Training

The right balance between what you know and how you use it

Most people are burdened with excessive information about how to cope with different situations. This knowledge is rarely deployed effectively. Large assets and few accomplishments can be a major source of frustration. This gives rise to a distorted thinking pattern: since I can't accomplish much, it means that I don't know enough. Thus, a vicious circle is created.

• Less means more – reformulating your goals
• The difference between cognitive bias and reality
• How much do you waste to "generate savings"
• Things we (do not) use in reality

Giving meaning to your life

Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishment when closing a project, completing a task or achieving a set goal. We are satisfied, and we feel that our efforts make sense. When we are happy with our performance, we can easily motivate others to undertake new, difficult challenges. Goal achievement is a major source of satisfaction, but goal setting is equally important because it affects everything that follows. No matter how diligent you are in your performance, a badly set goal WILL ALWAYS LEAD TO FAILURE.

• Does your life have meaning? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Finding common ground between personal and career goals
• Life path and career path planning
• Achieving security and independence
• Road blocks and accelerators towards goal achievement

The effect of stress on customer relations and cooperation in the workplace

The sources of stress in customer relations have to be accurately identified to manage stress and minimize the related complications. We are all acutely affected by other people's stress. Different techniques are used to manage stress which emanates from others and stress which is not rooted in the environment.

• reduced tolerance to other people's opinions
• aggressive responses to refusal or delay
• growing criticism – re-evaluating opinions
• reinforcing demanding attitudes – relegating responsibility
• perceiving everything as a problem

Excessive and chronic stress

Optimal levels of stress are needed to live a balanced life. If stress is excessive or persistent, the resulting consequences will accumulate over time. Stress reactions can be diagnosed early to minimize the problem.

• stages of stress
• susceptibility and resistance to stress
• coping with stress through avoidance
• coping with stress through planning and repetition
• consequences of stress:
  • short-term drop in productivity (decision-making problems, loss of work satisfaction, perceiving the situation as a threat rather than a challenge, loss of energy caused by absent-mindedness, anxiety, frustration, negative thoughts, loss of confidence, narrow focus, deteriorating concentration, loss of problem-coping skills)
  • long-term physical symptoms resulting from a prolonged rise in adrenaline levels (loss or increase in appetite, back pain, rheumatic pain, frequent headaches, skin rash, psoriasis, asthma, allergies, sexual dysfunctions, neuralgia, inflammations, constant fatigue, heaviness in the stomach or chest)
  • emotional symptoms (fear, anxiety, mental chaos, deteriorating concentration, feeling of loss of control, gloominess, drowsiness, sleeping problems, use of alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, changes in eating habits, lower sex drive, depression, hostility, helplessness)
  • behavioral responses (louder and faster speech, yawning when rested, pettiness, nervous ticks – nail biting, aggression, irrational behavior, exaggerated reactions, lower productivity, negative attitudes, loss of objectivism, loss of concentration)

Controlling own and other people's behavior under stress – reducing tension

Emotions cannot be controlled (you can't force yourself to feel happy or relaxed), but what we can control is our behavior (the way we speak or use body language). We can't control stress because we set goals on an emotional (e.g. I can't be nervous during a presentation) rather than behavioral level (e.g. I will make eye contact and ask questions more often).

• communication under stress – using conditionals
• listening under stress - containing
• expressing opinions (transactional analysis)

Stress resulting from internal conflict

The more our lives diverge from our dreams and expectations, the greater internal tension we feel. Many people never analyze their achievements and actions in fear of disappointment. This is a mistake – by doing this, we increase our stress levels, and we give up the opportunity of improving the quality of our lives.

• life goals and aspirations vs. achievements
• optimal goals and responses

Coaching requirements imposed on the manager

This strategic part of the training relies on highly effective diagnostic tools. The managers learn to assess their own potential, select optimal development and correction methods that will motivate employees without the use of external tools such as tests or questionnaires. The importance of strategic skills and abilities is emphasized:

• establishing contact and communicating with learners
• giving clear explanations
• active listening
• questioning techniques
• providing for informative and constructive feedback
• encouraging learners to take responsibility for own development
• identifying the learner's preferred coaching style
• replacing aggressive and patronizing behavior with assertive attitudes
• controlling own and other people's emotions
• model behaviors associated with different coaching styles
  • coach I – demanding and no-nonsense. Dominating and confrontational type, prefers simple problem-solving methods.
  • coach II – analytical and hesitant. Lets-wait-and-see type. Type II competencies and perfectionism: both a strength and a weakness: how to make the most of the existing resources.
  • coach III – friendly and tolerant. A warm and open partner who has problems with setting boundaries and enforcing results. Consequences of attitudes and simple remedy methods.
  • coach IV – understanding and helping. A submissive and cooperating partner who has to protect himself from being excessively exploited. Tendency to become burdened with other people's problems.

Developing remedy measures for various coaching styles

The participants work in groups to design remedy measures for every type of coaching activities. Those measures define the most common mistakes and the most effective methods of avoiding them.

• selecting a strategy for correcting own mistakes
• developing a more flexible approach, correcting negative habits

Analyzing the employee's potential before coaching - diagnosis

• diagnosing the employee's strengths and weaknesses (defining the employee's profile in coaching)
• analyzing areas of cooperation and conflict for various employee and coach profiles
• evaluating the participants' attitudes and skills before training

Planning coaching activities on a hierarchy of needs

• drafting a skills development plan
• selecting the optimal method for regularly monitoring results and practical applications of the learned knowledge
• finding the time and the space for practicing the learned skills
• providing support to the learner

Disciplining and reprimanding employees

Difficult conversations are a source of stress for both the employee and the manager. The manager is responsible for developing and presenting his arguments and coping with the employee's disappointment. Every manager would go to great lengths to avoid such meetings, but they are necessary, and the manager has to be adequately prepared for his own and the employees' benefit.

• developing arguments – facts and confirmed sources of information
• citing facts and confirmed sources of information
• reprimanding
• proposing remedies
• setting expectations for improvement and progress
• imposing sanctions
• giving warnings
• coping with the employee's emotional response

Discharging an employee

• preparing for the meeting, documentation
• preparing arguments and responding to protests
• ending the conversation
• suggesting alternatives
• typical emotional responses in the discharge process
• communicating the fact to other team members

Communicating and implementing changes

• communicating changes to employees
• 8 principles of introducing changes
• typical resistance to change and coping strategies
• communication during the change process – providing employees with updated information

Team dynamics – the leader's impact on the group's performance

A sound knowledge of the rules that govern team dynamics enables the leader to prepare for a crisis within the group, to understand group members' specific needs and changing motivators.

• dynamics of cooperation building – principles of group development
• group members' behavioral patterns and responses in each stage of group development
• recommendations for the leader at each stage of the cooperation process
• roles played by employees – facilitating and obstructing cooperation and responsibility building
• strategies used by "disturbers" to build cooperation
• changing motivators at various stages of group development

Competent behavior – from submissiveness and aggression to assertiveness

Work effectiveness and involvement is significantly influenced by the atmosphere of the workplace. The ability to maintain positive communication and repair deteriorating relations hugely impacts performance.

• building inner assertiveness – the relationship between the sense of self-worth, aggression and submissiveness
• expressing dissatisfaction in an assertive manner that builds good relations
• building bridges in a conflict situation

Analysis of behaviors and responses in difficult situations

Every action is accompanied by a reaction of equal magnitude. You need to change your behavioral patterns in order to influence other people's responses. This is a more effective way of navigating change in your work environment than open conflict.

• define your responses: submissive, aggressive or passive-aggressive
• typical responses to the participants' characteristic behaviors
• effective actions in difficult situations

Assertive responses to aggressive behavior

In this part of the training, the participants learn specific techniques of responding to aggressive behavior. The goal of assertive action is to put a swift end to aggression without escalating the conflict.

• responding to criticism and personal attacks
• responding to justified and unjustified criticism without offending the other party
• how to behave during conflict mediation
• reducing the partner's aggression and maintaining own dignity

Assertive enforcement in cooperation

• defining the terms of cooperation (the parties' obligations, mutual interests, outcomes and consequences)
• warning of consequences in an assertive way
• defining consequences and grading sanctions

Assertive management of relations with employees

Leaders and managers build their authority through assertive problem solving and treating others with respect. This balance may be difficult to keep when the employee scores disappointing results or constantly performs below expectations. Co-workers closely monitor the way the manager handles the employee, and they evaluate the manager based on those observations. Assertive behavior enables the manager to build authority and respect for others without developing a tolerance for mistakes.


Public speaking – simulations with video analysis

Even the best prepared public speeches may not deliver the anticipated results. This is usually due to the lack of personal preparation which should involve positive reinforcement and the readiness to face a challenge. Personal preparation is not a difficult process, and all it requires is brief practice beforehand. The participants learn to objectify their perceptions about their own and other people's public performances. Difficult situations and persons become facilitators.

• source of problems in communicating the message to a demanding audience
• non-assertive attitude to authority – the number one problem
• preparing for public speaking
• reinforcing the sense of self-worth (replacing a destructive internal monologue with an assertive attitude)
• handling "disturbers" with assertiveness
• responding assertively to a difficult audience

Negotiation strategies

• Hard negotiations – typical manipulation and counter-strategies
• Individual susceptibility to manipulation in aggressive negotiations
• Distributive negotiations
• Cooperation-oriented negotiations

Preparation

• Identifying your assets (time, quality, availability, loyalty, etc.)
• Developing negotiation variants – prices/options
• Diagnosing the partner's needs and interests
• Selecting the negotiation strategy (an amateur's mistake: "if you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail")

Personal limitations

• Ambition-driven personal goals rather than business goals ("I don't deserve this, nobody can treat me like that")
• Emotional limitations ("I can't cope; he is better; they will realize that I don't know anything; I will lose my popularity and good relations")

Planning negotiations – (exercises, role-playing)

• Determining negotiation goals (always more than one)
• Identifying the partner's needs and interests
• Planning the negotiation style
• Gaining knowledge about the partner
• Planning negotiation variants
• BATNA in negotiation
• Determining boundary conditions during the preparation process
• Negotiating
• Taking the time to build the partner's satisfaction
• Relations building during negotiations

• Profile I. Motivating and demotivating leader. Consequences of our attitudes and simple remedy methods.
• Profile II. Expert leader. Competences and perfectionist attitudes – both a strength and a weakness: how to make the most of the existing resources.
• Profile III. Effectiveness or popularity – the dilemma of cooperation. The manager's contribution to negative employee attitudes. Consequences of our attitudes and simple remedy methods.
• Profile IV. Problem-solving expert – protecting yourself from being excessively exploited. Tendency to become burdened with other people's problems. Suggestions for change.

• Self-diagnosis of own profile: resources, weaknesses, possibility of change, management trends, attitudes,
• Detailed diagnosis of the colleagues' and the trainers' profiles.