Course Description:
Day One: Communicating Effectively in Writing
- Writing for your reader: the 12 golden rules of writing so people pay attention, understand and act on your words
- Using the inverted pyramid structure and covering the essential 5W’s – what, where, when, why, who – and how
- Clearly signaling the action you want people to take after reading your letter, email, report, or other written words
- Gold standard letter writing: improving structure, readability, and responses
- Email etiquette: 25 tips to improve how people read and interpret your emails
- Powerful reports: structuring reports so readers can easily find the information they are interested in
Day Two: Communicating Effectively Face-to-face
- Creating and delivering presentations and speeches that keep audiences riveted and lead to action
- Presenting with impact: personal image, tone of voice, body language, overcoming nerves
- Giving feedback: understanding when and how to give constructive feedback
- Receiving feedback positively so it is useful and helpful
- Managing upwards: communicating needs upwards and winning support from more senior managers
- Building personal credibility with more senior managers through lots of positive interactions
Day Three: Improving Relationships with Team Members
- Active listening: paying attention to words and body language
- Asking good questions and listening to answers, checking understanding and reframing
- Distilling, explaining, articulating: presenting complex information and ideas clearly without dumbing them down
- Using metaphors, imagery, stories, and analogies to explain complex topics
- Contributing to discussion and debate: ensuring everyone contributes and respects different viewpoints
- Aiming for commitment, not just agreement
Day Four: Working with Other Teams and Suppliers
- Collaborating: sharing and encouraging others to share ideas and information
- Developing a collaborative mindset
- Win-win negotiations: essential core skills and knowledge for negotiating
- Four approaches for achieving outcomes people commit to and deliver
- Building consensus: reaching an agreement during decision making that everyone is willing to support
- Four techniques for involving everyone in decision making and ensuring they feel ownership of the final decision
Day Five: Authenticity and Personal Effectiveness
- Assertiveness in practice: projecting self-confidence and respect for others in meetings, on the phone and online
- Understanding when to say yes and no, giving and receiving criticism, handling negative feelings
- Managing difficult people and coping in difficult situations
- Understanding our own assertiveness style and making adjustments so we get what we want from meetings and discussions
- Developing an assertiveness style that is authentic for our personality and culture
- Action planning
