Active Listening
Advanced Writing Skills
An Environmental Audit Primer
Building Self Esteem and Assertiveness Skills
Business Etiquette: Gaining that Extra Edge
Business Leadership: Becoming Management Material
This three-day workshop is a tool for your leadership development. It is designed to help you create and accomplish your personal best, and to help you lead others to get extraordinary things done.
At its core, leadership means setting goals, lighting a path, and persuading others to follow. But the responsibility entails much more. Leaders must get their message out in a way that inspires, make the most of their limited time, and build roads to precious resources. They must negotiate alliances, improve their colleagues, and align the ambitions of the many with the needs of the organization.
What makes for a great leader? Is it something to do with inward characteristics, such as confidence and focus? Is it more about outward presence, including charm and compassion? Or is it about the ability to create a vision and get others to commit to it?
The answer is all of the above. By accepting the challenge to lead, you come to realize that the only limits are those you place on yourself.
Business Writing That Works
We all know what good writing is. It’s the novel we can’t put down, the poem we never forgot, and the speech that changes the way we look at the world. Good writing is the memo that gets action and the letter that says what a phone call can’t.
In business writing, the language is concrete, the point of view is clear, and the points are well expressed. Good writing is hard work, and even the best writers get discouraged. However, with practice you can feel more confident about your own writing. This two-day workshop will give participants the tools to become better writers.
Coaching and Mentoring
Coach, Mentor, Role Model, Supporter, Guide... do these words ring a bell? Being a coach involves being able to draw from several disciplines. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Mentorship is a related skill that is often a part of coaching. It’s about being a guide, offering wisdom and advice when it is needed.
Knowing how and when to coach (and when to use other tools, like mentoring) is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization.
Collaboration
Conquering Your Fear of Speaking in Public
Creating a Dynamite Job Portfolio
The job market continues to change, as does the way we look for work. This course examines the value of presenting yourself as a complete package by using a resume as an introduction to an employer and backing it up with a portfolio presented at the interview.
In order to make the most of this course, participants need to have recently completed the Getting Your Job Search Started course, or identified target positions and completed a full skills assessment and goal setting exercise.
Creating Winning Proposals
Creative Thinking and Innovation
Creative thinking and innovation are vital components in both our personal and professional lives. However, many people feel as though they are lacking in creativity. What most of us do not recognize is that we are creative on a daily basis, whether it’s picking out what clothes to wear in the morning or stretching a tight budget at work. While these tasks may not normally be associated with creativity, there is a great deal of creativity involved to get those jobs done.
While some people seem to be simply bursting with creativity, others find it a struggle to think outside the square. If you fall into the latter category, it is important to understand that boosting your creative and innovative abilities takes practice. Recognizing and honing your own creative potential is a process. That’s what this two-day workshop is all about.
Critical Thinking
In today’s society, many people experience information overload. We are bombarded with messages to believe various ideas, purchase things, support causes, and lead our lifestyle in a particular way. How do you know what to believe? How do you separate the truth from the myths?
The answer lies in critical thinking skills. The ability to clearly reason through problems and to present arguments in a logical, compelling way has become a key skill for survival in today’s world. This two-day workshop will give you some practical tools and hands-on experience with critical thinking and problem solving.
Dynamite Sales Presentations
A great sales presentation does not demand that you have all the bells and whistles to impress the client with your technical skills. Rather, try impressing your clients with your knowledge of the products and services you sell and your understanding of their problems and the solutions they need.
This one-day workshop will help teach you how to create a winning proposal and how to turn it into a dynamite sales presentation.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence, also called EQ, is the ability to be aware of and to manage emotions and relationships. It’s a pivotal factor in personal and professional success. IQ will get you in the door, but it is your EQ, your ability to connect with others and manage the emotions of yourself and others, that will determine how successful you are in life.
We have all worked with and listened to brilliant people. Some of them were great and… well, some were not so great. The mean and the meek and all those in between can teach us more than they realize. When we look at the truly extraordinary people who inspire and make a difference you will see that they do this by connecting with people at a personal and emotional level. What differentiated them was not their IQ but their EQ – their emotional intelligence.
Entrepreneurship 101
Wouldn’t it be nice to be your own boss, work on your own schedule, and make money doing something that you’re passionate about? Millions of people around the world are living that dream and running their own business.
This three-day course will teach you the basics of entrepreneurship. You’ll consider if entrepreneurship is right for you and learn the basic steps of creating your own business. At the end of the course, you’ll have a solid foundation to start your entrepreneurial journey.
Getting Stuff Done: Personal Development Boot Camp
Getting Your Job Search Started
While looking for work can be an exciting time, it can also involve fear and discomfort about change and the unknown. Whether you are already in the midst of a job search or just thinking about it, this workshop will help you to determine what your skill set is made up of, the kind of work that is important and realistic to include in your search, and how to get started.
Today’s job market is not the same as it was even five years ago. Knowing where to go, who to talk to, and the opportunities that are available will help to shift you from someone who dreams about having a job, to someone who has the job they always wanted.
Goal Setting
We all have things we want in life. The route to success is to take the things that we dream about and wish for and turn them into reality. This one-day workshop will lead participants through thinking, planning, and taking action on the things they really want. They will learn ways to ensure that they get where they want to go in life.
Honing and Delivering Your Message
Influence and Persuasion
Intermediate Project Management
Project management is not just restricted to certain industries, or to individuals with certification as a project manager. Lots of us are expected to complete assignments that are not a usual part of our job, and to get the job done well, within our budget, and on time.
This workshop is intended for those who understand the conceptual phase of a project’s life cycle, including setting goals, creating a vision statement, and creating the Statement of Work. Today will take you through the remaining three stages: planning, execution, and termination.
Introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming
Leadership Skills for Supervisors: Communication, Coaching, and Conflict
Managing Pressure and Maintaining Balance
Mastering The Interview
The interview is one of the key elements of the job search process. As with any skill, we can get better at it with preparation and practice. In this workshop, participants will explore how to prepare for an interview and become familiar with the types of questions to expect, as well as the questions they should think about asking. They will learn how to prepare for second interviews, testing, and shadowing, as well as how to follow up on their interview sessions.
Overcoming Objections to Nail the Sale
If you are like most sales professionals, you are always looking for ways to overcome customer objections and close the sale. This one-day course will help you to work through objectives effectively. We will help you plan and prepare for objections so that you can address customer concerns, reduce the number of objections you encounter, and improve your averages at closing sales.
Personal Brand: Maximizing Personal Impact
Abigail Van Buren, the writer of Dear Abby, once said, “There are two kinds of people: those who come into a room with the attitude, ‘Here I am!’ and those who have the attitude, ‘There you are!’”
This course is a two-day exploration about the type of impact we want to have in life and work. Participants will consider and define the influence that they can have on their life and work. They will also learn skills for success and how to create those circumstances.
Project Management Fundamentals
Project management isn’t just for construction engineers and military logistics experts anymore. Today, in addition to the regular duties of your job, you are often expected to take on extra assignments, and to get that additional job done well, done under budget, and done on time.
This one-day workshop is not intended to take you from a supervisory or administrative position to that of a project manager. However, these topics will familiarize you with the most common terms and practices in terms of working on projects.
Project Management Training: Understanding Project Management
Project management isn’t just for construction engineers and military logistics experts anymore. Today, in addition to regular job duties, people are often expected to take on extra assignments and to get that additional job done well, done under budget, and done on time.
This workshop is not intended to take participants from a supervisory or administrative position to that of a project manager. However, these three days will familiarize them with the most common terms and the most current thinking about projects.
In this workshop, you will walk participants through the nuts and bolts of project management, from setting priorities to controlling expenses and reporting on the results. They may still have to cope with the unexpected, but they’ll be better prepared.
Project Management: All You Need to Know
Project Planning: All You Need to Know
Prospecting for Leads Like a Pro
Prospecting is one of the keys to your sales success. Keeping your pipeline full ensures that you will continue to attract new business, and so your success today is a result of the prospecting you did six months ago.
In this workshop, participants will become skilled at prospecting and learn the 80/20 rule. They will learn to target and how to target them, and commit to do some prospecting every day through warming up cold calls, following up on leads, or networking. Participants will also build their personal prospecting plan and learn how to ensure their future by planting seeds daily.
Public Speaking: Presentation Survival School
Public Speaking: Speaking Under Pressure
This workshop has been designed for those in positions where they must speak in front of audiences that are hostile or demanding. This material is also suitable for those who are relatively new speakers who want some encouragement to speak up in meetings or who want some training before they begin making presentations on behalf of the organization.
Speaking under pressure, or thinking on your feet, means being able to quickly organize your thoughts and ideas, and then being able to convey them meaningfully to your audience to modify their attitudes or behaviour. It applies to formal speeches as well as everyday business situations.
It requires presence of mind, goal orientation, adaptation, and judgment. It also requires differentiating between oral and written communications.
This course is aimed at improving your skills and learning some new techniques which will give you the persuasive edge when you are making a presentation, fielding difficult questions, or presenting complex information.
Research Skills
In this age of information overload, it can be hard to know where to find good information that you can trust. If you’re doing research for an important project, report, or proposal, how do you find information that you can count on?
This one-day workshop will teach you how to research any topic using a number of different tools. We will start with basic techniques, such as reading, memory recall, note-taking, and planning. We will also talk about creating different kinds of outlines for different stages of your project, and how to move from the outline to actual writing, editing, and polishing. Most importantly, we will talk about how to use all kinds of sources, including a library’s Dewey Decimal System, journals, and the Internet.
After you complete this course, you’ll be ready to find reliable information on any topic, and turn that information into a compelling, accurate piece of writing.
Self Leadership
Self-leadership puts together taking responsibility for our outcomes, setting direction for our lives, and having tools to manage priorities. Self-leaders work at all levels of an organization. They are front-line workers in every possible role, middle managers, and CEOs. Self-leaders like Walt Disney and Wayne Gretzky worked hard to achieve their dreams without using the term self-leadership. However, they have clearly demonstrated that being in control of their behavior and results, focus, practice, and learning were necessary to achieve their goals.
Self-leadership requires a commitment from individuals to decide what they want from life and to do what’s necessary to get the results they want. This course will help participants internalize the four pillars of self-leadership and to make meaningful, empowered choices while taking action to get where they want to go.
Skills for the Administrative Assistant
Work is not the only thing that matters in life, but most of us want to take pride in what we do. While we don’t have to like the people we work with, or report to, at the very least we should be able to interact positively with them. The biggest influence on our job satisfaction is our relationship with others.
Our work should not be a burden to us and our offices shouldn’t be battlefields. We are human beings working with other human beings. This two-day workshop is about working to the best of your abilities, and encouraging the best in those who work with you, or for you.
Survival Skills for the New Trainer
Few people choose training and development while they are still in school, and yet there are talented and knowledgeable trainers working in every industry. Some individuals become trainers because they are passionate about sharing their knowledge and about helping people. Others become trainers because their employer asks them to get involved in mentoring, training, or coaching new or existing employees. Trainers also get started when they want to make some changes to their daily activities, but wish to continue contributing to a particular organization or industry.
If you are thinking about becoming a trainer, or have started doing some training already and want to know more about what will help you to become an excellent trainer, this workshop will help. This one-day workshop is designed as an exploration of the essential skills that trainers need to develop, and to get you started in the learning process in an interactive and fun environment.
The ABCs of Supervising Others
This workshop is for people who are new supervisors or who are interested in a supervisory position, as well as those who are team leads or part-time supervisors without a great deal of authority.
This two-day course is designed to help participants overcome many of the supervisory problems that they will encounter as a workplace leader. Dealing with the problems that a new supervisor encounters isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to lead to discouragement.
The Minute Taker’s Workshop
The Practical Trainer
Most people who call themselves trainers today probably didn’t start out to be trainers. They often work in a field where they develop extensive knowledge and then are asked to share what they know. Many trainers have some experience with teaching, writing, or leadership, although they come from nearly every field.
As such, people who work as trainers are often put into difficult situations without much understanding of what training is or how to do it well. We know that being a good trainer is the result of developing skills to bring information to an audience. This information will then engage, empower, and encourage continued learning and development.
This three-day course will give you the skills that you need so that students not only learn, but also enjoy the process, retain information shared, and use their new skills back in the workplace.
Participants will also have the opportunity to conduct a short group training session that incorporates these training concepts.
The Professional Supervisor
Time Management: Get Organized for Peak Performance
Time is money, the saying goes, and lots of it gets lost in disorganization and disruption. We also deal with a constant barrage of technology, people, and tasks that can contribute to that disorganization. Many people find that they flit from one task to another, trying to get everything done.
In this one-day workshop, you will learn how to make the most of your time by getting a grip on your workflow and office space, using your planner effectively, and delegating some of your work to other people.
Working Smarter: Using Technology to your Advantage
Workplace Success: Eight Key Skills You’ll Need
