Brenda Eckstein International
Business Consultant, Trainer and Integral Coach
Phone: +27 (0)33 342 5432
Mobile: +27 (0)82 499 3311
Fax: +27 (0)86 518 8205
E-mail:
Website: www.strategy-leadership.com
1. Strategy
We offer the facilitation of the following strategic interventions and also assist with implementing and sustaining ongoing strategy programmes within organizations:
a. Personal Strategy
b. Networking Tactics
c. Sustainable Customer Service Strategy
d. Leading in formation
a. Personal Strategy
We all need to have direction and clearly articulated destination. Do you know where you want to be in the future? Where are you going and what is necessary to shift from where you are now to where you want to be? What specific tactics do you need to develop, implement and sustain? We used to work on a five-year period but the world is now turbulent, ambiguous and very exciting. Everything happens much faster, too. So we usually work on a three-year or one-year personal strategy plan.
This unique one-day programme was first developed as part of ‘Networking Tactics’, and then answered the questions ‘where do I want to be in three years?’ and ‘how can I set up tactics to help me get there?’ Being continuously improved over the years, this is now incorporated in a number of our courses – ‘Communication Skills’, ‘Enhance Your Executive Skills’ and often forms part of coaching or mentoring programmes. However, it is also an excellent ‘stand-alone’ one-day course.
The facilitation of this programme can be done for individuals or groups of up to 14 people. Although 8 hours is usually required to cover the mission, vision, values, roles and tactics stemming from these, it has also worked very well as two half-day workshops.
This workshop helps you to define your dreams and make them a reality.
b. Networking Tactics
This workshop is one of the ‘all time’ favourites as it achieves exceptional results. It was originally developed because there seemed to be no networking literature that linked personal networking constructively to achieving goals. That was before the days of Face-book, LinkedIn and Twitter! So this workshop was developed to help people produce their own individual one-page plan showing personal strategy (originally for five-years – now we work on three years – or even one year.) And then there are specific tactics which we practice usually for one or two week periods in order to help us to use networking to achieve our major goals.
This workshop became the topic of Brenda’s first published book: ‘Networking Tactics: how to achieve success through personal networking’.
For organisations we have held this workshop ‘in house’ for their management teams for skills development and also for building stronger teams. Some have then continued with twelve week programmes where the entire organisation has worked on one tactic per week. Holding ‘report-backs’ each week in clusters increases the success of these programmes. A special emphasis is ‘catch some-one doing something right’ focusing on that week’s principle. So the initial workshop can be carried over into a sustainable programme with outstanding results. The whole culture of the organisation improves.
The second published book, ‘ABCs of Networking’ also forms an excellent base for developing a sustainable networking programme for the whole organisation.
The complete ‘Networking Tactics’ programme is included in the twelve-session programme, ‘Communication Skills’. But where clients want to ‘harness the power of collective networking’ in their organisations, we also run specially tailored workshops, mini-workshops or even keynotes on various aspects of networking.
c. Sustainable Customer Service Strategy
Often businesses and organisations can’t understand why their service is erratic. Training in customer service alone does not bring sustainability. But focusing on service as being a critical success factor in achieving the business’s overall strategy can bring significant results. So by having each department and individual work on the same principles at the same time benefits all aspects of the business.
This workshop is suitable for large or small organisations, businesses or professional offices. We usually work with the management team. However, we also run public one-day workshops where individual managers or business owners can participate.
How did this unique workshop originate? Having built a group of successful stores from scratch, I appreciate how important ‘service’ is. And by training the entire staff well, we are empowering others, too. As a family business we won many awards for our service and five years ago, in being audited for the Services Seta award (which we were awarded!) for service excellence, I realised the importance of incorporating Sustainable Customer Service Strategy into the way we work. Together, an associate, Leon Grove and I developed this programme both for public and ‘in house’ one-day workshops. Sometimes we present together or each of us individually presents the same content, too. There is usually a follow-up session to help firms or individuals fine-tune their plans.
d. Leading in formation
How do we improve the way that members of our team work together? How do leaders help them to ‘fly in formation’? We need to create a culture of working together for mutual benefit, yet achieve the business results. Helping leaders and teams to “fly in formation” is the purpose of this programme.
Three four-hour workshops are held with the leadership, management or other teams. The number of participants is not limited and some groups have been up to 25 participants. Between sessions certain principles are applied by all participants and they report back at the next session. Topics included may be Team Morale, Code of Professionalism, conversation skills (to build relationships). The importance of conversations for relationship, possibility and action is stressed and these are practised. The development of a ‘Team Constitution’ is also sometimes part of the programme.
Very important is ‘in depth’ exploration of individual values and the behaviour stemming from the values. Perceptions also play a part here. By taking this further and looking at the corporate values and individuals’ interpretation of behavioural indicators, we are able to see congruence and identify areas to be worked on.
The same applies with the survey to Measure Team Morale. The results are used as a basis for building an internal programme to enhance the way in which people work together.
Some of our participants’ greatest successes have been with the leadership and management teams of an accounting firm, private hospital and Chamber of Business.
2. Leadership Development
Effective leadership development is shows impressive results for organisations, teams and individuals.
a. Communication Skills
b. Enhance Your Executive Skills (EYES)
c. Leading in formation
We also offer programmes designed to suit specific needs.
a. Communication Skills
A question is often asked: How do we get teams or individuals who are highly competent in their area of expertise to perform better as individuals or teams in the workplace. They have the technical or professional skills, but lack the ability to instruct those junior to them, to report effectively to their supervisor and to generally understand how their behaviours are seen. Professionalism is often lacking, as is the ability to build meaningful relationships. This course serves to empower individuals, enhance team performance and adds value to the culture of the organisation.
Seven years ago, to suit the needs of a specific company quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, a ‘communication skills’ programme covering twelve four-hour sessions was developed. Assignments applied in the workplace between sessions are an integral part of the course. The phenomenal success of this programme has enabled us to present the same course for that company thirteen times and for another company three times. The participants have ranged from young ‘professionals’ to ‘post –matric’ students. So the benefits are considered enormous by our clients and this programme is a proven success.
Incorporated in this programme are our ‘How to get your point across’, ‘Effective Delegation, How to Give Instructions and How to be Assertive’ workshops. In addition, values (corporate and individual) are studied and a Code of Professionalism developed. Through developing their presentation skills, participants gain confidence and their standard of communication within the workplace is lifted.
b. Enhance Your Executive Skills (EYES)
This programme answers the question: ‘How do we combine integral coaching and mentoring or training in a way that doesn’t blur the boundaries’? Or it could be ‘How do we use integral coaching and training together in one programme to multiply our results? Thus, we developed a new course that did exactly that. Each participant attends six three-hour group sessions held at weekly intervals and although these are essentially training, coaching principles are woven through the course. Between sessions, individuals engage with self-observations, practices, exercise, reflections and journaling, just as they would if being privately coached. And each individual engages in two private coaching sessions.
Qualified integral coaches are able to help individuals turn their ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. And most of the one-on-one coaching programmes we run are six-months in duration. A few clients had completed a six-month programme and had shifted their ‘way of being’ significantly. In some cases, there were new issues to be addressed and they had a short break and then engaged in another six-month programme.
In the last year since the inception of this course, it has been held four times. And those who have participated often enrol for another course – because they have gained so much from the course!
The content covers a wide range of topics – building positive relationships, quality conversation and aligning corporate and personal branding are a few examples. Using cognitive and creative skills together is also part of the programme.
Although the first four programmes have been held for the ‘public’ it would be ideal as an ‘in house’ programme, too. Individuals would still each have their two coaching sessions and also attend the six three-hour group sessions.
c. Leading in formation
How do we improve the way that members of our team work together? How do leaders help them to ‘fly in formation’? We need to create a culture of working together for mutual benefit, yet achieve the business results. Helping leaders and teams to “fly in formation” is the purpose of this programme.
Three four-hour workshops are held with the leadership, management or other teams. The number of participants is not limited and some groups have been up to 25 participants. Between sessions certain principles are applied by all participants and they report back at the next session. Topics included may be Team Morale, Code of Professionalism, conversation skills (to build relationships). The importance of conversations for relationship, possibility and action is stressed and these are practised. The development of a ‘Team Constitution’ is also sometimes part of the programme.
Very important is ‘in depth’ exploration of individual values and the behaviour stemming from the values. Perceptions also play a part here. By taking this further and looking at the corporate values and individuals’ interpretation of behavioural indicators, we are able to see congruence and identify areas to be worked on.
The same applies with the survey to Measure Team Morale. The results are used as a basis for building an internal programme to enhance the way in which people work together.
Some of our participants’ greatest successes have been with the leadership and management teams of an accounting firm, private hospital and Chamber of Business.
3. Training
Specialising in communication skills, Brenda Eckstein International offers a wide range of training programmes aimed mainly at executive and management levels. However, these courses can be adapted to suit specific needs:
a. Communication Skills
b. Enhance Your Executive Skills (EYES)
c. Leading In Formation
d. Networking Tactics
e. Sustainable Customer Service Strategy
f. Effective Delegation, Giving Instructions and How to be Assertive
g. How To Get Your Point Across
h. Formula Five
i. Powerful Presentations
j. Navigating Your Future
a. Communication Skills
A question is often asked: How do we get teams or individuals who are highly competent in their area of expertise to perform better as individuals or teams in the workplace. They have the technical or professional skills, but lack the ability to instruct those junior to them, to report effectively to their supervisor and to generally understand how their behaviours are seen. Professionalism is often lacking, as is the ability to build meaningful relationships. This course serves to empower individuals, enhance team performance and adds value to the culture of the organisation.
Seven years ago, to suit the needs of a specific company quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, a ‘communication skills’ programme covering twelve four-hour sessions was developed. Assignments applied in the workplace between sessions are an integral part of the course. The phenomenal success of this programme has enabled us to present the same course for that company thirteen times and for another company three times. The participants have ranged from young ‘professionals’ to ‘post –matric’ students. So the benefits are considered enormous by our clients and this programme is a proven success.
Incorporated in this programme are our ‘How to get your point across’, ‘Effective Delegation, How to Give Instructions and How to be Assertive’ workshops. In addition, values (corporate and individual) are studied and a Code of Professionalism developed. Through developing their presentation skills, participants gain confidence and their standard of communication within the workplace is lifted.
b. Enhance Your Executive Skills (EYES)
This programme answers the question: ‘How do we combine integral coaching and mentoring or training in a way that doesn’t blur the boundaries’? Or it could be ‘How do we use integral coaching and training together in one programme to multiply our results? Thus, we developed a new course that did exactly that. Each participant attends six three-hour group sessions held at weekly intervals and although these are essentially training, coaching principles are woven through the course. Between sessions, individuals engage with self-observations, practices, exercise, reflections and journaling, just as they would if being privately coached. And each individual engages in two private coaching sessions.