Talent Management Courses
(Click on course titles to download outlines)
The courses listed below can be customized to your specifications. We also design and develop customized curricula from concept to implementation. Tell us what you need and we will build it!
Accountability and Productivity
Employees must understand the choices they make determine the outcomes. As an employee, you are responsible for getting work done and using your own judgment with minimum risk. Through this training you will learn a systematic approach to making sound judgments, how to focus on high priority goals, how to develop a plan to achieve your goals, and more.
This is a one-day workshop for those who already are good writers. Our time will be devoted to writing letters of recommendation, of persuasion, of refusal or of action, that reflect current word usage and up-to-date formats. You will also become more skilled at writing business cases, proposals and reports and learn a bit more about e-mail etiquette.
Anger is a universal experience. Dogs get angry, bees get angry, and so do humans. You don’t have to be a psychologist to know that managing anger productively is something few individuals, organizations, and societies do well. Yet research tells us that those who do manage their anger at work are much more successful than those who don’t. This one-day workshop will help give you and your organization that edge.
This course is a review of basic principles of elementary punctuation, English usage including fundamentals of sentence patterns, simple grammar, and basic writing of short paragraphs and brief essays. Participants will learn the process of planning, writing, and revising letters and memos.
Behavioral & Performance-Based Interviewing Techniques
This two-day workshop concentrates on the pre-interview preparation, developing questions and their value, the interview techniques that get specific, behavior-based examples of past performance, and the strategies that follow through on this process. In addition to the work of Tom Janz, this workshop draws from the work of Stephen Jackson, who takes the behavioral interview one step further with a twelve-step process to hiring top performers.
For managers in today’s business world, it’s essential to have a working knowledge of finance. We all play a role in our organization’s finances, whether we realize it or not. For those who don’t have training or a background in finances, you may be at a disadvantage as you sit around the management table. Understanding the cycle of finance will help you figure out where you fit into your company’s financial structure. This workshop will familiarize you with the key concepts of finance and accounting and help you prepare budgets with more confidence.
Business Etiquette: Gaining That Extra Edge
If you have had some awkward moments where you aren’t sure which fork to use or which side plate is yours, or if you’ve ever had to make small talk with some VIP and been lost for words, you know just how agonizing such moments can be. However, what can be even more damaging to your career are those things you aren’t aware of, the social gaffes you aren’t even aware of making. This course will prepare you for those inevitable moments.
Do you find yourself paralyzed in front of people who are different from you? Are you worried that if you say or do the wrong thing you’ll offend someone, or worse, find yourself at the center of a lawsuit? You’re not alone. In the past ten years, the workforce has changed dramatically. More than ever, a workplace is a diverse collection of individuals proud of whom they are: their gender, their sexual orientation, their religion, their ethnic background, and all the other components that make an individual unique. The challenge becomes: how can we make these diverse individuals work as a team? We all know what happens to organizations that don’t have effective teamwork: they fail. Failing to embrace diversity can also have serious legal costs for corporations. In this one-day workshop, you’ll learn how you as an individual can celebrate diversity, and how you can help your workplace become a more diverse environment.
Managers traditionally have had the task of contributing to the effectiveness of their organization while maintaining high morale. Today, these roles often have to be balanced with the reality of implementing changes imposed by senior management. Managers who have an understanding of the dynamics of change are better equipped to analyze the factors at play in their own particular circumstances, and to adopt practical strategies to deal with resistance. This one-day workshop will provide strategies for you and your employees to deal with change in the workplace.
Coach, Role Model, Counselor, Supporter, Guide...do these words ring a bell? Being a coach involves being a role model, sometimes a counselor or supporter, and always a guide. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Knowing how and when to coach is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization. This one-day workshop will help you become a better coach in all senses of the word.
This two-day workshop is designed to help you improve your interactions with other people in your workplace or at home. This workshop gives participants the opportunity to improve the critical communication skills of listening, asking questions and being aware of nonverbal messages. This workshop can also help participants who are struggling to find that middle ground between being too aggressive and too passive, and how to counter the manipulative tactics of difficult people. Participants also learn more about the six elements of our communication with others that help us reveal appropriate information about ourselves, and get a handle on how to better manage ourselves for a professional image.
Are you frustrated with the way meetings are going? Do they lack focus; are there times some members of the group dominate the proceedings, and are you not always sure who should attend? Are you looking for a way to structure meetings to make them more effective yet at the same time maintain an open atmosphere? This one-day workshop not only covers the simple need of meeting structure, but includes some intervention strategies as well.
Conducting Effective Performance Reviews
Research has shown that organizations that conduct performance reviews are more successful than those who do not have a system in place. The first step in a basic system is to develop standards of performance that all employees can understand and agree to. Setting performance objectives to aim for will give supervisors and employees a like focus, and targets to aim for. Supervisors must also learn how to coach and give feedback, both positive and negative, on a regular and timely basis so that employees can grow and develop. Defensible performance reviews are the culmination of all these activities.
Conflict Resolution: Getting Along in the Workplace
All of us experience conflict. We argue with our spouses, disagree with our friends, and sometimes even quarrel with strangers at a hockey game. At times we lose sight of the fact that all this conflict is normal. As long as people are individuals there will be the potential for conflict. Since you can’t prevent conflict, the most important thing is to learn how to handle or manage it in productive ways. That’s what this workshop is designed to help you do.
Leading a Customer Focused Team
The need for leading, promoting and enhancing a customer focused culture is essential within government agencies. This workshop will help managers/ leaders create customer satisfaction in whatever business units they work within.
Critical Elements of Customer Service Excellence
This workshop is designed to present participants with strategies for listening to the voice of the customer, surpassing customer expectations, and increasing customer satisfaction. Participants will understand why it is important to please the customer. The course focuses on the behaviors, attitudes and communication techniques necessary for quality customer service with an emphasis on why government employees need to provide excellent customer service.
Edward Deming, the father of quality management, has said that people can face almost any problem except the problem of people. They can work long hours, face declining business, even the loss of a job, but they can’t deal with the difficult people in their lives. This workshop will help you identify some of the ways you may be contributing to these problems and give you some strategies you can adopt, at work and in your personal life.
Developing High Performance Teams
Your success as a manager can often depend on how well your team operates. How are their problem-solving skills? Are they enthusiastic and motivated to do their best? Do they work well together? There have been hundreds of studies demonstrating that human beings function better and learn better in groups. If you want to develop your team leadership skills and unleash the talent of your individual team members, this workshop is a practical look at current leadership strategies that work.
This course focuses on improving articulation skills to facilitate better verbal communication. Participants will learn and practice techniques for improving enunciation, pronunciation, and verbalization.
It is impossible to be part of an organization today and not attend meetings. Staff meetings, project meetings, planning and coordinating meetings—they all take time. There has been a growing realization that we have to pay attention to the “process” elements of meetings, if we want them to be effective. With its focus on asking rather than telling, and listening to build consensus, facilitation is the new leadership ideal, the core competency everybody needs. Managers and supervisors are often asked to “facilitate” rather than “instruct” or “manage” their meetings and training sessions. How can you facilitate, rather than control, group decision-making and team interaction? With no formal training, people may find it difficult to make the transition from “instructors” to “facilitators.” This course will help you gain the skills required to become an effective facilitator.
Federal Pre-Retirement Planning
Planning for retirement is one of the more important series of life decisions you will face, akin to making other major career, family, or lifestyle decisions. With the increase in Americans’ life expectancies, the post-government employment stage of your life may well equal or exceed the years spent in federal and/or military service. This program helps prepare federal employees for making educated decisions to transition successfully to this new life stage.
Getting Employees off to a Good Start: Orientation, Training and Handbooks
One reason people change jobs is that they never feel truly welcome or a part of the organization they join. If a company spends considerable money recruiting, interviewing and perhaps even relocating employees, it makes good sense to go one step further and make the new employee feel like they have made a good decision to come to this company. A thoughtful new employee orientation program, coupled with an employee handbook that communicates workplace policies can reduce turnover and save that organization thousands of dollars. Whether your company has two employees or two thousand employees, don’t leave new employee orientation to chance.
This is a two-day overview of human resource issues facing today's business owners, managers and human resource support staff. You do not always have the expertise to deal with the many employee relationship issues you face, and yet you will be expected to make decisions that are both effective and legal.
This course teaches students about interpersonal communication styles and techniques. Students learn how to ask and answer questions, use nonverbal communication, give feedback, and empower employees. Students also learn how to communicate with individuals who hold different positions in an organization, such as peers, supervisors, subordinates, and customers/vendors. Course activities also cover promoting ideas, handling negotiations, and dealing with human resource issues.
Interviewing Skills (For the Interviewee)
This one-day course is designed to expand the interviewing and related job preparation skills of participants, regardless of their workplace experience. Using a combination of instructor-led training, role-plays, case studies, and hands-on exercises, this course defines the steps to interviewing success.
Leadership: Becoming Management Material
If you are in line for a promotion, or are moving into management in your organization, this is a first step on the road to success. Now is the time for big picture thinking and sharing your vision with your team. Learn ways to communicate clearly and openly in order to get things done. Identify your team player style and your leadership style profile, and discover ways to use this knowledge to manage more effectively. Build a relationship with your manager and develop a support system of your own. Understand how to motivate and challenge your employees by delegating and coaching for excellent performance. In this workshop you will discover practical and innovative ways to handle your most challenging responsibilities, from managing meetings to managing your team.
Learning to Delegate Effectively
Effective delegation is one of the most valuable skills you can master. It reduces your workload and develops employee skills. Delegating prepares employees who work for you to be able to handle your responsibilities and simultaneously allows you to advance to other career opportunities within your organization. Delegation is often one of the hardest skills for a manager to master. However, the skill can be learned. This workshop will explore many of the facets of delegation: when to delegate, and who to delegate to. We will also go through the delegation process step by step, to see where the pitfalls lay, and what we can do about getting around them.
Most people think the only message that will be heard is one of urgency. However, in today’s fast-paced world, even urgent messages may be ignored. Becoming an active listener will promote productivity and success by helping to extract important details from every message. This course will help participants become better listeners by demonstrating how listening skills build either barriers or bridges.
Mentoring is a rewarding relationship that benefits the participants and the organization. The relationship is now seen as a process of two people working together for mutual gain and enrichment based on their shared experience. This course will provide the participant with the tools to understand the unique role of mentors in today’s workplace, determine the most effective mentoring style for their situation, establish agreements to ensure a successful and rewarding relationship, and avoid behaviors that may interfere with mentee growth and development.
It’s no secret. Employees who feel they are valued and recognized for the work they do are more motivated, responsible and productive. This is a busy one-day workshop to help supervisors and managers create a more dynamic, loyal and energized workplace. This course is designed specifically to help busy managers and supervisors understand what employees want, and to give them a starting point for creating champions.
This course teaches students the basics of negotiations. Students will learn how to identify objectives and variables, establish negotiation requirements, research the other party, determine concessions, formulate a plan for agreement, and determine the logistics of a negotiation. Course activities also cover: negotiation and facilitating communication; questions a person should ask and appropriate responses; and situations that require a specific negotiation style. Students will also learn how to gain control during negotiations, use various negotiation tactics, and deal with unethical negotiation tactics. The manual is designed for quick scanning in the classroom and filled with interactive exercises that help ensure student success.
A course for supervisors who wish to acquire a further understanding of the supervisory management position, to better understand themselves and others through completing and interpreting the application of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, to develop their problem solving and decision making skills, and to explore performance management issues.
Problem Solving and Decision Making
If you are tired of applying dead-end solutions to recurring problems in your company, this two-day workshop should help you reconstruct your efforts and learn new ways to approach problem-solving, develop practical ways to solve some of your most pressing problems, and reach win-win decisions.
Public Speaking: Presentation Survival School
A great presenter has two unique qualities, appropriate skills and personal confidence. This confidence comes from knowing what you want to say, and being comfortable with your communication skills. In this two-day workshop, you will master the skills that will make you a better speaker and presenter.
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 job satisfaction is our relationship with others. This two-day workshop will help you maximize your potential as a support person.
Many people would like to improve their ability to feel at ease speaking in public, but they have a wishbone instead of a back bone. You are going to take this day to improve your ability to communicate with others. If you have a “can do” attitude, today can make a surprising difference in your life. This workshop is for anybody who wants to improve their speaking skills in informal situations.
This two-day workshop is designed for those who are 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. 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. The course includes several exercises where the participant will have to prepare and present speeches of varying length and with varying notice.
This one-day workshop will explore the harmful long-term effects of stress on our mental and physical health and provide suggestions for managing our individual stresses more effectively. Strategies may include changes in lifestyle, stress management techniques such as relaxation and exercise, and the use of music or humor as coping strategies.
Telephone Courtesy & Etiquette
Don’t let poor telephone skills hurt your organization’s reputation. This course teaches the importance of effective telephone techniques and how to correctly identify the caller’s wants and needs. Participants will learn how to adopt a professional, friendly tone from the initial greeting to the final good-bye--and how to handle whatever arises in between. This session uses real-life case studies, skills inventories, and personal action plans.
With a host of new challenges and responsibilities to tackle, new supervisors need training like never before. Dealing with the many problems a new supervisor encounters isn’t easy but it doesn’t have to lead to discouragement. This two-day workshop is designed to help you overcome many of the supervisory problems you will encounter in your first few weeks as a boss—whether you are a team leader, a project manager or a unit coordinator.
No matter who you are or what you do, whether at work or in the community, you are involved in meetings. And meetings are costly, even if they are held in a company boardroom. To ensure meetings are productive and worth the expense involved, three ingredients are necessary: An assurance of closure, a strong chair or leader, and accurate minutes. It has been said that if the minutes of a meeting are not accurate, then the meeting may just as well not have taken place. This one-day workshop helps minute-takers understand their role and the best techniques for producing minutes that include all the essential information needed.
The way we perceive time has a dramatic influence on our behavior. You will not be able to control it master it, pace it, or use it as a strategic factor unless you understand its impact on your life, both professional and personal. Time is absolute – that is, a day is a day, an hour is an hour, a minute a minute – but our perception of time is far from constant. The aim of this course is to enable participants to be more productive in their professional and personal lives by improving the way they manage their time and establish priorities. Participants will analyze current time use and explore ways to prioritize tasks and work more efficiently.
Train the Trainer I: The Practical Trainer
This workshop is designed to help the individual who is not—or at least not yet—a professional trainer. The focus is on the supervisor, manager or brand new trainer who has been asked to present or train a group of individuals—a task for which he or she has little prior experience. This “on the job” training can strike fear into the heart of the most skilled and experienced employee
Understanding Project Management
This 3-day program focuses on understanding project management and business process improvement. It is specifically recommended for “seasoned” supervisors or managers who are expected to fulfill their supervisory duties of “getting work done through the efforts of others” as well as work on innovative projects that focus on improvement opportunities. They are expected to add value based on their in-depth understanding of the organization, the industry and the available resources.
This workshop is a basic course for team leaders and members, designed to focus on the characteristics of an effective team player and the elements of an effective team. You will leave this program with a plan for your personal development as a team player and as a team leader, as well as with some ideas on how to improve your team. This course utilizes personal profiles, role-plays, and extensive group interaction.
As a manager at any level in business, government, or industry, you must write reports, to explain things, or to present your research findings. You may also write proposals to convince others of the value of some course of action. This two-day workshop is intended to help you prepare professional reports and proposals.
For those who must write as part of their job, being able to write well is a real career boost. Learn how to enhance your organizational profile and capture your thoughts on paper so they are strong and persuasive, but at the same time clear, concise, complete and correct.