Developing Your People

A single employee with chronic performance problems can dominate a leader’s time and drag down the productivity and morale of an entire work group.
This course builds leaders’ skills in handling chronic performance problems. They learn how to document and present a solid case for needed improvement and use effective interaction skills to discuss performance and provide ongoing feedback and support. Leaders identify the steps to take after the performance problem discussion and determine if it is necessary to impose formal consequences.

What does trust have to do with business success? Everything. Trust is directly linked to employee engagement, retention, productivity, and innovation. Leaders who demonstrate trust and trustworthiness inspire higher levels of performance and commitment to team and organizational success.
This course introduces Trust Builders, actions leaders can take to build and sustain trusting relationships, as well as common Trust Breakers that can erode or quickly break trust. Applying these skills to build trusting relationships enables people to take risks, identify and solve problems, and collaborate to achieve business results.

Effective coaching is one of the most important drivers of team member performance. Whether leaders are guiding people toward success in new or challenging situations or helping people improve or enhance their work performance, their ability to coach and provide feedback makes the difference between mediocrity and high performance.
By helping learners understand the importance of three coaching techniques and how to effectively handle both proactive and reactive coaching discussions, this course helps leaders have more effective and efficient coaching discussions.

The need to coach can happen at any time. In these moments, wouldn't it be great to have a go-to approach for coming alongside people and helping them reach their goals?
This course shows leaders how to flex their approach to meet the unique needs of the people they're coaching, right where they are, and guide them in successfully achieving a goal. To have this kind of positive impact takes a trusting relationship, and that means coaches must have a better understanding of the other person and themselves. Through self-insight tools, leaders explore their mindset toward others' potential to grow and change as well as their own willingness to open up and disclose. They learn how to use simple, memorable coaching techniques that involve asking provocative questions, connecting at a human level, and energizing people into action. Through either a choose-your-own video scenario or a describe-your-own situation, leaders practice the coaching techniques along with communication skills in real-time conversations that prepare them for any type of coaching moment.

Organizations need leaders who can do more and be more in order to succeed in today’s complex environment. They need First-Level leaders with strong interpersonal skills who can get things done by mobilizing and engaging others.
This foundation course for helps leaders communicate effectively so they can spark action in others. The course teaches leaders the Interaction Essentials they need to handle the variety of challenges and opportunities they encounter every day in the workplace and beyond.

Many organizations focus on technical skills as all-important to success in the workplace. Yet strong interpersonal skills are equally essential in transforming employees into exceptional performers who have a greater impact in their roles.
This course provides individuals with a powerful set of interaction skills that enables them to communicate more effectively with colleagues and customers and, in the process, build trust, strengthen partnerships, and achieve desired results. This foundational course is a prerequisite for many of the courses in the Interaction Management® system.

Much of a leader’s work is accomplished through daily conversations with team members and others. These interactions, especially the tough ones, often involve intensely personal feelings (on both sides) that have an impact on the practical outcome of the conversation and the personal connection between the leader and the person. The leader’s level of emotional intelligence—the ability to manage oneself and one’s relationships—is a critical factor in the success of these tough conversations.
In this course, learners recognize that they can enhance their emotional intelligence by balancing “heart” and “head” in their tough conversations. They can address the heart by considering and responding to others’ feelings; they can engage the head by guiding conversations toward the desired business outcomes. Through high-energy activities, videos, and discussions, leaders learn flexible communication skills that will help them balance heart and head in all types of conversations, whether communicating face to face, by phone, or remotely.

Delegation is a critical skill for leaders in today’s “do more with less” business environment. Fewer resources, changing motivations, virtual employees, and global workforces are just a few of the challenges leaders face as they attempt to meet ever-increasing workplace demands.
In this course, leaders learn the skills they need to address these challenges, gain the commitment of team members, develop individual skills and abilities, and enhance the overall capability and capacity of their teams and, ultimately, the organization.
Leaders learn to identify the tasks they need to delegate, select the most appropriate individuals, assess capabilities and commitment, and plan the delegation discussion. That discussion includes the level of decision-making authority, amount of support, and methods for monitoring progress and measuring results.

Development is critical to attracting and retaining talent, driving employee engagement, preparing future leaders, and ultimately ensuring the success of the organization. Clearly, development is just as important to leaders as it is to their direct reports.
In this course learners are introduced to a practical process to guide their own and others’ development-planning efforts. The outcome is a meaningful development plan that supports the organization’s current and future business needs.

In today’s complex and competitive environment, it’s no surprise that 70 percent of workplace change initiatives fail. For workplace change initiatives to be successful, organizations need leaders who are able to turn resistance into commitment and inspire team members to take ownership of change.
This course provides the skills and resources learners need to accelerate the process of implementing change with their team members and to create an agile work environment where people are more open to change.

Research tells us that employee engagement is the primary enabler behind the successful execution of any business strategy. And, no one affects engagement and retention more than the employee’s immediate leader.
This course provides leaders with a model to determine what drives each individual’s engagement, as well as methods for proactive engagement and talent retention. Participants learn how to conduct “engagement conversations” and “retention conversations.” They explore ways to offer recognition and create an engaging environment using no-cost “everyday engagers.”

When sharing feedback is part of an organization’s culture, it is an effective business tool that reaches across all levels. In this course, individuals learn how to effectively deliver both positive and developmental feedback. They also learn how to be receptive to feedback and to listen to accurately understand the speaker’s intended message.
In the workplace, these skills help them to optimize and sustain their own and their coworkers’ performance.

In their fast-paced work environment, individuals often fail to see the impact their interactions with others have on their own success, their job satisfaction, or the success of the business. In Interaction EssentialsSM for Leaders, participants learn when and how to use interpersonal skills that will enable them to prepare for, lead, and participate in a variety of interactions that are critical to accomplishing work goals.
Using these skills also helps individuals build stronger relationships at work with peers and team members and even outside work with family, friends, and the community. This highly interactive web-based course, which takes less than one hour to complete, is a prerequisite for many of the courses in the Interaction Management® system.

Sound decision making in today’s tough business environment demands much more than just coming up with or picking the best alternative or option. It requires analyzing potential problems or opportunities and making sound judgments based on analysis.
Using an engaging simulation, this course teaches a logical decision-making process that addresses the critical elements that result in high-quality business decisions. Participants will develop the skills and confidence to generate options and compare them to important decision criteria, and to select the best course of action. Utilizing this process will also help individuals avoid the pitfalls that often undermine high-quality decision making.

Today’s business environment challenges organizations to increase productivity, improve quality, shorten cycle time, and reduce costs. An unfortunate but natural byproduct of these challenges is conflict. While conflict can lead to discoveries such as new ideas and innovative breakthroughs, it can, if allowed to escalate, result in damage to critical working relationships.
This course teaches learners how to recognize the signs of escalating conflict and take appropriate action to minimize damage. Leaders are introduced to two resolution tactics—coach and mediate—and practice using the Interaction Essentials as they coach then mediate to resolve a conflict.