Communication Skills

Communication skills training is about learning how to express your ideas in a clear, convincing, and inspiring manner. It is also about improving your ability to more fully understand others, and to quickly resolve any conflicts that may be exist between you. Communication skills training is about understanding others and making yourself clearly understood.

Purpose of Communication Skills Training

All good communicators are clear, convincing and inspiring. We need to know how to communicate in order to get the best performance from ourselves and inspire others. If you are a clear, convincing and positive communicator, everyone will understand what you are saying, why you are saying it and they will get a good feeling about it.

How to develop your communication skills

On this communication skills training course, we will cover the following topics:

1. Clearly communicate your goals

You are defined by your goals. Your goals need to be expressed in clear and unambiguous terms, particularly with regard to business communications.

2. Use numbers to gain greater clarity

Using numbers is the easiest way to improve the clarity of your language and help develop good communication skills. Numbers introduce exact times, exact quantities and more specific information. They improve the quantitative nature of your language and make it less likely to be misunderstood.

3. Use 8-part SMART

Eight-part SMART is a set of eight questions which you need to answer, in order to ensure your goals and plans are well communicated and fully understood.

4. Practice good humour

Some people use humour in destructive and sarcastic ways. We should use humour only in constructive and friendly ways. We need to distinguish between the incorrect and the correct use of humour. The correct use of humour will help develop your interpersonal skills.

5. How to clearly express your message

Some people have difficulty expressing their message. They cannot translate their mental images into words. We will show you the best way to do this and practice with some real-life examples.

6. Improve your listening skills

Listening is the art of gaining an exact understanding of the message. Understanding other people is a major communication skill. We will show you how to improve your listening skills.

7. How to distinguish between a critic and a cynic

Make the distinction between being a miserable cynic and a constructive critic. Sometimes criticism is a good thing, but it all depends on how it is worded. We will show you how to give only constructive criticism.

8. Communicate using affirmative instructions

Negative statements often act as an unintended “embedded command”, putting into mind the very idea that you wanted the other person to put out of mind.

Since action follows thought, a person may be more likely to do the thing you are asking them not to do. “Don’t panic”, implies panic.
Therefore, it is important to frame your messages in the affirmative.
We will give you opportunities to practice this important communication skill.

Self Development

Personal development is the systematic improvement of professional skills, in order to get the best performance from yourself and others.

Self-development training is the key to a better future

YOU are the most influential person in your life, because wherever you go, you are always there.

The best way to improve your circumstances is to improve yourself, in terms of better goals, better communication, planning and motivational skills.

How can you get the best performance from yourself and others?

On this course we will focus on developing the six most important skill sets:

• Self-development: self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, self-determination
• The ability to inspire others (leadership skills)
• Effective performance management
• Better planning and time management
• Clear accurate communication
• Setting and achieving goals

Goals are the starting point of all achievement

Setting and achieving goals

Personal effectiveness relies upon setting clear goals.
We will discuss why goals are so important.
What happens to motivation if the goal is non-existent or hazy?
What happens to motivation if the goal is clear and distinct?

Our goals must Add Value to others

Everything you do will either

• add value
• fail to add value
• detract from value

Our goal must be to always Add Value to others.

The difference between a wish and a goal

Many people mistake their wishes for goals.

We discuss what distinguishes a wish from a goal, and we will create a template for effective goal setting.

Goal setting by means of 8 Part Smart

We will formalise goal setting into a practical tool that you can use every day to:

• Express your goals
• Discover what others want
• Plan for the future

Impression Management

Every day you leave an impression in the minds of others. People judge you based on two things:

• Everything you say
• Everything you do

We will discuss, “How do you want to be perceived by others ?”
Decide what impression you wish to leave, and then act accordingly.
Practical exercise in impression management: personal branding.

The correct and incorrect use of humour

Some people use humour in the wrong way.

• We want our humour to add value to the situation.
• We will discuss when it is right to laugh, and when it is NOT right.
• We will talk about “The Team Clown”.
• We will talk about “The Smiling Assassin”.

Developing your Personal Communication Skills

Communication is the accurate transfer of information and ideas.
Vague or ambiguous communication will cause errors and frustration.
Therefore, it is important to master the art of accurate language.

How to express your exact meaning

It is important to be able to explain yourself with absolute clarity and accuracy.
We will show you a simple, three step method that you can use to improve your written and spoken communication.

Practical exercises to improve the accuracy and precision of your language.

It is important to master the art of accurate language

Affirmative vs Negative Language

Affirmative language tells people what is, negative language tells people what is not.

Many people spend too much time talking about what they don’t like, can’t or won’t do.

Instead of that, train yourself to talk about what you like, what you can do, and what you will do.

Distinguish the Critic from the Cynic

Cynics are negative thinkers with a negative impact. Critics are negative thinkers with a positive impact. We must NOT become cynical; but we need to develop our critical thinking skills.
We will discuss the role of critical thinking at work and how to ensure that our critical thinking ADDS VALUE to the organization.

Negative vs Positive suggestions

Don’t panic –suggests panic.
Don’t worry – suggests worry.

It is important to avoid giving negative suggestions. Instead frame your instructions in the positive sense.

Practical exercises in re-framing negative sentences into the positive sense.
Don’t panic →Stay calm.

Time Management

This effective time management course has been designed to provide the skills needed for you to make more progress in less time and how to use your time effectively.

How to handle people and situations that sometimes take you off-track and on occasion, waste your time.

Time wasters

• How can I manage my time better?
• Do things in the right order
• Manage the Three Time Wasters: S.O.S.
• Self: Others: Systems
• Identify time management mistakes
• Avoid procrastination – Develop a “Do it now” attitude
• Stop people wasting my time
• Inefficient systems that waste time
• How to set specific goals
• Delegate the right task, to the right person
• Handle interruptions. Manage distractions
• Personal time-saving tips. Manage my time better
• What is the Pareto Principle; 80–20 rule?
• Email management using the 80/20 principle
• How can I make the right decision?

Prioritization

• Time management action plan Time Management Prioritization Grid
• The Time Management Grid Generates Four Types of Activity
• The Productivity P-List
• The P-List is your key to avoiding poor time management
• What can I do about people wasting my time?
• What are my bad time management habits?
• Time Management Skills Questionnaire
• Prioritization
• Prioritization Method
• Decision Making
• Delegation
• Reasons to delegate:
• How to delegate:
• Why some people are afraid to delegate
• SMART Targets as a Goal-Setting Tool
• Handling Distractions and Interruptions
• Apply the 80–20 rule to your own time management
• How to manage emails more effectively

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Personal effectiveness is a measure of your ability to achieve the maximum progress in the minimum time, money and effort. It is the result of a productive state of mind, combined with an effective set of actions.

Productive State of Mind

Your effectiveness has an emotional component. We’ll examine how your productivity is affected by your emotions and how your emotions are affected by your mind set.

How your physical health affects personal effectiveness

“A healthy mind in a healthy body”

Keeping your body healthy with exercise, is essential to keeping your mind in a positive state. How to improve your energy levels and health habits.

How to maintain a positive mental attitude

We will examine the role of worry, stress, fear, anger, upset, and how it negatively affects productivity. And also examine how higher levels of confidence, optimism and happiness positively affects output.

Master the art of conversation control

Keep office conversations on productive, rather than non-productive, topics.

In your place of work, how much time is wasted in negative, go-nowhere conversations? We will help you to refocus office conversations onto productive topics.

The Continuous Improvement Cycle

All successful action is the application of a simple five-part cycle:
Purpose, plan, action, feedback, change.

The Success Formula

1. Purpose: Set the goal
2. Plan: Formulate your best plan in writing
3. Take decisive action
4. Feedback: Gather and evaluate the feedback, both positive and negative
5. Change: Make progress by continually adapting and evolving. Recognise that the success formula is a continuous process

Putting the success formula into practice

The success formula as a series of eight questions which you ask and answer every day.

Feedback vs Failure

Feedback comes in two varieties: Positive and negative. We will help you to make better use of both types of feedback.

How to make the future better than the past

We will show you how to use the information on this course, to ensure your future is much better than the past.

Employ-ability Skills

• Problem-solving

• Oral communication

• Adaptability

• Collaboration

• Resource management
  

• Organizational skills

• Written communication

• Technology use

• Information use

• Certain personality traits