Interpersonal / communication skills

Successful communication and interpersonal skills Overview
This is a powerful two day programme that will help you to understand and develop your relationships with others.
Dealing with other people can sometimes be much more complicated than even the most sophisticated technical problem or business dilemma. But as with such problems and dilemmas, there are effective techniques you can use to manage your working relationships more successfully.
We all depend on other people for success. Yet how many of us can honestly claim to excel in our working relationships with other people? Couldn't we all achieve more by examining and improving our interpersonal skills?
This outstanding two-day programme has been developed specifically to teach you the interpersonal skills that lead to more effective, more satisfying, more rewarding relationships with those around you. Training objectives
This powerful programme will give the participants:

• An appreciation of how others really see them
• The ability to handle gracefully, but with authority and self-confidence, surprising or awkward people and situations
• Skills to communicate more effectively, even in the most complicated situations
• Tools to prepare in advance for the difficulties encountered when working with a wide range of people and personalities
• An understanding of how to relate more effectively to their colleagues, their staff and their managers

All participants will leave the programme with a plan for the actions they will take that will build their interpersonal relationships and help them to achieve results. Audience
This course is appropriate for all levels of staff.
Format
This is a highly participative two-day workshop which will leave participants eager to apply their new skills and insights immediately!
Special features
The Strength Deployment Inventory discussed in session 5 of this programme is a practical tool for measuring an individual's motivational value system. Each participant will emerge from this course with their own Inventory - an invaluable tool to assist them in putting into practice what they learn on the programme.
The expert trainer
Nick is an outstanding trainer with over 15 years' experience in major 'blue chip' organisations. He worked in HR, training and sales management for such organisations as Honda, Raychem, W H Smith and Filofax before starting his own consultancy and training business in 1999. He now works in partnership with organisations of all sizes and runs both in-company courses / workshops and public / open programmes nationwide. His clients include BT, RBS, Taylor Woodrow, Hawksmere, Capita, Teacher Training Agency, The Duchy of Cornwall, Hampshire Police and a host of others. A very popular trainer, continually following and embracing new ideas and best practice, he is particularly adept at sharing his own very effective approach to presentation skills. See what course participants and learning and development managers say about him:
'A big, big thanks for your two sessions today - they went down a storm!'
Oxford Magnet Technology

'Nick was a brilliant trainer and got our most reluctant employees to participate and enjoy the day.'
Orion Cleaning Group

'Of all the training courses I have attended over the years (and there have been a few), this was the most consistently relevant.'
Sennheiser

'Nick was excellent; challenging, risk-taking, thought-provoking!'
Peugeot Motor Company
Course outline
DAY ONE

1. Living in your world
   • How and why people build different maps of the world
   • How people's maps define their feelings and behaviour
   • How people delete, distort and generalise information to reinforce their map
   • Essential theories of reward and motivation
   • To influence others, start by looking at yourself!
2. Living in other people's worlds
   • Separating personality and behaviour
   • Recognising behaviours in others
   • How a person is 'made up' - beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours
   • Influence and control - the nature of empowerment
   • Working towards a win-win
   • The platinum rule - do unto others as they would have done unto themselves!
3. Living in the same world
   • Interdependence and working together effectively
   • Managing expectations
   • Understanding people's needs
   • Understanding teams
   • Clarifying goals and managing performance
   • How people work when things are going well and how they change in adversity
   • People's strengths are recognised and valued because their motives are understood - by themselves and by others
4. First encounters
   • Ten pointers to help you create a good first impression and establish rapport
   
   

DAY TWO

1. When worlds collide
   • Understanding what is not said as well as what is said
   • How emotion interacts with logic
   • A conversational strategy for managing conflict
   • How to retain personal confidence during conflict
   • How to focus on what can be agreed on
   • Setting small achievable targets, patience, and retaining the longer term view
   • Manage conflict to create positive results and restore the self-esteem of the parties involved
   • Strength Deployment Inventory
2. Managing the contract
   • Listening
     - Verbal and non-verbal listening skills
     - Techniques for effective listening
     - Reflective listening
     - Interpretive listening
     - Supportive listening
     - Probing listening
     - Evaluative listening
   • Talking
     - Build on the other person's ideas
     - Avoid seeking to score points or make judgments
     - Seek opinions and ideas
     - Build on the other person's experience
   • Watching
     - The importance of body language
     - Understanding what is not being said
     - Reading body language
     - Examples of body language
     - Using body language to influence others
3. Review and close