Following are a few of the courses I offer. They can be reduced or expanded to fit a 3, 4, or 8-hour session depending on the needs of the company.

Developing Communication Competence

People who have communication competence are able to achieve their personal goals and objectives while behaving in an appropriate manner. Increase your communication competence by determining your communication style. Differentiating between aggressive and assertive communication can help you to be a more competent communicator. Learn how to use assertive language to encourage others to help you accomplish tasks. 

Developing Conflict Competence

Developing conflict competence involves the ability to promote constructive conflict and reduce destructive conflict in the workplace. In learning about conflict competence, you will examine your own assumptions about conflict and the ways in which those assumptions relate to your conflict competence. Then you will discover the substantive issues and positions of the parties in a conflict. Next you will learn how to uncover the interests of the parties in a conflict. You will determine ways to generate solutions that meet the interests of the parties. You will discover the conflict parties’ five core concerns that are present in any conflict. Finally, you will explain the analyses, attitudes, and interaction skills necessary to be a conflict competent manager.

Change Management

Organizations constantly evolve and change. Sometimes the change is driven by external market forces. Other times the change is driven internally by strategic planning processes. New initiatives can take place on a large-scale or on a departmental level. The changes can affect people, processes, products, and services. Changes introduce higher levels of uncertainty than are already present in organizational life. People who can help others work productively during times of change are valuable to any organization. In this class, you will analyze your own areas of resistance to change (including your level of tolerance for uncertainty), learn the best strategies for communicating about change, learn how to overcome others’ resistance to change, learn how to frame the changes in terms of the benefits for the individuals and the organization.

Doing vs. Managing: Using Delegation Skills to Increase Your Effectiveness and Build Competence in Your Team

Delegation skills help leaders increase their effectiveness. To become better at delegating, you will conduct a self-assessment of your current delegation practices. Then you will consider the important delegation decisions:  what, who and how. You will distinguish between tasks that should be retained, shared, or delegated. Then you will determine the factors that should influence your decision concerning the person you choose for a particular delegated task. Next you will think about how you should go about delegating tasks—the degree of authority you give to the person and giving proper instructions. Finally, you will discover factors you should consider in determining if the delegation was successful.

Improving Face-to-Face Communication At Work
 
Interpersonal communication skills are highly valued by employers in all industries. To improve your interpersonal communication, you will consider the three Vs of Communication: Verbal, Visual, and Vocal. You will reflect on your listening skills and the barriers that keep you from truly listening to others at work. Then, you will learn about two characteristics of language that allow for miscommunication to occur. Next you will discover various phrases to help you say things to your employees in various circumstances at work. You will demonstrate the ways that changes in the vocal aspects of communication can change the message. You will be able to identify different types of nonverbal communication and increase your awareness of your own nonverbal communication.

Managing Your Energy:  The Key to Life and Work Success

Why are some people able to deal with the stresses of balancing their work lives and home lives without losing perspective on their goals and priorities, while others seem to struggle to complete projects, succumb to exhaustion, and allow negative emotional reactions to spoil interpersonal relationships? One answer is that the former individuals understand the keys to managing their physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual energies. You can learn a few simple techniques and disciplined practices to help you manage your energy, meet your personal and professional goals, and thrive in your relationships.

Discovering the Organizational Culture in Your Department

Does it sometimes seem that the spoken and unspoken messages in your department do not match? Do you find yourself wondering why people can’t get along with each other? Do the employees in your department respond in a cynical manner to leadership or change initiatives? Is the turnover in your department higher than it should be? Do new people in your department have a difficult time fitting in with the veteran employees? Do projects take longer to complete than you believe they should take? Do you observe an “us – them” mindset among the employees and management? If so, you may benefit from by conducting a culture audit of your department—a series of questions to uncover the often unwritten, unspoken, but powerful messages being communicated through the daily interactions of the workers in your department.

Working on Teams and Task Forces: How to be a Competent Group Member

Some of the most important communication skills required to work in today’s dynamic and interdependent business climate are small group communication skills. To be a productive member of a committee, group or task force, you must understand the unique communication issues that arise when people must work together to accomplish a task. You will consider how to develop a productive group climate, one of cooperation rather than competition. You will learn about the primary dimensions of groups—working and socializing. You will discover the periodic phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. You will consider the influence of group roles on the functioning of the group. Finally, you will learn effective decision making and problem solving processes and about how to mitigate the circumstances that allow groups to sometimes make defective decisions.

Strategic Planning:  Using the Appreciative Inquiry Process to Chart a Successful Future
 
Strategic planning, often fraught with uncertainties and reservations, can be time-consuming and difficult for departments and organizations. The Appreciative Inquiry Process helps managers to discover what is functioning optimally and then to incorporate past successes into future endeavors. Top national and international organizations such as British Airways, the U.S. Navy, and Hunter-Douglas routinely use Appreciative Inquiry for problem solving, strategic planning, and change management. Learning to ask and answer appreciative questions can help your department create a successful future.


Managing and Coaching for Employee Professional Development


Managers who use basic interpersonal coaching skills can help themselves and others to be more productive and satisfied at work. Conducting a "coaching conversation" with a colleague or employee can help that person to increase self-awareness and to generate positive, practical solutions to problems. People who take a "coach approach" to problems view these difficulties both as learning opportunities and as springboards to personal and professional development.

Following are a few of the courses I offer. They can be reduced or expanded to fit a 3, 4, or 8-hour session depending on the needs of the company.

Developing Communication Competence

People who have communication competence are able to achieve their personal goals and objectives while behaving in an appropriate manner. Increase your communication competence by determining your communication style. Differentiating between aggressive and assertive communication can help you to be a more competent communicator. Learn how to use assertive language to encourage others to help you accomplish tasks. 

Developing Conflict Competence

Developing conflict competence involves the ability to promote constructive conflict and reduce destructive conflict in the workplace. In learning about conflict competence, you will examine your own assumptions about conflict and the ways in which those assumptions relate to your conflict competence. Then you will discover the substantive issues and positions of the parties in a conflict. Next you will learn how to uncover the interests of the parties in a conflict. You will determine ways to generate solutions that meet the interests of the parties. You will discover the conflict parties’ five core concerns that are present in any conflict. Finally, you will explain the analyses, attitudes, and interaction skills necessary to be a conflict competent manager.

Change Management

Organizations constantly evolve and change. Sometimes the change is driven by external market forces. Other times the change is driven internally by strategic planning processes. New initiatives can take place on a large-scale or on a departmental level. The changes can affect people, processes, products, and services. Changes introduce higher levels of uncertainty than are already present in organizational life. People who can help others work productively during times of change are valuable to any organization. In this class, you will analyze your own areas of resistance to change (including your level of tolerance for uncertainty), learn the best strategies for communicating about change, learn how to overcome others’ resistance to change, learn how to frame the changes in terms of the benefits for the individuals and the organization.

Doing vs. Managing: Using Delegation Skills to Increase Your Effectiveness and Build Competence in Your Team

Delegation skills help leaders increase their effectiveness. To become better at delegating, you will conduct a self-assessment of your current delegation practices. Then you will consider the important delegation decisions:  what, who and how. You will distinguish between tasks that should be retained, shared, or delegated. Then you will determine the factors that should influence your decision concerning the person you choose for a particular delegated task. Next you will think about how you should go about delegating tasks—the degree of authority you give to the person and giving proper instructions. Finally, you will discover factors you should consider in determining if the delegation was successful.

Improving Face-to-Face Communication At Work
 
Interpersonal communication skills are highly valued by employers in all industries. To improve your interpersonal communication, you will consider the three Vs of Communication: Verbal, Visual, and Vocal. You will reflect on your listening skills and the barriers that keep you from truly listening to others at work. Then, you will learn about two characteristics of language that allow for miscommunication to occur. Next you will discover various phrases to help you say things to your employees in various circumstances at work. You will demonstrate the ways that changes in the vocal aspects of communication can change the message. You will be able to identify different types of nonverbal communication and increase your awareness of your own nonverbal communication.

Managing Your Energy:  The Key to Life and Work Success

Why are some people able to deal with the stresses of balancing their work lives and home lives without losing perspective on their goals and priorities, while others seem to struggle to complete projects, succumb to exhaustion, and allow negative emotional reactions to spoil interpersonal relationships? One answer is that the former individuals understand the keys to managing their physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual energies. You can learn a few simple techniques and disciplined practices to help you manage your energy, meet your personal and professional goals, and thrive in your relationships.

Discovering the Organizational Culture in Your Department

Does it sometimes seem that the spoken and unspoken messages in your department do not match? Do you find yourself wondering why people can’t get along with each other? Do the employees in your department respond in a cynical manner to leadership or change initiatives? Is the turnover in your department higher than it should be? Do new people in your department have a difficult time fitting in with the veteran employees? Do projects take longer to complete than you believe they should take? Do you observe an “us – them” mindset among the employees and management? If so, you may benefit from by conducting a culture audit of your department—a series of questions to uncover the often unwritten, unspoken, but powerful messages being communicated through the daily interactions of the workers in your department.

Working on Teams and Task Forces: How to be a Competent Group Member

Some of the most important communication skills required to work in today’s dynamic and interdependent business climate are small group communication skills. To be a productive member of a committee, group or task force, you must understand the unique communication issues that arise when people must work together to accomplish a task. You will consider how to develop a productive group climate, one of cooperation rather than competition. You will learn about the primary dimensions of groups—working and socializing. You will discover the periodic phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. You will consider the influence of group roles on the functioning of the group. Finally, you will learn effective decision making and problem solving processes and about how to mitigate the circumstances that allow groups to sometimes make defective decisions.

Strategic Planning:  Using the Appreciative Inquiry Process to Chart a Successful Future
 
Strategic planning, often fraught with uncertainties and reservations, can be time-consuming and difficult for departments and organizations. The Appreciative Inquiry Process helps managers to discover what is functioning optimally and then to incorporate past successes into future endeavors. Top national and international organizations such as British Airways, the U.S. Navy, and Hunter-Douglas routinely use Appreciative Inquiry for problem solving, strategic planning, and change management. Learning to ask and answer appreciative questions can help your department create a successful future.

Speaking and Training Course Topics

organizational development Consulting services