Tips of the week

Customer Service /Client Relations

In today’s competitive business climate, winning organizations manage their customers’ needs and expectations treating their customers as if they’re essential to the organization!

Ten ideas to increase your success in providing excellent service include:

1. Value your customers.
2. Ensure that every member of your organization recognizes that the customer/client is essential.
3. Let your actions demonstrate that you care.  Respect their perspective.
4. Communicate a positive attitude both non-verbally and verbally
5. Build rapport with customers/clients; use their names, smile or sound like you’re smiling.
6. Listen to their concerns and demonstrate your understanding by paraphrasing.
7. Develop an unemotional problem-solving style.
8. Handle complaints as a priority;
9. Follow-up and be appreciative of the fact that you were given an opportunity to improve.
10. Work to overcome procedural obstacles that punish customers/clients.

Our customer service training workshop provides strategies and techniques to resolve conflict in everyday situations.  Each training courses can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Project Management

 Project management skills encompass specific knowledge, techniques and tools to get your projects started right and completed successfully.

Six tips to manage projects effectively include:

1. Agree on clear project goals and measurable deliverables.
2. Plan activities and determine project tasks, task duration and costs.
3. Determine task dependencies and calculate the timeline schedule.
4. Develop risk management strategies and contingency plans.
5. Provide implementation plan to the project sponsor.
6. Manage changes and report progress to the project sponsor.

Our Toronto based project management skills training workshop provides the project management skills for effective project planning and control.

Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based project management skills training and other management and communication and leadership skills courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

Presentation Skills

 Whether you present in front of formal audiences or simply need to make your voice heard in a meeting, you’re using presentation skills.  Your speaking skills are essential to many influential roles in today’s business world.

Seven ideas to increase your impact in presenting your ideas include:

1. Prepare by thinking carefully about what you want to accomplish.

2. Plan and practice until you can speak confidently.

3. Match your visuals with the information you’re communicating. Never word for word.

4. Before presenting become familiar with the room and the space.

5. Be aware or your nonverbal communication like facial expressions and eye contact,

6. Watch for the audience’s nonverbal reaction and tweak when appropriate.

7. Never run late.

Our presentation skills workshop enhance your ability to address a meeting or speak in front of a client or group and communicate your professionalism.   This training course can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Professional Communication Skills

 To be perceived as honest, authentic and positive are essential aspirations.

Seven ideas to increase your success in professional communication include:

1. Refrain from gossip; either initiating of listening.
2. Avoid judging others.
3. Eliminate negativity. Everything can be presented positively.
4. Complain only to someone who can do something about the problem.
5. Abolish blaming; focus on problem solving.
6. Tell the truth; refrain from embellishing
7. Recognize the difference between facts and opinions.

Our professionalism in the workplace workshop introduces strategies and techniques to increase your ability to send the right message in every situation.  This training course can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Conflict Resolution – Confronting In Conflict Situations

 Many people are reluctant to manage conflict and say what they need to say because it may result in the other person having a negative reaction.  Looking after your needs and expressing your concerns is essential to your good health and success.

Six ideas to increase your success in confronting in conflict situations include:

1. Identify the specific offending behavior.

2. Describe the others person’s behavior that causes you concern. Be specific and describe the actions, not the person’s motives or goals.                                                        .

3. Ask explicitly for a change in their behavior. Express the need for change in positive manner, as a goal to be achieved in the future.

4. Request a small change; never a series of changes.

5. Specify the concrete action you want the person to stop or those actions you want the person to perform.

6. Always recognize and be respectful of the other person’s needs.

Our conflict management workshop provides strategies and techniques to resolve conflict in everyday situations.  Our conflicts resolution in a union environment workshop is specific designed for handling challenging union issues.   Each training courses can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Presentation Skills

 One of the most important leadership skills is your ability to clearly and effectively present information.  Whether you goal is to persuade or to inform, It’s essential to get your message or opinion across,

Five ideas to increase your success in presenting include:

1. Talk naturally– view a presentation as a conversation.
2. Vary the tone, pitch and volume to maintain the interest and to add emphasis.
3. Make eye contact.  Maintain eye contact with the individual members of the audience for 203 seconds.
4. Structure your presentation carefully.  Introduce the subject – tell the audience what your talk is about.  Explain the points you plan to share.  End with a summary of your points.
5. Answer questions honestly and concisely.  If you don’t know the answer then say so and offer to provide information later.

Our presentation skills workshop enhance your ability to address a meeting or speak in front of a client or group and communicate your professionalism.   This training course can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Professionalism

 While being professional is an obvious goal, being perceived as professional requires specific strategies and techniques.

Six ideas to increase your success in professionalism include:

1. Demonstrate your willingness to accept authority. We’re all working on boss’s or clients goals.  Say “happy to do that, however, this is how it will affect…”

2. Be a team player. Consider how you can assist others in achieving the bigger goals of your department.

3. Demonstrating commitment. Be on time; meet deadlines; provide quality work.

4. Demonstrate leadership. “Ask what needs to be done?’

5. Express appreciation. Compliment people frequently and sincerely.

6. Integrity and trust are essential. Once questioned they can rarely be regained.

Our professionalism in the workplace workshop introduces strategies and techniques to increase your ability to send the right message in every situation.  This training course can be delivered at your location or in our location in Toronto.

Contact us today to find out how our training programs and workshops related to communications skills and leadership skills can help you build your professionalism.

Time Management

Stress occurs when situations control you instead of you controlling them.  Sometimes it is the way we react to events, and not the events themselves, that trigger stress.

Nine ideas to increase success in time management include:

1. Identify the sources of stress in your job and in your personal life and minimize them.
2. Find ways to best cope with stress that can’t be eliminated… proper rest, exercise, nutrition.
3. Avoid burning out because of too much challenge
4. Avoid rusting out because of too little challenge
5. Calculate the number of hours you are capable of working and limit your hours accordingly
6. Balance your life; find time for your physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual well-being
7. Identify the priorities in your life and include daily activities related to your priorities.
8. Eliminate time wasters.
9. Use coping self talk to control anger:
   • Is this worth getting angry about?
   • Is getting angry going to help?
   • Will this be important in two years, two months, two hours?
   • What would a calm person do?

Our time management skills training workshop provides the time management skills essential zero in on 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.

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.

Leadership

Staying Professional:  Un-emotional & Problem –Solving Oriented 

We have a choice in terms of how we can respond to difficult situations.  In challenging situations we can respond with anger or frustration if we are not practicing professionalism.  Our objective should be to consistently deal with challenging situations in a calm, productive manner.

Six ideas to increase success in staying unemotional problem–solving oriented include:

1. Recognize your body’s physical warning  signals that remaining unemotional will require extra effort, .i.e. a tightness in your neck or shoulders or chest or  hands or stomach;  a flush in your face or  body
2. Take a step back mentally.  See the bigger picture.  Will this be important a week or a month from now?
3. Take a step back physically.  Reduce the extra adrenaline through movement.
4.  Buy time.  Say:    “I need to consider this.”   or  “I need to think this through.”   or  “I want to give this some thought”
5.  Anticipate your frustration with repeat offenders and plan your reaction to them.
6. Smile and say “I don’t sweat the small stuff”… and smile again.

Our leadership skills training workshop provides the skills for performing positively and clearly to enhance your career and personal success.

Contact us today to find out how our Toronto based leadership skills training and other management skills and communication courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.

Business Writing

Improving your business writing skills will result in an increase in your success!

Eight ideas to increase your success business writing include:

1. Less is more. Be concise. Use words sparingly. Get to the point quickly.
2. Avoid jargon – the eye moves past jargon without really catching the meaning.
3. Write once; check twice. Proofread after you write, and then later.
4. Pay attention to names and numbers.
5. Save samples/templates.
6. Avoid formality but master professionalism.
7. Consider describing a benefit to your reader
8. End with request for action.

Our Toronto based business writing skills workshop provides strategies and techniques to sharpen your business writing skills.

Contact us today to find out how our business writing skills training and other communications skills courses and workshops can help you build your professionalism.  Our public workshops take place in Toronto.