Business Etiquette & Professionalism

One day

Course Description
This is a superb overview to the subtleties and complexities of business etiquette. This course shows how to maintain a professional and competitive edge by understanding basic business etiquette. In addition to the exercises and activities on making introductions, dining out, sending and receiving gifts, public manners, tipping and attire, there is updated information on electronic etiquette.

Course Outline
Section 1: What Is Business Etiquette?

• The Role of Good Manners in Business
• Some Etiquette Basics
• Exercise

Section 2: Principles of Impeccable Work Behavior

• Principles of Impeccable Work Behavior
• Exercise

Section 3: Meeting People

• Meeting People
• When You’re the Receptionist
• When You’re In an Inside Office
• Shaking Hands
• Introducing People
• Exercise

Section 4: Telephone Etiquette

• Telephone Etiquette
• Answering Your Phone
• When Callers Are Discourteous
• Screening Calls
• Making and Returning Calls
• Exercise

Section 5: Electronic Etiquette

• Electronic Etiquette
• Fax Machines
• Answering Machines
• Voice Mail
• E-mail
• Exercise

Section 6: Planning and Attending Business Meetings

• Planning Meetings
• Attending Meetings
• Exercise

Section 7: Planning and Attending Meal Meetings

• Planning Meal Meetings
• Attending Business Meals
• Exercise

Section 8: Business Invitations and Gifts

• Sending Invitations
• Responding to Invitations
• Don’t Go Empty-Handed
• Exercise

Section 9: Multicultural Etiquette

• Multicultural Etiquette
• Exercise

Organizing Your Work Space

One day

Course Description
Tackle that endless paper flow with creative filing tips, clutter-busters, and workable action plans. Start today! Manage your desk and papers. Keep clutter away permanently. Avoid paper backlogs.

Course Outline
Section 1: Why Get Organized

• Yes, You Can Get Organized
• Benefits of Being Organized
• Key Principles
• Where Are You Now?

Section 2: How Backlogs Develop

• What Is Clutter, Anyway?
• How Do Paper Backlogs Develop?
• Blocks to Getting Organized
• Two Common Mental Blocks

Section 3: Where to Start

• Decide On Your Goals
• Where to Begin
• The Bookcases: Reduce, Refer, Rearrange
• Rearranging: How to Do It
• Handling the Exceptions
• Summary

Section 4: Your Work Area

• The Credenza
• Your Desk Drawers
• Equipment
• The File Drawers
• Clearing the Top of Work Surfaces
• How Are You Feeling?
• Summary

Section 5: Filing It and Finding It

• Common Filing Mistakes
• Filing Guidelines
• Setting Up Your Subject Files
• Filing Principles
• Additional Filing Information
• How to Maintain Your Filing System
• Summary

Section 6: Managing Your Desk and Your Papers

• The Top of Your Desk
• Out of Sight Is Out of Mind
• Calendars
• Daily To-Do Lists
• Master List
• Tracking Delegated Work
• Summary

Section 7: Clearing Off the Stacks

• Tying Up Loose Ends
• Business Cards
• Tickler Files
• The Next-Week File
• Odds and Ends
• Maintaining Your Organization

Section 8: Managing Your Mail and Your Reading

• Sorting Incoming Mail
• Managing the Reading

Section 9: Managing E-Mail and Personal Organizers

• Managing E-Mail
• Cautions
• Etiquette
• Tips
• Day Planners and Personal Organizers
• Summary

Section 10: Quick Review, Charts and Checklists

• Review: Getting Organized from A to Z
• Review: Clearing the Top of Your Desk
• Keep the Clutter Away, Permanently
• Checklist: Monitor Your Progress

Section 11: A Friendly Reminder

• A Final Word

Change Management Courses

Change Management

One day

Course Description
With today's fast-paced and hectic way of doing business, change in the workplace has become an everyday reality. Change happens rapidly and sometimes with very little notice. Major changes such as mergers, takeovers, and layoffs can leave employees feeling confused, fearful, or disheartened. CHANGE MANAGEMENT helps managers work through organizational change with strategies for providing positive leadership while dealing effectively with resistance and other trouble spots. This newly updated course includes competency assessments to help managers become adept change leaders who will inspire and motivate their employees.

Course Outline
Part 1: Facing Change

• The Pace of Organizational Change
• Where to Focus Your Efforts
• Managing in Today's Changing Organization
• The Importance of Continuous Learning
• Organizational Responses to Change
• The Leader's Role During Change
• Five Elements to Change Planning
• Preparing for Change
• Five Phases in Planning for Change

Part 2: Understanding Change

• Recognizing That Change Involves Loss
• Common Losses from Workplace Change
• Building Supportive Relationships to Ease Change
• Transitioning Through Change
• The First Reaction to Change: Denial
• The Second Phase: Resistance
• Using Ritual to Transition Out of Resistance
• The Final Phases: Exploration and Commitment
• Identifying the Phases in Your Team's Behavior
• Management Strategies for Each Phase
• Beware the Traps of Transitioning Too Quickly
• Eight Guidelines for Leading Change

Part 3: Leading Change

• Communicating About Change
• Guidelines for Informing Your Team
• Meeting with Employees Throughout the Change Process
• Planning and Leading a Change Meeting
• Formulating Your Message
• Better Communication Through Active Listening
• Setting the Stage for Engaging Your Team
• Motivating Your Team to Get Involved
• Six Steps for Setting Goals Together
• Maintaining Employee Involvement
• Becoming a Change Leader
• Creating a Vision with Your Group

Part 4: Creating a Change Action Plan

• An Action Plan for Success
• Recommended Reading

Coaching and Mentoring Courses

Be Your Own Coach

One day

Course Description
This course will teach you how to recognize opportunities for personal and professional growth, define commitments to yourself and keep them, develop greater self-confidence and self-awareness, and understand the power of your feelings, moods, and reactions. It is possible for you to develop your own approach to learning and excel without the benefit of a formal coach. By developing self-coaching skills, you will empower yourself by creating new possibilities for growth for yourself and your organization.

Course Outline
Introduction

• Are You Coachable?

Part 1: Openings for Coaching

• Four Opportunities for Coaching Yourself
• Examples of Coaching Openings
• Signs That You’ve Missed a Coaching Opening
• The Coaching Approach

Part 2: In the Middle of This Road You Call Your Life

• How Did You Get Where You Are?
• What Is Your Story?
• The Kaleidoscope View of Life
• Identifying the Facts
• Your Feelings
• Your Moods
• Your Words Create Your Reality
• Right Speech
• Your Desires
• Your Intentions
• Your Actions
• Your Beliefs
• The Only Way Out Is Forward
• Four Stages of Movement

Part 3: The Coach’s Toolbox

• Seven Tools for Achieving Breakthroughs
• Tool 1: Choice Management
• Tool 2: Moving to a New Domain
• Tool 3: Self-Inquiry
• Tool 4: Self-Observation
• Tool 5: Practices
• Tool 6: Commitment
• Tool 7: Powerful Conversations and Effective Requests

Part 4: Supporting Yourself in the Coaching Process

• Ways to Stay on Your New Path
• Ways to Nurture Yourself During Your Process
• Final Thoughts

Coaching and Counseling

One day

Course Description
Fine-tune your skills as a motivating manager, supervisor, or adviser with this proven course. Learn the differences between counseling and coaching--and when to apply each technique for the best results. Student exercises will help you identify your weaker coaching and counseling skills and build upon your stronger ones.

Course Outline
Part 1: Coaching and Counseling

• Definitions of Coaching and Counseling
• The Benefits of Coaching
• The Benefits of Counseling

Part 2: When to Coach or Counsel

• Developing Your Awareness
• Symptoms of Performance Problems
• Root Causes of Performance Problems
• Personal Problems that May Affect Job Performance
• Depression
• Grief Reactions
• Hostility (that Could Lead to Violence)
• Chemical Dependency
• Case Studies: Evaluating Your Skills

Part 3: Giving and Receiving Feedback

• Making Feedback Effective
• Four Types of Feedback
• Case Studies: Giving Feedback
• Be a Positive Role Model

Part 4: Plan and Conduct Coaching and Counseling Sessions

• Preparing for a Coaching and Counseling Session
• Ten Guidelines for Conducting a Successful Coaching Session
• Ten Guidelines for Conducting a Successful Counseling Session
• Case Studies: Making a Plan
• Performance Appraisal Guidelines
• What to Do When All Else Fails
• Disciplinary Action--The Last Alternative

Part 5: Appendix

• Personal Action Plan
• Additional Reading

Coaching for Development

One day

Course Description
Upon finishing this course, you will have the skills to find out how to assess coaching needs, discover the six tools essential to coaching success, understand the roles of a coach, and learn how to supply the right advice and support. Today's business environment is requiring managers to act more as coaches than "bosses." They must motivate and lead, as well as become facilitators who empower through a common vision. Through effective coaching, managers can improve performance, personal growth, and increased job satisfaction for their employees and themselves.

Course Outline
Section 1: The New Role of Manager as Coach

• Managers' New Roles
• Long-Term Implications

Section 2: Coaching for Development

• What Is Coaching for Development?

Section 3: The Roles of a Coach

• The Five Roles of a Coach
• Sponsor
• Mentor
• Appraiser
• Role Model
• Teacher
• Case Studies: Coaching for Development

Section 4: Tools for Coaches

• Six Tools for Coaches
• Action Plan for Success

Making the Most of Being Mentored

One Day

Course Description
This course will teach you how to create a strong mentor/mentee relationship, and how to grow from that partnership. You will learn what mentors can offer you, ten reasons to become a mentee, how mentoring can help you manage your self-development, and how to pick a mentor. Mentoring programs have become prominent in many organizations, especially in today's highly technical environment. Developing a strong mentor relationship is beneficial to the mentor, the mentee, and the organization. Some of the many benefits of being mentored are self and career development, new perspective and insights into organizational culture, and performance improvement and talent development.

Course Outline
Part 1: Mentor/Mentee: A Special Relationship

• Three Basic Definitions
• The Benefits of Being Mentored
• Mentoring: from the Machine Age to the Information Age
• A Growing Trend
• Mentors Help/Mentees Do!
• A New Perspective
• Example: All in the Family
• What Makes Mentoring Different and Special?
• Using the Power of the Mentor Role
• What Mentors Can Offer
• The Mentoring Investment
• Case Study: Networking

Part 2: The Proactive Mentee

• The Mentee as Partner
• Attracting a Mentor's Help
• Managing Your Own Self-Development
• Determining Your Own Needs (or Wants)
• Intrinsic Motivation and Autonomy
• Becoming an Assertive Learner
• Making a Habit of Life-Long Learning
• Creating a Flexible Life Plan
• Shifting Your Mental Context
• Staying Flexible
• Case Study: Turning Adversity into Opportunity

Part 3: Seven Special Mentee Skills

• Identifying Useful Mentee Skills
• Skill 1: Ask Productive Questions
• Skill 2: Develop Key Listening Skills
• Skill 3: Use Trust-Building Behaviors
• Skill 4: Overcome the Awe Factor
• Skill 5: Resolve Differences
• Skill 6: Capture the Essence of Your Mentor's Help
• Skill 7: Internalize Your Mentor's Input
• Case Study: The Fagan Factor

Part 4: Building a Productive Relationship

• Keys to Building a Productive Relationship
• Getting Started in the Relationship
• Establishing the Ground Rules
• Establishing Procedures for Meetings
• The Spectrum of Mentor/Mentee Interactions
• The Evolution of the Partnership
• Types of Mentoring Relationships
• Aligning Your Needs and Your Mentor's Abilities
• Giving Something Back: Balancing the Relationship
• Discovering Synergy!
• Case Study: When Needs Are Not Met

Part 5: Maximizing Results

• Ensuring Balance in Your Life
• Identifying and Using Learning Styles
• Diversity Issues in Mentoring
• Cultural Diversity: Gaining a New Perspective
• Overcoming Your Resistance to Change
• Overcoming Inertia in the Organization
• Avoiding the Power Game
• Ending the Relationship
• Case Study: The Problem With 'Stars'

Part 6: Summary

• Participating in the Organization of the Future
• Mentees as Organizational Learning Links
• The Long Bottom Line
• Some Points to Remember