|
Hot Topic trends change as quickly as organizations change focus, however there are some common trends among personal and professional development. These include Interviewing, Presentation Skills, Communication, Customer Service, Diversity and Facilitating Meetings. Currently, there is a trend to help Leaders and Individual Contributors develop networking skills to build "savvy" working relationships ...
|
Developing Organizational Savvy Skills
If you asked someone if they would like to learn to be more political, they would probably say NO. When asked if they would like to develop skills to help themselves be "savvier" about working relationships and being better prepared to move forward in their careers, often the answer would be a resounding YES.
We know that the minute that someone walks into our personal space, politics may be involved. If the decisions we make involve others, something as simple as choosing where to go to lunch becomes an exercise in politics. Without realizing it, we find ourselves negotiating, debating, lobbying and influencing others.
Being "savvy" begins with self-awareness, relationship assessment and developing strategies to move you and your agenda forward. After awareness and assessment activities, many people find that they are content with where they are. The strategy is then to stay true to what makes us content.
If we are not content, it is important to find the things we can or should do to change. Often a simple change in perspective will have a huge impact, something as simple as “networking”.
We constantly seek to find other individuals that share our common interests. Networking with current friends, making new friends or re-connecting with old friends can help an individual develop.
It is equally important to maximize your networking skills to build savvy working relationships, with people you don’t know or people who are important to your ideas and career development.
MBD Training Consultants can help businesses, teams or individuals learn to identify what being "SAVVY" is all about and to begin to develop practical strategies to maximize current work-related and personal relationships. These strategies may include:
• Understanding the need and balance of results and relationships,
• Understanding the risk of extremes to oneself and the team,
• Stepping outside of the comfort zone,
• Selling ideas to others who may have a different preference than you,
• Getting and keeping credit for work and ideas,
• Maximizing your personal presence,
• Building relationships and bridging gaps, and
• Managing what is being said about you and your team.
|
Developing, Refining and Mastering Interviewing Skills
As rates of unemployment soar, the job market is flooded with people who have been downsized, right-sized, re-engineered out of a job or simply looking for the next opportunity. As a result, for every one position that is available, there might be a hundred candidates seeking that same position.
There is only one way to ensure we are hiring the right person for the job, interview with that goal in mind.
Candidates have become better prepared about what it takes to convince you they are the perfect fit for the job. Everything a candidate needs to know to win over a hiring manager during an interview is available at the click of a mouse. To help balance the equation, interviewers need to be equally as prepared.
Interviewing is a skill—a skill that needs to used and honed to maintain a certain level of proficiency. The tools and techniques that worked in the past simply don’t work with today’s "savvy" candidates.
MBD Training Consultants have proven techniques to help you win the war for talent. These techniques will better prepare you to:
• Focus the interview on topics that are relevant to doing the job,
• Minimize personal barriers to effective interviews,
• Get “real” answers to questions and eliminate fluffy responses,
• Avoid many of the pitfalls and blind spots that interviewers face, and
• Obtain enough information to make the right hiring decision.
|
Removing Communication Barriers
How often do you think true communication occurs? What gets in the way? How can you be sure that what you say is really heard? I told them what to do, why didn’t they do it the way I wanted it done? Why aren’t they listening? Leaders across all lines of businesses ask themselves these questions every day.
The truth is, “true communication only occurs when the message you deliver is received in the spirit and way it was intended”. Each person has their own barriers to effective communication, barriers that can increase the longer we work with someone or know someone.
When these barriers are present, Performance Management is at risk.
MBD Training Consultants can help you take communication to the next level, as it relates to Performance Management. By recognizing individual barriers to effective communication and building a core set of skills, Leaders of all levels can be more effective in practical management situations, including, but not limited to:
• Establishing Performance Objectives and Expectations,
• Providing Specific and Purposeful Feedback,
• Coaching Performance Issues
|
Developing and Maximizing Effective Presentation Skills
The balance of any good presentation is to ensure your message matches both Visually, Vocally and Verbally.
Whether we are sitting in a conference room, across the desk from someone or standing up at a podium in front of an audience of 100, we need to deliver powerful presentations that are clear, compelling and effective/
To be clear and compelling, presenters need to develop skills in:
• Maximizing use of presentation content and on-the-spot thoughts,
• Mastering their physical presence in front of people,
• Planning presentations that are intended to get the desired result,
• Conquering stage fright and nervousness
• Fielding questions, including ones that may seem hostile
• Engaging the audience to the presenter's advantage.
MBD Training Consultants can help you develop MORE, BETTER, or DIFFERENT skills to get your presentations moving in a different direction.
|
Maximizing Meeting Time
Meetings, meetings and more meetings...
If you are like most people, you find yourself spending a considerable amount of your day in meetings.
Meetings to plan THE meeting. The meeting. Meetings to debrief THE meeting. Meetings to develop action plans as a result of THE meeting. Etc, etc, etc.
Do your meetings get off track? Do they get the results you are looking for? Are there people and/or behaviors getting in the way of having successful meetings? Are you trying to be a leader and lead a meeting in the same setting?
Common problems in company meetings usually center on poor preparation and/ or not effectively recognizing and managing the group dynamics that often occur.
When conducted properly, meetings are essential for building and maintaining a smooth running practice and will make your organization function more efficiently.
MBD Training Consultants can help you master the key components that drive successful meetings, by leading less and facilitating more.
Contact us today at 877-572-5959 to learn more about how we can help you develop MORE, BETTER, or DIFFERENT skills.
|
|