THE TRAINING SHELF Launches in January 2011

The weekly newsletter will be devoted to increasing the effectiveness of business and professional interactions. The newsletter will address issues that most of us face in fulfilling our roles. Here are some of the areas that we will explore.

• Communication Skills - Most of us would agree that when we communicate, we are more successful if we can engage the audience and help them understand and retain a clear and convincing message. This is very important when responding to issues, developing reports because our communications must be clear, concise and well structured.

• Time Management - In today's busy work environment, have you ever heard anyone say "I have too much time?" There are many suggestions and techniques that we can share with each other to overcome the time management challenges that we must master to achieve our goals and objectives.  

• Customer Service - Anyone who uses your product, skills, knowledge or services is a customer Even if you are not in the tradition "business  environment", we have customers with designations such as client, patient, guest, or subscriber, boss, other department personnel, or government or regulatory agencies. These relationships are critical to the success of any organization.

• Change Management - Change, change and more change! We need to fortify ourselves to effectively manage the changes that we encounter in our businesses or profession. Change is not a discrete event. It is a continuous process always evolving and moving toward something different. Businesses, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, governmental organizations have recognized that success and competitiveness constantly require new approaches and adaptation. 

• Decision Making - The more change we experience the more decisions we must make.  On any given day, you make a number of large and small decisions that affect your life, team or organization. When decision making is addressed as a management skill, the early reaction is that only highly technical and intricate decisions require a structured approach. To achieve the desired results, we must adopt a systematic process that balances benefits and risks.

• Interviewing and Hiring - Every organization pursues the goal of hiring the right number and mix of qualified people into the organization at the right time and at the right cost. Interviewing skills are important in any business or organization to ensure the integrity of the staffing process.  

• Performance Management - after hiring, the responsibility of managing performance opens a new and wide range of issues that involve: compensation, increases, promotions and documenting reasons to for progressive discipline. When this happens, you will find yourself deeply involved with job descriptions, organizational policy and performance appraisals.

• Business Processes - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." You have heard this many times and may have even spoken the same words.  However, most proactive leaders would say, "fix it before it breaks." Process improvement, in my view, is an extension of customer service. Your processes must be efficient and effective to deliver the best possible customer service. In many instances, we perform our functions "tried-and-true way." Here is a key point; One customer complaint means that there is an opportunity to improve your processes.

• Sales and Selling - Even if your job title or function is not traditional selling, you need selling skills. You may prefer to label these skills as influencing, persuasion or argumentation. For those who are in traditional sales, specific areas such as prospecting, sales mechanics, sales processes, systems, closing techniques and negotiation skills will be explored. Many of the skills are needed by every professional at some point and developing them builds confidence.

• Small Business - Periodically, there will be topics devoted to small business because many professionals have either started or aspire to start a small business. It has been said that, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." For those who have already started a moonlighting business, you will be able to refine your business planning and avoid common mistakes, evaluate your product, service idea, location, form of ownership and other important success factors.

I encourage you to subscribe and share THE TRAINING SHELF with your contacts. I appreciate the connection that I have with you. My goal is to make that connection more valuable by helping us to share our knowledge, experience and insight so that we can achieve our goals.

Please call (228) 875-8275 or send an e-mail to discuss an Enterprise License or training program.