Linda Brown, Ph. D.
El Paso Community College
El Paso, TX
(915) 831-5841
INSIGHTS: UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES AND
APPRECIATING OTHERS
What is your personality type and what are the characteristics of your personality type? How do others perceive you, your comments, and behaviors?
Are their perceptions of you different from the image you have of yourself?
What motivates you and others? Do others sometimes misunderstand your motives? Why do some people find it difficult to work with each other? Is there someone that you have difficult y “connecting with”? What do your students, customers, coworkers, supervisors, or those you supervise need from you? You will discover the answers to these questions in this workshop.
This training provides participants with the personal insight and the appreciation and respect for the values, motives and behaviors of others that is helpful in addressing leadership, customer service, motivation, conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, miscommunication, morale, organizational culture, employee evaluations, and other workplace considerations.
THE ART OF NEGOTIATION
Supervisors invest an inordinate amount of time in conflict resolution. Participants will learn negotiation skills designed to “finally” resolve those ongoing, time-consuming “tiffs” that create tension in the workplace. This workshop can be designed to provide employees with concrete steps to address difficult people and situations and avoid management intervention or can be designed for supervisors who are called upon to mediate workplace conflict.
FUN IN THE WORKPLACE: It’s the Little Things That Make a Big Difference
Do employees dread coming to work or do they look forward to seeing each other and serving clients and customers? We know we can and should enjoy the workplace (Post-FISH), but how do we DO that? How do we build morale, create a team spirit, and engage each other in excellence? Learn fun, easy ways to show appreciation and respect for others and create a more collaborative, supportive environment. People who enjoy going to work are more productive!
ASSERTIVENESS AND ETHICAL PROBLEM SOLVING
Assertiveness is a proactive approach to preventing conflict and getting results in the workplace. Participants will be introduced to workplace communication principles to include discussion of perception, perspective, faulty assumptions, message distortion, listening, and how to effectively interact with others based on their communication style. After analyzing their personal language patterns, participants will learn to apply assertive (vs. aggressive) behavior and language to avoid or resolve differences. Personal responsibility and associated language patterns will be emphasized. Communication challenges and differences based on gender considerations will also be discussed.
REFRAMING CHANGE: Change is one of the few constants in our lives and people have very good reasons to resist change. Potential change is often perceived as scary, time-consuming, threatening, frustrating, irritating, immobilizing, and an unnecessary evil. However, with an understanding of the dynamics of change and the importance of effective perception management, change processes CAN be exciting, invigorating, and positive.
TEAMBUILDING
Small group dynamics in workplace planning and problem solving
Participants will learn the challenges and benefits of collaboration to include the needs of group participants, roles of group members, leadership styles, nonverbal communication considerations, and the dynamics of effective groups.
GOAL SETTING: A POSITIVE ATTITUDE IS AN IRRESISTIBLE FORCE
It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan! Goal setting results in greater personal and professional success. If that is the case, why don’t people set goals? This workshop will provide the effective steps to personal and professional success.
TEN STEPS TO ASSERTIVELY RESOLVING CONFLICT
AND CREATING PEACE
Conflict, like change, is inevitable in the workplace, and change is one of the many reasons that conflict arises—procedures change, job responsibilities change, supervisors change, technology changes, needs change, ideas and philosophies change, customers change their minds… This workshop focuses on 10 steps to understanding conflict and creating peace in the workplace.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
We are all leaders in some aspect of our work-whether we are designated leaders, take on informal leadership roles, or provide customer service on a daily basis. What are the skills and characteristics of effective leaders? How do we effectively communicate with others? How do we assess our effectiveness? How do we know what others need from us? This session provides concrete ways to meet employee and customer needs.
CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE
What do customers need and expect? How do employees develop and create a positive image with customers and reflect an inviting organizational culture? Participants will learn to recognize the huge impact that seemingly inconsequential comments and behaviors can have on customers and the image of the organization. Participants will recognize the options they have in customer service situations; recognize signals of customer irritation and how to respond quickly and appropriately; learn how to define a problem and identify solutions; discover how to control emotional states and maintain professionalism under pressure; understand that customer satisfaction is based on perceptions; and, use positive languge to create a positive image of the organization.
PERCEPTION AND PERSPECTIVE: Reflective Listening
“I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said,
but I am not sure that you realize that what you heard
is not what I meant.”
Effective listening is one of the most important skills we engage in on a daily basis, yet few people have ever been taught listening skills. And, poor listening is clearly one of the most “costly” miscommunication skills encountered in the workplace. Additionally, we sometimes forget the important part that gender, culture, perception, perspective, and personality type play in the way we listen to others and process their comments. Participants will learn the most common listening/response errors and will practice reflecting what they think others have said…which may be something very different from what was meant.
PUBLIC SPEAKING IS FUN!
Public speaking is one of the greatest fears expressed by adults.
Amazingly enough, those with the greatest apprehension CAN
learn to be the most powerful speakers. This workshop includes:
Audience analysis tips
A simple and unfailing structure that can be used for ALL
presentations
Visual aid guidelines
Persuasion techniques (and how to “protect” yourself from
those attempting to persuade you)
Relaxation techniques that provide greater self-assurance and
assist you in addressing fear, nervousness, and memory lapses
Understanding of the effective use of nonverbal communication to keep your audience engaged
COMMUNICATING FOR RESULTS
Effective communication is the key to workplace success and excellent customer
service. Participants in this workshop will gain an understanding of why
miscommunication is so prevalent and why effective communication is so
difficult. We will identify language patterns, discuss the impact of perception and
perspective, pinpoint listening challenges, and discuss the importance of nonverbal communications. The purpose of this workshop is the development of clear, concrete, supportive communication-which will be achieved through an understanding of communication obstacles.
EFFECTIVELY FACILITATING LARGE AND SMALL GROUPS: A Special Skill Facilitating informative, persuasive, and special occasion audiences and presentations requires several key steps and skills that will be provided in this workshop. Successful facilitation is an art and it is a different skill than teaching!
UNDERSTANDING WORKPLACE CULTURE: DISCOVERING EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS AND IMPLEMENTING EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
Successful leaders and managers have a clear understanding of the culture and climate of the organizations for which they work. Leaders and mangers in this workshop will learn ways to discover, uncover, and address organizational practices, concerns, perceptions, misconceptions, patterns of behavior (ruts), needs, and images that might need to be addressed and how to address those needs.
BUILDING A FOUNDATION FOR MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS: SPEAKING, LISTENING, AND WRITING FOR SUCCESS
Effective communication is the foundation for personal and professional success. It’s also one of the most challenging and time-consuming tasks that many employees engage in on a daily basis. The ability to communicate successfully-to speak, write and listen are imperative for personal and professional gropwth. Workshop participants will learn to: choose the right communication channel; Clarify the purpose of comunications to use everyone’s time more effectively; Increase productivity by developing clear and specific messages, memos and letters; Ways to verify that a message is received and understood; Exhibit competence, authority, knowledge and self-confidence to gain credibility and attention; Steer and control the direction of conversations when necessary; and, engage others in effective, creative problem-solving discussions
Some additional workshops available:
Gender Differences in Communication
Appreciative Inquiry: Creating positive Change
Collaborative Learning
Workplace Values Clarification and Employee Motivation
Organizational Culture: Assessment and Change
Principles of Learning Organizations
Learning Styles and Teaching Preferences
Critical Thinking
Nonverbal Communication
Linda Brown, Ph. D. El PasoCommunity College (915) 831-5841