assertiveness & influencing
outline
A large part of individual effectiveness is the extent to which an individual believes, and has confidence, in him/herself and how this shows in their behaviour.
Assertiveness is getting what you want without affecting other people, or yourself, in a harmful way. Influencing is working effectively with others, using your personal style to best advantage with their personal style.
Being assertive with others, influencing them in constructive ways, you will be able to achieve results beyond anything you could achieve individually. Many people are unable to do this, ignorant to a very large degree of the impact they are having on others, and unwilling to spend the time and energy learning how to be assertive and influence others to better effect.
aim
To understand assertiveness and influencing and how to reflect this in behaviour
objectives
- To understand assertion, passivity and aggression
- To analyse how these are reflected in behaviour
- To examine how this behaviour affects others
- To become highly-aware of personal style
- To develop the ability to better influence others by tuning and changing behaviour
outcomes
- The ability to stop some unconscious, ineffective aspects of your behaviour immediately
- Decisions about how to behave more effectively, acting on these decisions
- Understanding the effect of your behaviour on others and how to alter this for better results
- Ability to moderate your style with different people in different situations to be more effective
dealing with change
outline
Change surrounds us and permeates our lives. We choose whether it just happens to us or we manage it when it does. Many fear or dislike change, rather than managing it they expend energy in, usually futile, resistance. Some change is imposed, some we choose. Just because we choose it does not mean that accepting it and dealing with it is easy. Much change is unstoppable, that does not mean that it cannot be slowed, understood and harnessed.
An interesting facet of change is that it never, ever, has the results predicted. The gurus of the future are always proved wrong in significant ways. This is because people, complex and unpredictable as they are, change change itself.
It is also because: MTBD > MTBS - The Mean Time Between Decisions is greater than the Mean Time Between Surprises. In most organisations it takes longer to make a decision than it does for the assumption on which the decision is based to change in some unforeseen way. All change brings opportunity as well as threat. What makes the difference is how you look at it, how you think about it and what you decide to do. Ask yourself: is this an opportunity or a predicament. If it's an opportunity, what can I do to benefit from it. If it's a predicament, what can I do to change it, or not be harmed by it.
Change often has people reacting emotionally, becoming trapped in their feelings. Your feelings about change are a signal that you could use your thinking skills to plan a route through the change.
aim
To be able to anticipate and plan for change
objectives
- To understand the mental processes which occur when change is imminent
- To analyse what causes anxiety, worry or fear and what can be done about it
- To develop the ability to look ahead and anticipate change
- To be better able to use the thinking, rational part of the brain when dealing with change
- To improve in making practical plans to manage effects of change in a constructive way
- To work on how to be an initiator rather than a victim when change occurs
outcomes
- Improvement in your thinking processes, and your confidence to act, in situations of change
- Better ability to gather and analyse information and plan and deploy resources when change is present
- Understanding how to analyse risk in a realistic way
- Be able to do all of the above in a conscious, rational manner
authenticity & personal attributes
outline
How we present ourselves to the world makes an immediate, and often lasting, impression on others. Authenticity is your best bet in doing this. However, for many people, being themselves is difficult in situations where they do not feel completely safe.
The way we appear, the ways we dress and act, our manners, our attitudes, the way our experience and values inform our behaviour: all combine to give other people an impression of who we are. These impressions may be accurate, or not, but once made it is difficult to change them. People read us through our behaviour: the person who is always complaining, the one who never laughs, the one who always gets people to think, the person who offers support; people are noticed and assessed on their personal attributes and the ways they express them in their behaviour.
Personal attributes underpin everything else: all our skills, learning and experience has as its foundation our presentation of ourselves to the world. For people in positions of authority this is crucial and is one of the reasons why so much emphasis these days is put on spin and PR: some of it a valid attempt to place the subject in the best possible light, some of it a blatant attempt to deceive. You have a great degree of control over your personal attributes and approach. Manners, tact, grace under pressure, courage, cheerfulness, directness, honesty, humour, thoughtfulness, risk-taking and so on are all completely within your control.
It is important that people in authority over others have self-knowledge and understand what their presentation of themselves says. Their credibility, and ability to work effectively with others, rests in large part on this.
aim
To understand how you present yourself to the world
objectives
- To be more aware of the personal attributes you possess
- To be able to present yourself in the best possible light
- To understand what attributes are seen as important by others
- To be able to modify your approach if and when it is not effective
- To be able to be authentic i.e. yourself
outcomes
- Awareness of your personal attributes and becoming better at expressing them in your behaviour
- Understand the practical relevance of this to your performance
- You will stop wasting energy trying to fake it
presentation skills
outline
In today's world, particularly at work. presentation is an essential skill. If you can present with knowledge and experience, and be interesting and informative, you will stand out.
The ability to communicate your message effectively, and leave favourable impressions with your audience, is a blend of depth of knowledge of, and familiarity with, your subject matter, your experience, the ease with which you put yourself across, how you use seriousness and humour, the way you dress, act and speak and what you don't say, as much as what you do say. Stillness plays a part.
Good presentation is not limited to the content of what you are presenting but includes your tone, pitch, volume, musicality, animation, variation, pauses, gestures, movement, stillness, the media you use and the way you inter-act with your audience. It's a performance.
aim
To develop and improve your presentation skills
objectives
- To understand the components of effective presentation
- To raise your awareness of how you come across
- To enable you to be able to be your relaxed self when exposed to an audience
- To receive specific, structured feedback on where you are effective and ineffective in your presentation
- To improve your ability to work an audience
- To understand how to plan and prepare a presentation
outcomes
- Ability to use the components of effective presentation in all your presentations
- Confidence in your ability to present to any audience
- You will receive information which will enable you to tackle weak areas in your presentation skills
- You will be more able to think on your feet
- You will understand the difference between show and substance
pressure, conflict & stress
outline
The ability to manage pressure, stress and conflict is becoming more important by the day as we face increasing pressures in the working environment and results become ever more important. Inner conflict and inappropriate external demands cause stress, eroding our ability to deal effectively with other people and with difficult situations.
The management of pressure, stress and conflict is something that can, and should, be done minute-to-minute through our lives. It does not require specialist knowledge, simply self-awareness, some training, a strategy, some tactics for emergencies and the willingness to invest a little time on an on-going basis. The results yielded can be out of all proportion to the time invested.
Much pressure, stress and conflict at work is hidden but the results are visible and appear on the balance sheet.
aim
To develop your ability to manage pressure and stress and understand and manage conflict productively
objectives
- To understand how conflict leads to stress and how stress leads to conflict
- To understand how unresolved inner conflict causes external conflict and other problems
- To analyse what your optimum levels of stress are
- To explore what your personal style is with regard to conflict and its resolution
- To identify tactics to use when you are under stress
- To understand the links to assertiveness and influencing
outcomes
- Understand the equation for stress and be able to use it appropriately
- Recognise and break the vicious cycle of stress - conflict - stress - conflict . . .
- Understand what causes you inner conflict
- Be able to resolve inner conflict and express confusion, difficulties or concerns appropriately
- Develop tactics to release your stress and stop it building up to the point where you become ineffective
- Identify those people and situations which cause you stress and be better able to anticipate them
- Plan rationally what to do when experiencing stress before you become emotionally ineffective or helpless
taking effective action
outline
In today's high-pressure, fast-moving, competitive world there are huge pressures on us to take decisions more and more quickly. Individuals find themselves agreeing to do all sorts of things which they then either fail to do, fail to do by the agreed deadline or do in a less than adequate way. The corresponding drop in credibility affects their self-confidence, their professional performance and how others regard them.
To be able to be decisive, taking appropriate action with the right amount of information, analysis, risk-analysis, input from others and required urgency, is rare.
Those who consistently take effective action under pressure are unusual. Sometimes it means acting immediately, sometimes it means waiting. Knowing the difference, and using personal judgement to decide, is a valuable skill.
aim
To understand how and when to take effective action
objectives
- To understand the mental processes you go through prior to taking action
- To identify situations when you take ineffective, or no, action and what drives this
- To clearly understand the difference between thinking, feeling and doing
- To identify situations which require you to take effective action and understand what to do in these situations
- To improve your thinking processes and your confidence to act
outcomes
- Better ability to gather and analyse information and plan and deploy resources
- Understanding how to analyse risk in a realistic way
- Able to do all of the above in a conscious, rational manner
- Understand when taking effective action means doing something, when it means not doing anything and when it is a mixture
- You will have greater understanding of the importance of timing
