Executive Communication: 3-day course

Transcription

1 Executive Communication: 3-day course Please see below an outline for our Executive Communication course, which is available as an in-house training course for your staff. The course will be tailored to your company needs. Introduction If you re not communicating, you re not managing. American employers, taking part in NACE s Job Outlook 2010 survey, ranked communication skills at the top of the skills they seek in potential employees. The American Management Association recently asked its members what skills go to make an effective leader. Number one skill way ahead of the others was communication (84%). Interestingly, numbers two and three motivating others (56%) and team-building (46%) also rely on effective communication. What s more, 60% of executives who responded listed lack of collaboration as their top leadership challenge. Management is no longer a matter solely of command and control. Our success depends, more than ever before, on other people. Managers must now work with the structures of matrix management and networking, outsourcing and partnerships. We must influence people to act, often without being able to wield power over them. Our organisations are networks of conversations. The quality of our work depends directly on the quality of our conversations. How can we communicate more effectively? How can we begin to improve the quality of our conversations at work? This programme answers those questions. Programme Objectives You will learn how to: understand the core principles of effective communication; identify our preferred communication style; develop behavioural adaptability; influence others and develop a collaborative approach; improve the quality of conversations at work; and

2 chair and participate in effective meetings. Method and Approach This 3-day programme offers a dynamic and collaborative view of executive communication. This event is intensely interactive. Participants will apply the skills explored on the course directly and immediately to their own situations. The course is supported by a comprehensive manual covering all aspects of communication, offering a list of resources for further work, including links to web resources. The use of flip-charts, syndicate workshops, questionnaires and feedback sessions will encourage a fully participative and enjoyable event. Who Should Attend Managers whose effectiveness depends on their ability to communicate well: first-lline managers, team leaders, sales managers, project managers and anyone who needs to influence others without direct managerial authority

3 Course Content Day One: What is communication? How do we model the communication process, and how can we understand communication better? In this module, we investigate what it means to communicate, how people communicate on three levels, and how the discoveries of psychology and neuroscience can help us influence each other more effectively. Two models of communication two models of communication revising our view of communication Communicating on three levels identifying three levels of communication effective behaviours on each level Building rapport what is rapport and why is it important? instant rapport and how to achieve it breaking rapport Practical work: establishing and breaking rapport What s your style? Push or pull? Emotional disclosure Four communication styles Practical work: identifying our preferred communication styles Influencing and motivating Behavioural adaptability Matching and mixing styles six patterns of persuasive behaviour Practical work: applying patterns of influence in different situations and with different styles

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5 Day Two: The core unit of communication at work is the conversation. Our organizations are networks of conversations, and the quality of our work depends directly on the quality of the conversations we hold. Yet most of us have had little or no training in the art of conversation. In this module, we analyze conversation and explore techniques for improving our own conversations. How conversations work Why conversations go wrong key factors for success and failure identifying how to improve our own conversations Practical work: analyzing our own conversations Putting conversations in context objectives time place assumptions working out the relationship Setting a conversational structure first-stage thinking and second-stage thinking a four-part structure for conversations Practical work: structuring conversations Advocacy and enquiry the two dimensions of conversation seven ways to improve our conversations Practical work: applying the seven principles

6 Improving our listening skills assessing our own listening skills six ways to listen better Practical work: active listening The skills of persuasion the three modes of appeal what s the big idea? bringing the other person with you structuring your ideas bringing your ideas to life Practical work: making a case Building collaboration adversarial thinking and how it arises a strategy for transforming competition into collaboration Practical work: translating conflict into collaboration

7 Day Three: Meetings are at the very heart of management. It s in meetings that we make the key decisions to drive the business forward; in meetings that we build commitment in others to the strategies that will make our organization more successful. Yet more time is wasted in meetings than in any other activity at work. How can we make our meetings more productive, more efficient, and let s admit it! more enjoyable? Fundamental rules of meetings what is a meeting? how groups work the three golden rules of effective meetings Preparing for the meeting preparing as the Chair preparing to participate Practical work: checklists for meeting preparation Creating an effective agenda what is an agenda? why have an agenda? improving the agenda Practical work: improving an agenda Chairing the meeting leadership in meetings opening the meeting managing agenda items closing the meeting challenging situations

8 Participating well using the skills of advocacy and enquiry stating your case three ways to encourage participation in others Practical work: running and participating in a meeting Improving the meeting s thinking thinking about thinking problem-solving in meetings helping the group think better Practical work: solving a problem in a meeting