Strengthening Core Communication Skills

Course Description:

This experiential workshop is designed to polish the skills of a competent communicator and enhance the abilities of those who feel their communications’ skills are limited. Participants discuss, practice and demonstrate a variety of effective communication skills and strategies aimed at making workplace communication more effective.

We discuss the need for strong verbal and non-verbal communicators skills to ensure successful two way communication. This segment includes both listening and speaking exercises. Since more than half of our communication is non-verbal, participants will learn the critical components of non-verbal communication and be able to use them effectively.

We identify the characteristics of introverts and those of extroverts to highlight that need to be aware of our audience.

As open communication is essential in creating an effective workplace participants will engage in self-discovery to learn more about self-disclosure and how it can contribute or disrupt a work environment.

We examine how perceptions effect our communication. One of the ways in which we limit our core communication skills is through not understanding our own perceptual filters. Participants will examine perceptual filters and learn the fundamental attribution error.

We examine how speaking style influences the reaction we’ll likely get from our colleagues and/or direct reports. For instance, there is likely a time and a place to be use a style of ‘certainty’ and a time and place to be more ‘provisional’.

Participants will discover the benefits of and learn and practice techniques for communicating assertively, including how to deal with passive, aggressive and passive-aggressive communicators in a direct but respectful manner.

Participants will examine language to ensure that it is clear and concise. We’ll examine being non-specific, the over use of jargon and discuss the best way to write e-mail

What's In It For You?

• You will learn essential skills for successful verbal and non-verbal communication with a variety of people.
• You discover key verbal and non-verbal listening behaviors and how to use them effectively
• A demonstration of the importance of tone of voice in successful communication
• You will gain an understanding of the key characteristics of introverts and extroverts
• You will become aware of your blind spots and the skill of practicing open communication
• You will learn the incredible benefits of assertive communication and how it can impact a workplace
• You will be able to describe the fundamental attributes of assertive, aggressive, passive and passive aggressive communication
• You will learn the primary perceptual filters that hinder communication
• You will assess your primary workplace speaking styles and identify the style of those you work with
• You will practice fundamental communication elements required to ensure we speak loudly enough and are understood
• Discover the remarkable benefits of concise and clear language and see how easy it is for our communication to lose its clarity

The Essential Learning Experience:

Small class size – approachable and engaging trainer – post-workshop follow-up.

When it comes to delivering presentation skills training we:
• Combine training and coaching throughout the session. We provide the strategies and tips and we coach you in real time to make you a clearer, more compelling more confident presenter.
• Use experiential learning and create realistic scenarios for you to improve your speaking skills.
• Provide practical, relevant tips regarding room set up, slides and audio visual supports.
• Help you develop skills and strategies that can easily be applied to your real world work situation.
• Have energized, engaging, focused trainers. Our trainers all have front of the room experience and thousands of hours of experience.
• Always engage our audience in an interactive discussion; we never lecture.

Not sure about this…
What’s in it for your organization?

Strong communication is the basis of a successful business. In this workshop we focus on the core issues:

• Listening and Non-Verbal Communication
• Speaking Clearly
• Communicating With Those Who Are Not Like Us
• Non-defensive - Open Communication
• Recognizing Perceptual Filters
• Speaking Style (how direct is too direct)
• Adopting simple, clear and concise language
• The benefits of Assertiveness in the workplace

Through this experiential workshop we will help you create better teams, less stress and greater clarity in all verbal, written and electronic communication. This is an engaging interactive workshop where participants have an opportunity to practice these elements.

Having taken this course:

You will be a stronger, more aware and more confident communicator. You will understand the subtleties of non-verbal messaging and you will have the key to be way more effective in your verbal communication. You will have a better understanding of those you are communicating with and have less stress from communications gone wrong. It is remarkable what we can cover in one day. Do join us.