Attitudes Make or Break an Organization

When you think of workplace attitudes you must ask yourself the simple question: would you want an employee who is extremely good at his or her job but has a bad attitude or an average employee who has a positive attitude? I believe the overwhelming response would be for the later because we all have learned the hard way that bad attitudes can reduce the effectiveness of ones organization. The fact is that skills can be taught but an attitude is often difficult to change. The question often asked is what is an attitude? To some it's a mindset, a way of thinking but that's only partly right. The bigger picture is that an attitude is a habit of thought. It defines how one looks at their world and workplace. What employers want are people with attitudes that think "I can," not "I can't." This one day seminar is devoted to the building blocks that lead to positive attitudes. Our trainer will show participants how to find, keep and maintain an approach that leads to a positive outlook. This highly interactive course includes interactive session as well as self evaluations to help individuals create an open mind and heart to developing a more productive, meaningful work life. This session will look at:

  • How does one understand the importance of having a positive attitude
  • How to develop and maintain positive feelings and thoughts in the workplace
  • How a positive attitude leads to more productivity and a commitment to doing things right
  • How attitudes impact and influence those around us
  • The relationship between positive attitudes and internal and external customer satisfaction
  • Identifying personality and attitudes - our true "colors"
  • Creating personality matrix-the value of it
  • Emotions and attitudes
  • Anger-when, why, how, who
  • Attitude "revamp", a process and project
Controlling Stress and Emotions to Make Better Decisions

Few would ague that life and work are hard enough without the complications surrounding self-defeating emotions, behaviors, and habits. The multiple forces that bear down on us every day can eventually take their toll. No wonder people often feel anxious, resentful, taken advantage of and even trapped. This one-day seminar is intended to help participants understand how to stay focused on their goals, whether work or personal, while ups and downs occur around them. Participants will gain insight into developing ‘personal' flexibility to deal with uncertainty and to find meaning in what they are doing. This seminar will focus on the important personal skill of emotional self-control. Participants will learn about what role emotions play in their life, the ways they are expressed, how to manage emotional ups and downs, to deal with stress and how to handle crisis situations. Over the course of the day, the class will learn how to make ‘better' choices at work and elsewhere, how to practice self-discipline, and control emotionally difficult situations. In addition, others issues to be covered include:

  • Build confidence by learning to respond correctly to difficult situations and people
  • Explore ones attitudes and how to use anger constructively
  • Control how one reacts to emotional situations presented by other people
  • Embrace how to ‘let go' of the old and accept change
  • Learn to eliminate habits that tend to pull you down and work against you.
Effective Recruiting, Interviewing, and Employee Selection
This one-day program is designed to assist participants in avoiding the pitfalls associated the hiring process. The course will provide individuals with insight into how to begin the recruitment process and ultimately selecting the right employee. Participants will learn how to analyze job descriptions and specifications to avoid legal roadblocks. Other items covered include: maintaining records to protect yourself and the company, how to handle face to face interaction during the interview, the ins and outs of pre-employment testing, and reference checks. The course will provide you with:
  • How to employ various interview techniques to get the information you want and need
  • Recruitment challenges and trends
  • Preparing for the interview
  • Avoiding the legal traps in the hiring process
  • Learn how to begin and end an interview and ask the ‘right' questions
Human Resource Basics

This one-day seminar is intended to provide individuals with a broad overview of human resource issues confronting people in leadership capacities. The class will explore a range of personnel issues from developing job descriptions to selection and hiring practices. Participants will gain insight on supervisory issues such as discipline, training, evaluations and terminations. This session will review the key employment law issues and federal regulations such as discrimination and equal employment law practices impacting organizations. The issue of the importance of developing and maintaining effective policies to guide an organization will also be discussed. This class is important for anyone with supervisory responsibilities. Some of the areas to be covered include:

  • Understanding the importance of developing effective job descriptions
  • Conducting effective interviews, selecting and hiring the best candidate
  • Developing workable employee orientation programs
  • Policy manual do's and don'ts
  • Key to effective discipline
  • Understanding and reducing violence in the workplace
  • The pit falls of employee terminations
  • Discriminations and equal employment opportunity
  • Handling harassment in the workplace
Managing Multiple Projects and Priorities
This course is designed for individuals who are challenged with having to manage multiple projects, at work and after work. The purpose of the course will be provide participants with better organizational and time management skills, which can lead to improved their work performance and, in turn, that will improve their overall satisfaction and self-esteem. Some of the topics to be covered in this one-day session include: setting personal goals and objectives, establishing priorities on and off the job, how to deal with competing priorities, how to define and measure success and how to plan for success and improved performance, understanding what productivity "killers" are and how to avoid or effectively deal with them, and using work "planners" or organizers. This class is a must for anyone who is faced with managing competing tasks and priorities.
Performance Appraisals: Meeting Today's Challenge
The purpose for this seminar is to provide participants with a clear understanding of the importance of employee evaluations and the process to follow in preparing for and conducting appraisals. The session will focus on the following key strategies:
  • How to prepare for a performance appraisal
  • The things to do and not do in conducting the actual interview
  • What to say and not say in a performance review
  • How to better manage discussion difficulties that arise during evaluations
  • How to keep the evaluation focused and on track
  • The importance of establishing performance goals for employees
  • Setting and conducting follow up discussions
  • Proper record keeping
Presentation Skills 101
This one-day series is designed to assist board members, managers, supervisors, or individuals interested in learning the key skills necessary for program presentations, facilitating and directing discussions or meetings in order to create the greatest possible impact. Participants will learn how to improve their presentation and listening skills, as well as, how to better manage negative and disruptive behavior. Emphasis is placed on both the preparation of content and delivery. Topics covered include:
  • The tools of public speaking (voice, body language)
  • The blueprint of making presentations (the SPAM model)
  • Researching your topic
  • Practice and critique
Presentation Skills 102
This one-day series is designed to assist board members, managers, supervisors, or individuals interested in learning the key skills necessary for program presentations, facilitating and directing discussions, or meetings in order to create the greatest possible impact. (Presentation Skills 101 is a prerequisite to taking this course). Participants will learn how to improve their presentation and listening skills, as well as, how to better manage negative and disruptive behavior. Emphasis is placed on both the preparation of content and delivery. Topics covered include:
  • Using the "blocking" technique to help organize your presentation
  • Effective use of audio/visuals
  • Practice and critique
Recruiting and Retaining Key Employees
If you have ever faced the task of seeking to fill crucial positions at your company, then this course is a must. Participants in this one-day training session will gain an understanding of strategies to take in seeking and filling key vacancies as well as how to retain those key employees when hired. Some of the highlights of this program include: what the best applicants are looking for, how to create a work environment that keeps people happy, how to answer those tough applicant questions, how to assess your own retention strategies, learn some of the best practices on retention, how to structure, conduct, and score interviews, and the problems to avoid in background checks. This course is a must for any personnel involved in the hiring and personnel decision-making.
The Workplace and Harassment
This seminar is intended to be delivered on-site and is offered in half-day segments. The program provides participants with a general knowledge of the importance of understanding and eliminating harassment in the workplace. Participants learn that harassment comes in many types, such as age, race, sex, and gender. Participants are exposed to the often-subtle aspects of how harassment enters the workplace.
Workplace Attrition: Preparing Your Organization for the Inevitable

Our workplaces are undergoing significant and rapid changes within the workforce. We are increasingly being challenged by retirements and resignations which impact how we continue to carry on our daily business. With the ever looming challenge of workforce change and the out bound movement of Baby Boomers and the in bound shift to a younger workforce we must identify means for maintaining continuity and eliminating the loss of valuable knowledge. It is essential that organizations identify means for transitioning their workforce while maintaining service to their customers. While there is no way to be totally prepared for this eventuality, there are actions that can be taken to help mitigate problems. Some of the topics to be covered include:

  • Understanding why retention is critical to an organization's long term operation
  • The importance of developing a sense of unity in the workforce
  • Leading in a multi-generational workplace
  • Motivating employees to share knowledge, expertise, and information.
  • Methods for collecting information to prepare for anticipated labor shortages
  • Methods for retaining younger and newer employees

COURSE OUTLINE (7 Hours)

Schedule Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. -- (5 minute break every hour)

9:00 a.m. Welcome / Course Overview

  • The impact of retention in the workplace
  • Multi-generational issues

12:00 Lunch

12:30 Part 2 - Key Actions for Successful Succession Planning

  • Strategies that encourage the sharing of information in the organization
  • Attracting and retaining a new employee
  • Summary, Action Plans, Evaluations

4:00 p.m. Adjourn