Business Services – Communication Skills

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Workshop Overview

Communication is at the core of all work and yet how much focus do we give to improving our skills?.

We can propose with confidence that in every session we run where people are asked for their challenges in their role, communication will be raised. Either the firm does not communicate effectively to the managers, or the managers do not tell their teams what is really going on, or other departments are not clear on what they want, or other people’s communication is too demanding.

Communication is a challenge.

We have an innate ability to communicate but communication is also a skill which we can learn and improve. We can learn how to say things in a better way, we can learn what not to say and how to explain things clearly.

It is always possible to improve our communication skills, and this workshop is part of the ways we can do this.
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Pre workshop activity

• Meeting to discuss the participant’s needs and those of the organisation
• Draft workshop outline tailored to your needs
• Agreement of agenda
• Participants complete a short questionnaire and read the ITD Work Style Model in preparation for the workshop.

Typical Agenda

• Personal communication challenges
• The communicator’s responsibility
• Communication skills – identifying areas for improvement
• Work Style Model – understanding our approach to communication
• Work Style Model – learning about other people’s perspective on communication
• How to wind people up inadvertantly = how to mortivate them by doing the opposite
• Common pitfalls – what not to say
• The power of what we say, how we say it & non verbal communication
• How to explain complex issues
• Talking so people will listen
• Improving listening skills
• Assertive communication
• Personal actions

Post workshop activity

• Participants leave with individual actions
• Email follow up of personal action plans
• Suggested conversation with their line manager on their actions
• Optional WebEx conference call follow up on these actions
• Optional 121 coaching
• ITD blog with further tips and suggestions

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Client feedback

• “The workshop was very engaging and our guys were working on their challenges throughout the session.”
• “Good comfortable atmosphere created from the start.”
• “Achieved exactly what I wanted.”

Participant comments

• “Very interesting.”
• “I had not looked at leadership in this way before.”
• “The difference between leading and managing is very distinct now and hugely important.”
• “It has totally changed how I view my role; I am a leader first and a manager second.”

 

Call or email ITD to explore how we can help your business services people improve their communication at work

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Communication Skills – Case Study

Business services people in this large law firm mentioned communication challenges in the Training Needs Analysis.

Background

Business services need to communicate within their teams, with other teams, with external suppliers and partners, and with fee earners. The communication challenges can be many and varied.

Need

The need was to develop a workshop which would offer practical help to the everyday challenges voiced by the business services people.

Activity

We developed a one day workshop with follow up, which gave the participants time and space to explore their challenges, the underlying issues and to listen to ideas and tips.

Typical questions put to the training consultant were:

• How can we improve relations with x department?
• What do we do when a highly stressed lawyer talks to us in what we feel is an inappropriate manner?
• How do we get noticed or listened to by partners?

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