BUSINESS SEMINARS
Employers must rely on their employees to fuel growth and
sustain a competitive advantage in the workplace. To help meet
that need, BRCC’s Workforce Services and Continuing Education
Division offers the business seminar series in the new Plecker Workforce Center on BRCC’s main campus in Weyers Cave.
Held between September and May, all seminars meet
Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until
noon.
For schedule of current (September to April) class offerings,
click here.
To inquire about offering any of these, customized to your employees,
click here.
Appreciative Inquiry is about the co-evolutionary search for the
best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world
around them. You
will learn:
-
to
systematically discover what gives “life” to a living system
when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively
capable in economic, ecological, and human terms
-
the art and
practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity
to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential.
Study “getting to yes” in the
management of people, sales contracts and disputes.
Topics:
-
Positional bargaining
“win-lose” framework
-
Principled negotiation
“win-win” outcomes
-
Alternative communication
“negotiator’s dilemma”
-
Difficult people choices
“getting past no”
Discover how to get the most from your
employees and the teams they work with. Application is most
effective when supervisors and co-workers attend this workshop.
Topics:
-
Increase efficiency to strengthen your
business and increase profits
-
Improve individual and team performance
-
Discover tools that improve group
decision-making
-
Learn why some groups fail while others
succeed
Effectively communicate your ideas in the
workplace by clearly stating your message. This seminar will
help you:
-
Make grammar work for you
-
Organize memos, reports and
e-mails
-
Understand the secrets of
editing and proofreading
-
Cope with writer’s block
Coaching for Improved Performance
This seminar will introduce participants to the principles of
coaching/counseling employees and will provide an opportunity for
participants to build coaching skills.
This seminar will help you
understand:
- You cannot coach attitudes, only actions and behaviors
- How to identify the right behaviors, before coaching
- The optimal approach to the employee
- How to create a performance contract
- How to talk to the employee using power language
Command Spanish® is
a language program for non-Spanish speakers in a variety of
occupations. This seminar will:
- Introduce participants to Command Spanish®
- Explain how individuals can effectively communicate with
Spanish-speaking employees, clients, and customers
- Introduce a Spanish vocabulary
of approximately 30 useful phrases
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Learn how to develop the
valuable skill of being able to communicate clearly, tactfully,
and effectively with all levels of employees in an open
communication environment. Topics:
-
Demonstrate good listening
techniques
-
Recognize when to use
different methods to be effective
-
Develop an awareness of
your audience and learn how to craft the message
appropriately
-
Learn techniques for
keeping control of the situation
In the professional world,
communication competence is a prized possession.
-
Uncover
what you can do to improve your delivery skills
-
Discover
how to overcome stage fright
-
Learn how
to use effective presentation organization and delivery
skills
Influence is at the heart of
most professions. Increasing others’ buy-in and commitment to
ideas, suggestions, and directives is important to success at
work. Communicate your ideas to others with credibility,
confidence, and clarity by learning to
- Tailor an influence message to meet the specific needs
of a target audience
- Select from 10 different strategies to fit the one most
meaningful to your influence target
- Add to your communication skills to maximize impact and
credibility
- Build “Power Talking” into your communication style
- Be a more prepared & self-confident agent of influence
The seminar is designed for those new
to the compensation and/or benefits field and human resource
generalists with limited exposure to the compensation and
benefits functions. The seminar provides:
-
An overview of the regulatory
requirements of a compensation program and methods and
processes which support job analysis, job documentation and
job evaluation
-
A review of the fundamentals of
employee benefits programs and an overview of employee
benefits plans typically offered by employers and the types
of plans available
-
An overview of market pricing
methodology and terminology, steps necessary to conduct
market pricing in a competitive environment and factors to
consider when selecting a market survey
Learn and practice the rules
of the road for conducting reviews. Find out how to separate
this event from yearly raises and how to connect the review to
the coaching process. Bring a sample of your company's form, if
you have one. Frequency and format(s) for the Performance
Reviews will be discussed.
Topics:
-
Preparation, the key to a
successful Performance Review
-
How to set the stage with
the employee to ensure success
-
Making the vital "coaching
for improved performance" connection
-
How to make sure the
employee doesn't see the review as criticism
-
Structuring the
conversation effectively
Participants will examine conflict in
interpersonal and small group interactions. Discussions focus
on:
-
Problem-solving, listening, and
framing in difficult interactions
-
Emphasis on managing conflict using
proven techniques for achieving win-win outcomes
-
Application to personal and business
contexts
The ability to creatively solve
problems allows people to continuously improve their work
processes and eliminate stumbling blocks to their performance
and satisfaction at work. This workshop covers a step-by-step
problem solving process, from defining the problem to creatively
identifying necessary solutions. The tools covered in this
workshop can help both teams and individuals to
Learn to achieve win-win outcomes in your
interpersonal relationships. Topics include:
-
Approaches to problem-solving,
decision-making, and resolving disputes
-
Emphasis on listening, setting
limits, and responding to interpersonal conflict messages
-
Application to relationships in the
workplace, family, and community
Proper delegating skills not only
reduce a manager’s workload, but help to motivate employees by
enabling them to take responsibility. This is an interactive
approach and will cover how to
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Know what should be delegated
-
Implement the delegation process
-
Use reverse delegation
-
Use listening and language skills
This seminar will introduce you to design and layout concepts
to improve the effectiveness of brochures and newsletters.
Theoretical and practical aspects of print communication will be
discussed. Topics:
- Layout design basics
- Using images for visual effect
- Utilizing type to sell your message
- Digital imaging and layout software
- Preparing files for printing
Understanding how we are perceived and the differences and
similarities in how we communicate are helpful tools in the
workplace. This seminar will help you learn how to use:
-
Gender awareness: How we communicate differently and how to
better understand each other
-
Communicating effectively through a professional image
-
Powerful vs. Powerless communication
-
Strategies to become more assertive
Many
employment problems can be avoided by knowing how to conduct an
effective interview. This seminar will help you:
-
Understand the skills needed to make
critical hiring decisions
-
Avoid potential losses of legal action or
subsequent dismissal of unqualified employees
-
Know what to look for in building a
strong workforce
Most business managers cite listening as
one of the most important communication skills to possess in the
workplace. Participants will learn how to:
-
Separate listening as an active skill
from hearing as a passive activity
-
Explore effective and ineffective
listening behaviors
-
Learn more about how to listen across
cultural contexts
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Do you spend too much time conducting or
participating in nonproductive meetings? If so, come to this
seminar and learn how to get the most out of meetings.
-
Develop goal-focused agendas
-
Common problems of meetings
-
Effective time management
-
Increase meeting participation
-
Becoming an effective meeting leader
When people don’t get the right message
in a form that they can understand, and on time, problems
result. The focus of this seminar will be on effective
communication that helps instill trust and efficiency.
-
Organize messages that people can
understand
-
Improve the flow of communication in an
office
-
Create an “open communication”
environment
-
Overcome the myth that more messages
equal better communication
Employees are one of the first
connections customers have with a business; therefore, it is
critical that the customer/employee interactions are positive so
that customers will continue to return. This seminar will help
you:
-
Create a positive communication
environment
-
Understand effective communication: both
speaking and listening
-
Deal with difficult personalities in the
workplace
-
Promote professionalism in the workplace
Gain knowledge that will enhance a
company’s competitive advantage by taking the guesswork out of
ensuring a better bottom line. Included in this seminar will be
the language of financial terms; the application of accounting
processes; and the conventional guidelines regarding income
statements, balance sheets, and the statement of cash flows.
Learning to read and interpret financial statements will enhance
a manager’s ability to:
Whether you are a novice or an
experienced supervisor, this seminar will help you discover some
of the most effective supervision techniques.
-
Explore
ways to orient, train, coach, and manage employees using
self-assessments
-
Discover
the effectiveness of using action plans and relevant work
examples
-
Gain the
skills and techniques needed to get the job done
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Raising enough money is an ongoing challenge for most
non-profits. This
seminar presents ways to help your organization grow and profit,
even during uncertain economic times.
Learn:
-
how to know
when you are ready to raise funds
-
planning—the
key to success
-
a balanced
attack, or avoiding too many eggs in one basket
-
the 85%
rule—where to concentrate your efforts
-
getting the
help you need
-
stewardship of what you get
During this seminar, we will explore
group dynamics, how groups and meetings can be effectively
organized, and how team processes can be sensibly managed. Bring
your team and
-
Join in group exercises and
simulations
-
Enhance your participative skills
-
Learn to improve organizational
teamwork
This seminar will introduce participants to a method for
successfully interacting with others whose ethical values and
choices cause difficulty. Topics:
- Analyzing yours and another’s point of view
- Conflict management styles
- Communication strategies
- Promoting a win-win philosophy
Getting
groups of people to collaborate to achieve a goal is essential
to the workplace. Leading groups of people in collaborative
work and assuring that the goal is achieved is the
responsibility of team leaders. This experience-based
interactive seminar will provide guidance for:
-
Leading teams effectively
-
Assigning work
-
Getting and keeping support
-
Knowing where you are with a project
-
Identifying and resolving problems that put the goal at
risk.
Learn and practice the rules of the road
for conducting reviews. Separate this event from yearly raises
and connect the review to the coaching process. Bring a sample
of your company’s form, if you have one. Topics include:
-
Preparation, the key to a successful
Performance Review
-
How to set the stage with the employee to
ensure success
-
Making the vital “coaching for improved
performance” connection
-
How to make sure the employee doesn’t see
the review as criticism
-
Structuring the conversation effectively
Learn how to improve
productivity by planning and using personnel more efficiently.
Topics:
-
Identifying causes of
non-productive time
-
Planning and scheduling
-
Organizing the project for
productivity improvement
-
Effective communication
and record keeping
Organizations that experience a continuous stream of new
products and services, as well as new ways of doing business,
more easily boost earnings, speed growth, ensure an advantage
over competitors, and appeal to shareholders.
You will receive an introduction to the basic concepts of
creativity, innovation, and cognitive diversity.
Come away with specific tools and techniques that you can
use to independently and collaboratively generate critical
business ideas.
Learn to:
-
understand
how leveraging differences in the way people think can foster
greater innovation
-
leverage the
power of two people joining forces to collaborate, through
innovation teams-ThinkerTeams
-
employ a
variety of specific, hands-on techniques, designed to change
your perspective and subsequently generate new ideas, solution
sets, and unique insights on purpose.
Inspiring employee motivation requires much more than the old
fashioned carrot and stick approach, and not all approaches fit
everyone. Today’s
leaders need to understand the reasons why employees work and
then align reward to meet the individual.
In this seminar, you will:
-
explore what employees expect from work and how the leader
plays a key role in employee inspiration to perform
-
explore the importance of a supportive workplace and the
role communication plays in motivation
-
learn how to deal with the employee who is just not
motivated!
The workplace is filled with at least
four different generations and with this mix of values and
people comes conflict, misunderstanding and frustration. This
seminar will:
-
Examine the types of generations in
the workplace
-
Identify the myths about different
generations
-
Examine what they value, what
motivates them and what doesn’t motivate them
-
Provide communication skills and
tips for helping improve the overall workplace experience
This seminar focuses on
leadership for managers in a variety of settings. This seminar
will help you understand:
-
If you lead, administer,
follow or abdicate
-
The difference between
charisma, power and technique
-
How to create
successful outcomes - even when you can't
-
Way to explore approaches
that have worked for other people in different places
-
Techniques for managing
conflict
Leaders aren’t leaders from
the beginning. Leaders understand that they can only lead with
a consensus and a “buy-in” from the Team. During this seminar,
you will
-
Uncover the vital
difference between what Leaders do, and what Managers do
-
Learn the 5 things Leaders
do (that Managers do not do)
-
Be inspired to move your
management style to a new and energetic leadership formula
that works
Nonverbal communication and
body language exist 100% of the time we are with
others. People cannot be nonverbally silent.
-
Learn to read the silent messages of
others
-
Learn how to send the messages you want
to convey
-
Discover
the impact of environment, facial expression, posture,
gestures,
touch, dress and appearance
Supervisors can be instrumental in making or breaking an
organization. Learn some of the skills that help make them
successful and valuable. Topics:
- Discover and study the 12 major traps that keep supervisors
from becoming true leaders.
- Identify the 5 key obligations every supervisor/leader has
to the people they lead.
- Develop a specific plan to meet these obligations, both
personally and as a leadership team.
- Practice specific language to utilize in the exercise of our
obligations as supervisors.
The challenge of motivating team members, while ensuring that
team processes are profitable for the organization, can be a
daunting task. This highly interactive seminar will help you
discover ways of building motivated teams that enhance workplace
success. This seminar will help you understand that:
- Management and leadership are important workplace
partners
- Easily applicable ideas can immediately be used in the
workplace
- There are ways to be uniquely motivational
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Managing today’s dynamic workplace demands leaders who are
visionaries, change agents and coaches. And that is just the
beginning! Join us for some insight into your challenging,
changing and rewarding leadership role.
-
See the big picture without losing focus on your corner of
the world
-
Make informed decisions
-
Motivate yourself – and your employees
-
Learn what to do when things go wrong
Impressions you make on
clients, colleagues and supervisors is a skill that can pay
dividends in securing a contract, meeting key executives,
working toward a promotion, and many other aspects of business
life. This seminar will focus on business etiquette skills and
tips including
-
The art of
introductions, making small talk, and helping others feel at
ease
-
Proper
etiquette for e-mails, teleconferencing and phone calls
-
Meeting
etiquette and behaviors
-
Business
dining tips and blunders
Discover successful strategies for
differentiating markets and understanding multi-segment
approaches to reaching customers. You will learn:
-
The 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix
-
Generational Segmentation Techniques
-
Targeting the Boomers, Xers, and the
Millennials
-
Using the Buyer Decision Model to
your advantage
-
Effective Branding Strategies
Morale: An Essential Element to Organizational Success
Organizational morale is one
of the key ingredients to successful production. This seminar
will cover:
-
The impact(s) of
organizational morale
-
Assessing organizational
morale
-
Improving morale at all
organizational levels
-
The dividends of having
high morale in your organization
Navigating
Change Successfully
Coping with an ever-changing
workplace requires a combination of both people skills and
technical savvy. Positive, effective leadership is never more
critical than in the midst of organizational redesign.
Topics:
-
Set specific goals for
implementation of change
-
Plan/execute a
communications strategy to support and enhance the change
process
-
Engage employees at all
levels for a successful transition
-
Establish effective
systems for measuring progress
This seminar provides a
training opportunity for Human Resource professionals, Managers,
and Frontline Supervisors who face the challenges of Performance
Management. Discussion focuses on:
-
Setting Performance
expectations/standards.
-
Writing performance
reviews and their function in performance management.
-
Rewarding and recognizing
outstanding employee performance.
-
Confronting and resolving
performance issues.
-
Dealing with “real-life”
performance management situations and outcomes.
-
Roles in performance
management – Supervisor, Manager, HR.
A
successful marketing plan comes from deliberate thought, careful
planning and thorough implementation. A suggested process for
developing a formal marketing plan for a product or service will
be provided. Topics:
-
The
4 P's of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Promotion, and
Place)
-
Strategic planning and market research
-
Identifying target markets through segmentation techniques
-
Branding and image positioning
-
Customer service
The
ability to make effective presentations is a key for business
success and personal achievement. Learn how to:
-
Present your ideas clearly
-
Organize your presentation for maximum understanding
-
Support your ideas convincingly
-
Deliver your presentations confidently
Leaders make things happen. Understanding the nature of
leadership, the importance of communication, and the impact of
leadership styles will increase your effectiveness in working
with groups. This seminar will help you:
- Understand why people work
- Discover the effectiveness of your leadership style
- Learn how to get to the truly high performance teams
- Keep a balance between tension versus productivity
- Know two secrets of production increases
Are you bombarded by information? If you attend to the wrong
information, your communication competence will decrease leading
to MIS Perception.
Improve your communication by:
-
understanding
the perceptual process
-
identifying
barriers to accurate perception
-
practicing
methods of improving your perception and creating more competent
communication.
The ability to make effective presentations is a key for
business success and personal achievement. Topics:
- Present your ideas clearly
- Organize your presentation for
maximum understanding
- Support your ideas convincingly
- Deliver your presentations confidently
Good leaders solve problems and make good decisions every day.
This seminar will cover:
- How to identify problems, find their
causes, and determine solutions
- What is included in a good decision
- Individual versus group decision
making
There’s more to business success than simply having the right
skill set. Mom was right: good manners ARE important, especially
in the business world.
You will learn:
The primary goal of quality improvement is improved
profitability. Learn to increase profits through improved
performance. Topics:
- How quality affects profits
- Practical tips on selecting solid quality initiatives
for your organization
- The importance of employee empowerment and teamwork
- Important tools for improving organizational and
departmental performance
Understand and apply basic business
management functions to successfully complete a project. You
will learn the importance of:
-
Getting an idea going as a project
-
Understanding the assignment
-
Getting support
-
Staying on schedule
-
Staying within budget
-
Coordinating and communicating within the
project
Learn the key components of the selling
cycle and how to take full advantage of the entire process.
Topics include:
-
Understanding how each step of the
selling cycle can be utilized for successful selling
-
Learning how to prospect effectively,
bringing yourself closer to the sale
-
Discovering how to overcome objections
and properly submit proposals
This
seminar focuses on the development of characteristics necessary
for successful leadership in a variety of settings. This seminar
will:
-
Explore frameworks for creating win-win outcomes in various
leadership situations
-
Review Stephen Covey’s seven principles of highly effective
people
-
Cover communication principles required for successfully
managing conflict in a variety of contexts
In
today’s organizations, employees must be skilled at relating to
one another, to vendors and most importantly, to customers.
Discussion will cover:
-
Working effectively with people
-
Making others feel valued
-
Diplomatically handling tough situations
-
Establishing yourself as a respected leader
Learn how to create SYNERGISTIC relationships among the
different Teams in your Organization. We can easily look around
our business and determine where we have a synergistic process
and where we do not. You will:
-
Uncover the
root causes of a lack of synergy
-
Prescribe new
approaches
-
Participate
in hands-on exercises that can revolutionize your business, if
you apply them.
Many
times companies and organizations make changes that impact their
operations or public image without formal planning. While the
changes may be positive, without formal planning, confusion
often follows. Having a strategic plan can help alleviate some
of that confusion and allow your organization to focus on
positive growth. Strategic planning does not have to take
months to complete. During this session you will begin to put
your strategic planning "plan" together. During this three hour
session you will learn
-
What strategic planning is
-
Why we need to plan strategically
-
Who should develop strategic plans
-
How to begin strategic planning
-
Activities to help make strategic planning more effective
Using
time wisely has never been more important. Learn how tested
techniques can help you be more effective and take stress in
stride. Discussion will cover:
Understanding your preferred behaviors and the behaviors of
others can lead to more successful business interactions. Take
the DiSC behavioral assessment and learn how to apply the
results on the job. DiSC stands for dominance, influence,
steadiness, and conscientiousness. Topics covered will include:
- What is leadership?
- Using DiSC to understand your behavioral style
- Using DiSC to understand the other styles
- How to communicate with each style
- The value of each style to an organization
- Using DiSC to build customer and vendor relationships
Considering upgrading to Vista and Office 2007?
Attend this presentation to:
As our area’s demographics change, this topic becomes
increasingly important. This seminar focuses on maximizing an
organization’s most important asset, its people. Topics:
- Working with new immigrant workers
- Examining the role of culture in the workplace
- Discovering how to deal with “cultural clashes”
- Learning cross-cultural communication skills
This training opportunity is for
Human Resource professionals, Managers, and Frontline
Supervisors who face the challenges of conducting internal
workplace investigations. The seminar
qualifies for PHR/SPHR certification credit and focuses on the “how-to” of internal
workplace investigations:
-
How to structure an internal
investigation
-
How to interview witnesses
-
How to document your internal
investigation
-
How to arrive at a fair and defensible
conclusion
Violence in the workplace accounts
for 1000 fatalities and over 20,000 non-fatal events in the US
each year. The prevalence of near misses, physical assaults,
abusive behavior, and threats of violence sometimes remain
unrecognized and unreported. Workplace violence is a major cause
of decreased productivity in the U.S. workplace but it can be
predicted and prevented. Learn strategies for prevention and
intervention including:
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