to be accepted and taken seriously in a professional work environment.
Objectives:
- Understand the meaning and characteristics of credibility.
- Review style, behavior, and presentations that invite respect.
- Learn behaviors and communication elements that build trust.
- Learn to look for and place yourself in the big picture of your work situation.
- Work with your supervisor and others to establish the image you want to project.
Developing Initiative
This course helps participants gain more from and contribute more to their jobs by seeking a broader scope of work responsibility. Participants learn how to demonstrate their professionalism by requesting and assuming control and taking initiative.
Objectives:
- Understand the levels of responsibility and recognize where you most frequently operate.
- Recognize the place of your job in the mission of your department and organization.
- Develop the practice of seeking expansion of your jobs.
- Anticipate, identify and solve problems.
- Work with your supervisor to develop expanded goals.
DO OTHERS HEAR YOU?
This course will help participants develop communication skills that encourage respect, and that draw others to listen. Participants will learn to speak up for themselves in ways that are credible and collegial, and will learn to take control of interactions when they wish.
Objectives:
- Learn the basic elements of strong communication.
- Learn the importance of working with the audience.
- Recognize and overcome barriers to agreement and understanding.
- Learn the skills of respectful, active listening.
- Use language that is assertive, gracious, and clear.
Leadership Development for Non-Supervisors
This course helps participants who are not in supervisory positions develop qualities of leadership. Participants will learn the communication and organizational skills that underlie successful leadership, and will consider methods for applying these skills in their work situations.
Objectives:
- Understand the qualities of effective leadership.
- Discover the role of leadership in non-supervisors.
- Improve listening, negotiating, and interpersonal skills.
- Learn strategies for managing conflict, solving problems, and facilitating disagreements.
- Understand the importance of language choices in relationship development.
PERSONAL BRANDING
This course will help participants more effectively promote themselves professionally, as they learn to identify and present their unique qualities in their networking and outreach. Participants will learn the importance and uses of branding, and how the concept is applied to personal promotion.
Objectives:
- Understand the meaning and benefits of branding as applied to professional development.
- Review and assess your abilities, interests, and experience in workplace terms.
- Use your skills, knowledge, and goals to define your purpose and say what you want others to know.
- Create your dynamic message and use it to expand your network.
- Understand the role of positive, other-centered communication in self-promotion.
Projecting a Professional Image
This course will help participants develop and project an image that reflects their effectiveness in their jobs and contributes to career development. Participants will examine their current presentations and create and develop the image they wish to promote.
Objectives:
- Explore the factors that contribute to professional presentation.
- Understand the importance of communication, language use, body language, dress, and demeanor in one’s presentation.
- Identify and build on individual strengths.
- Understand the role of initiative and responsibility in one’s professional image.
- Determine your desired image and develop goals for achieving it.
Resume Writing and Interviewing
This course will help participants create effective resumes and perform well in job interviews. Participants will learn to tailor their written and personal presentations to the type of interview and position.
Objectives:
- Understand different types of resumes.
- Create basic and expanded resumes to fit different positions.
- Develop a polished, professional image.
- Understand and prepare for informational, networking and employment interviews.
- Learn common interview errors and how to avoid them.
Score! Reaching Your Goals
This course will help participants advance in their professional and personal journeys by identifying where they want to go and creating paths to get there. Participants will learn how to support their plans with short term goals that can fit into daily lives and provide immediate satisfaction.
Objectives:
- Evaluate the skills and challenges that define your current situation.
- Visualize the tasks, work, and life style of your future.
- Learn to translate wishes to action items.
- Identify the skills needed to advance on your path.
- Recognize and accept responsibility for your progress.
Strategies for Self-Development
This course helps participants establish action plans for personal and professional development. Participants examine their interests, values, strengths, and skills and use these as a foundation for building a self-development plan.
Objectives:
- Identify your current assets as they relate to your work and personal life.
- Learn resources for gaining desired skills.
- Develop long term goals and short-term action plans.
- Understand the importance of resources, networks, mentors, and training.
- Recognize the importance of strong interpersonal skills in working with others.
Take Charge of Your Career
This course will help participants manage their careers whether they are seeking to expand their current positions, or are looking for new employment. Participants will learn self-development tips as well as strategies for using available resources.
Objectives:
- Identify your skills, abilities, and areas of interest as they relate to employment.
- Determine the kinds of work to which you are attracted.
- Determine the skills required by new positions.
- Recognize career advancement resources in your organization.
- Learn to develop networks and to work with mentors.
Tooting Your Own Horn
This course will help participants become their own best promoters by presenting and marketing themselves for success. Participants will learn strategies for gaining credibility and for positively positioning themselves and their achievements.
Objectives:
- Recognize and eliminate self-defeating behaviors and replace them with self-affirming speech and behavior.
- Learn tips for getting your ideas heard and for influencing others.
- Apply strategies of marketing to your own advancement.
- Use assertive and positive language to describe your ideas and needs.
- Recognize and accept responsibility for your own progress.