PROFESSIONAL IMAGE
Etiquette Essentials for the Contemporary Workplace
In today's professional environment, responsibilities often extend beyond the workday into the evening, and beyond the workplace into the social arena. Whether it's client lunches, networking evenings, or business conferences, most professionals find themselves, from time to time, in the "social business arena." However, these occasions sometimes trigger insecurities. Where do we sit at a social event? Who gets introduced to whom? What is the best type of handshake? When and how should I present my business card to international clients? How can I make it clear to my client that I intend to pay for the meal? What spoon do I use for my dessert?
Grace Under Pressure: Professional Protocols
We all need to be aware of how our behaviour is being viewed by others, especially clients. It’s no secret that clients and colleagues are using the behaviour they see to form their lasting impressions of you. Feel comfortable in conveying your best self by learning the why, when, where, and how of professional protocols. These “rules” of office behaviour are not restrictive; in fact quite the opposite is true. Knowing what the expectations are, and knowing how to meet them provides a foundation of confidence and composure that enables personal expression without the worry of: “am I doing this right.”
Professional Presence: Communicating Confidence
To be self-confident in professional and social situations is a feeling of freedom- freedom to be you. To be encumbered by concerns of how you look, how you act, what to say, how to say it, etc. constrains your willingness to get involved, to be creative, to be assertive, ultimately to be yourself. This workshop takes the pressure off by giving you the easy to implement strategies of looking your best, conversing with confidence, and dining with grace. Learn how to network for results, listen to create goodwill, and make introductions with flair. Knowing you’re making the right impression with ease and comfort provides you with the psychological and emotional space to be yourself. This workshop is designed by choosing elements from our other full day workshops to create a customized experience for participants.
PERFORMANCE COMMUNICATIONS
Art of One Way Communication: From E-mail to Voice Mail
How are you being perceived through email, text messaging or voice mail?
Learn the simple to implement skills of organizing a one-way transmission to motivate another to pay full attention to your message. The organisational structure (when to say what) assists tremendously with comprehension and retention of even the most complex of ideas. Impress all with your ability to simplify the complex, get to the heart of the matter, and motivate receivers to want to pay attention.
Attitude: The Power of Choice in Your Life
Take charge of your attitude and take charge of your life with new strategies for beating negativity, eliminating doubts, and setting positive goals. Understand the power of thought, and its impact on prompting emotion. Recognize that thoughts are a choice, and that the right choice leads to better decisions and better outcomes.
Being Effective through Assertive Communication
Are you submissive, aggressive or assertive? Find out where you fit and why assertiveness is the best way to achieve your goals. Learn the words to use, the secrets of body language, and how to interpret other’s behaviour to make positive assertiveness a productive force in your life.
Customer Service for Field Service Technicians
Communication is at the heart of an excellent customer experience. The customer's first impression is based on appearance and initial behavours. We teach professionals the importance and easy to implement strategies to create an outstanding and lasting impression. The initial greeting and small talk at the beginning of a customer interaction paves the way for more productive communication later on.
The next phase of an excellent customer experience is communication that makes customers feel they are important and understood. Again, we teach how to communicate in a way that's effective and supportive no matter what the circumstances. Making sure the customer knows you understand and care creates an open and honest climate which allows for greater clarity, fewer misunderstanding, and enhanced productivity.
Learn to communicate via email and telephone to promote cooperation and effectively resolve issues that are deemed difficult. Recognize that conflicts will happen in the workplace, our goal therefore is to be at our best when it’s most required of us. Learn to use your positive attitude and communication skills to reduce tension, deal with emotion, and make for a more stress free professional life.
Customer Service: Making the Most of Interactions
You provide superior customer service when you can identify your customers' wants and then exceed them. But the question is; how do you identify your customers' wants? You do this by watching for, identifying, and maximizing moments of truth. Once you see these windows of opportunity, you look for and analyse your customers' meta-messages - the real messages they are sending. This is done by using such strategic communication techniques as active questioning and kinesic analysis. When you are able to identify, and then exceed your customers' needs and/or wants, you have the tools for building and enhancing solid customer relationships. Inevitably though, some customers can be more challenging than others. We'll also discuss ways to identify potential customer service problems before they turn into conflicts, and identify strategies that can effectively defuse difficult situations.
Difficult Clients: Thriving in Difficult Situations
Client negotiations can sometimes leave us feeling frustrated when we feel the client is being unreasonable. Our responses in these situations will have an impact on the present negotiations, engagement with the file, future business, and so on. Dealing with difficult clients requires that we be at our best under pressure. To engage clients with tact, diplomacy, skill, and compassion are the hallmarks of learned communication competence.
Our responses to these clients must be based on professional integrity and assertive communication while still maintaining a supportive communication climate.
We need to explore the underpinnings of unreasonable requests and behaviours in order to understand them and move ahead with supportive professionalism.
Getting Past the Gatekeeper: “The Doctor Will See You Now.”
Gaining consistent access to your physicians requires a lot skill, knowledge, and persistence for a pharmaceutical sales rep. And the first step in this process is cultivating a relationship with the doctor’s gatekeeper. Learning what works and what doesn’t from the gatekeeper’s perspective is the cornerstone to building alliances with these front line professionals. This program is designed to highlight the do’s and don’ts of accessing doctors from the perspective of those who make these daily decisions.
Learn the attitude and behaviours seen conducive to access and learn to avoid the ones that unwittingly limit access. Garner a perspective that informs your successful behaviours and see for yourself the difference the little things can make. We’ll explore areas that may affirm your successful interaction choices; may shed light on some you know you should being doing but aren’t; and, we bring to awareness some interaction behaviours so far untried.
This interactive program uses the results of gatekeeper interviews in five key areas of visiting the office. We explore the actions and dialogue of good and bad performance, but very importantly we uncover the hidden sub-text of the interactions. The importance of the attitude, the unspoken, and the thoughts of the key individuals involved informs the emotions and the ultimate behaviours of both the rep and the gatekeeper. Typically reps feel their interactions with gatekeepers are in keeping with the rules of civility and professional conduct, and yet some succeed more than do others. To find out why some succeed more with gatekeepers, find out what the thought process is and what really motivates gatekeepers to be generous rather than protective.
Listening: The Emotional Power of Being Good
Learn how to expand your listening capabilities and become a more effective communicator. Listening is a learned skill that typically has been ignored as such; consequently, it’s our worst communication skill. Learn to take in greater amount of information, hear what’s not being said, and build relationships in this powerful session.
Workplace Writing Made Easy: Organization and Clarity
Anyone who works at a desk knows the importance of good writing skills. This course is just what you need to write clear, concise business letters, memos, emails and reports. Professionally relevant activities and basic do’s and don’ts will have you writing like a pro as you discover the secrets to well-written sentences and learn how to quickly organize your thoughts.
Too much writing and too little time is the recurring challenge of the busy professional. Learning how to focus your main message and bring it to your readers’ immediate attention are the keys to fast and effective business writing.
