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Communication Skills Tip of the Day:  To communicate effectively check your understanding by paraphrasing, i.e. repeating what you believe the person is saying and getting their confirmation of your understanding.

Our Toronto based Communication skills training workshop provides the communication skills for performing positively and clearly to enhance your career and personal success.  Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based communication skills training and other management skills and leadership courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

Time Management Tip of the Day:  To manage your time effectively, identify activities to accomplish both short and long term goals and schedule them in a daily planner.

Our Toronto based time management skills training workshop provides the time management skills essential zero in on the areas that will provide the greatest return.  Participants develop the methods to step out of the states of overwhelm, frustration, disorder, anxiety and lack of control into the state of mastery and satisfaction.  Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based time management skills training and other communications skills and leadership courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

https://jobdesignconcepts.com/workshop/

Assertiveness Skills Tip of the Day:  To be assertive, build your confidence and your self-esteem every day by reflecting on “what’s good about you?”

Our Toronto based assertiveness skills training workshop provides the assertiveness skills essential to getting your ideas, plans and feelings across with confidence and conviction.  Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based assertiveness skills training and other communications skills courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

Business Writing Skills Tip of the day:  Before you write a business communication, consider your purpose.  What do you want to accomplish?  What do you want your reader to do?

Our Toronto based Business Writing Skills training workshop provides strategies and techniques to sharpen your business writing skills.  Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based Business Writing skills training and other Communications Skills courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

Negotiating Skills

Everything is negotiable.

Seven ideas to increase success include:

1. Determine your primary objective?  Clarify what is important to you.  Be specific.  Also consider your secondary goals.

2. Try to anticipate the other person’s objective.  Prepare questions to help discover their objectives.  Never assume….always seek to clarify and confirm.

3. Establish mutual benefits and be prepared to communicate these to motivate the other person to see the value of your position.

4. Know “when to fold ‘em” i.e. when to walk away… set specific limits. It’s OK to say, “That’s more than I ‘m prepared to do.” or “That’s more than I‘m prepared to spend.”

5. Use silence as a technique to gain more information and more power.  The other person will fill the silence with information that will be potentially useful to you.

6. Think of compromise …the 50/50 split, as your secondary strategy.  A collaborative effort where you both uncover common ground and mutual benefits is the best approach and will produce a better outcome for both of you.

7. Ask questions like:

• What will it take to close this deal?
• What will it take to resolve this conflict?
• What will it take to earn your trust?
• What will it take to satisfy you?
• What will it take to fix this?

Handling Complaints

As long as there are customers or clients there will always be complaints.  Complaints can sometimes provide valuable feedback and an opportunity to improve.  We need to be appreciative of those who take their time to bring problems to our attention.

Seven ideas to increase success include:

1. Listen.  Sometimes just having an opportunity to be heard is enough.

2. Empathize… put yourself in their shoes.

3. Apologize only once.  This does not necessarily mean you are accepting responsibility for the problem; merely regretting their inconvenience.

4. There is no need to apologize for your rules or policies.

5. Don’t attempt to justify actions or blame anyone, within or outside of your organization.

6. Ask questions to get all the facts; make no assumptions.

7. Mutually agree on a course of action.  Sometimes the course you identify is not satisfactory to the person complaining.

Business Writing

The idea is to get your message across with less effort and greater impact.

Six ideas to increase success include:

1. Before you write, consider your purpose.

• What do you want to accomplish?
• What do you want them to do?

2. State your purpose in the first sentence.

3. Replace business clichés with conversational words.

               Replace:                          With:

• along the lines of             like
• at which time                    when
• for the purpose of            for
• for the reason that            since, because
• in order to, in order that    to, so
• in regard to                      about
• in the event of                  if
• in the near future              soon,  shortly

4. Establish an appropriate tone by focusing on the reader.  Replace some of your “I’s and we’s“ with “you”

5. Accentuate the positive by telling what you can do.  Always state your ideas in positive terms.

6. Use bullets and numbers to make your writing easier to understand and easier to read.

Presentation Skills

Making dynamic presentations with confidence is an essential skill that demonstrates your leadership ability and earns respect.

Whether the intention is to motivate, to inform, to influence or to defend, the way you present yourself and your ideas is key to your success.

Six ideas to increase success include:

1. Pay attention to your appearance and your physical stance.  55% of your message comes from what they see.  If you want to be perceived as reliable or powerful, consider what clothing and what posture would contribute to that perception.
2. Vary the speed of your delivery as well as the inflection and the volume. 38% of you message comes from your voice.
3. Strive to be perceived as dynamic/enthusiastic; comfortable; believable; knowledgeable and humourous when appropriate.
4. Slow down your breathing so that your whole body becomes relaxed.
5.  Focus on your objectives and plan to overcome their objections.
6. Remember, the larger the audience the more dramatic the presentation with respect to voice inflection, body movement and gestures.

Assertiveness Skills

Many job-related frustrations and stresses can be traced to discomfort in handling difficult situations:  We may avoid dealing with these types of situations or may offend others by coming on too strong.  We need to learn to act assertively by expressing concerns directly, firmly and with composure.

Six ideas to increase success include:

1. Strive to be realistic, responsible and respectful.

2. Build your confidence and your self esteem every day by reflecting on “what’s good about you?”

3. Structure your sentence to begin with “I” followed by either “expected” or “prefer” or “need”, when you are providing feedback concerning performance problems.

4. When saying no, remember to be gracious by always offering an alternative.

5. Use three sentences to disagree diplomatically.
   1. Paraphrase to demonstrate your understanding of their recommendation
   2. Acknowledge the value of their recommendation
   3. Present your own recommendation

6. Ask questions to ensure that you work together to a resolve conflict when an issue is important to you. i.e.:
   1. What do you need?
   2. How can we resolve this situation?
   3. What would it take to fix this?

Overcoming Procrastination

Today’s greatest time saving device is sometimes tomorrow.   Procrastination can result in poor performance related to quality and missed deadlines; unnecessary stress and stress related illness.

Six ideas to increase success include:

1. Just thinking about something you need to compete is a step in the right direction. Planning how you are going to act is a big step forward.

2. Choose one action that appeals to you.  Just get started…inertia will keep you going.

3. Identify the behaviours you exhibit when you procrastinate.   Do you engage in lengthy social conversations; spend extra time reading; search for things to eat or drink?  Recognizing these behaviours will help you to realize when you are procrastinating and signal you that it’s time to get started on something more important.

4. Overcome perfection paralysis… unless you are a brain surgeon 90% right is better than 100% of nothing.  Having all the information before taking action either takes too long or is not possible.  Build your self esteem and your intuition.

5. Engage in the “dirty practice” of self-discipline by committing to someone else.  We work harder at not disappointing others.  Simply “announce your intentions” or if you really want to succeed, sign a contract agreeing to pay a large sum of money if you don’t complete the task or behaviour.

6. Use the 21 day success habit check list.  Post a visible calendar and give yourself a check each day you complete a task or behaviour After 21 days it will become habit.