Personal Effectiveness Training Course - 2 Days

We start the course by introducing the six major themes of personal effectiveness: goal focus, communication, planning, conflict, self-management, inspiring others.

You will be asked to score yourself against each one. Then we discuss where you feel your strengths lie, and where you need to get stronger.

We learn the first principle of personal effectiveness, is the power of goal-focus, and why it is important to know exactly what you want, together with what the other person wants.

The intersection between “what you want” and “what other people want”, is the basis of every relationship you ever have, at work, in life and in love. All successful relationships are based upon you achieving your goals by helping other people achieve theirs. That is why we start with finding out about goals.

Everything you do, will either “add value”, or “fail to add value”, or “detract value” from yourself and others. Our goal is to behave in ways that fall within the first category only. Always strive to add value, never detract from others. Nobody will thank or pay you, unless you add value to them.

In order to achieve goals and add value, we must make ourselves clearly understood. The way to do that is by communicating clearly, using specific language which cannot be misunderstood. Most people have difficulty expressing their exact meaning, so we will learn the art of clear, accurate communication.

There are three basic mindsets: optimists, critical thinkers and cynics. Many cynical people don’t even know they are cynical, they think they are being realistic. We will discuss the difference between the different mindsets, with the goal of being optimistic, critical thinkers and avoiding the trap of becoming cynical.

We are all susceptible to the power of suggestion. Unfortunately, we often accidentally make negative suggestions to ourselves and others, which affect us emotionally. For example “Don’t panic” can suggest the thought of panic. We will learn how to apply the power of positive suggestions.

Not everyone agrees with your views, so you will definitely have occasional conflicts with others, as well as having to manage conflicts between other people. How you manage these conflicts is important and this half-day session will cover all you need to know.

There are four common approaches to conflict: anger, upset, evasion and reason.

We don’t recommend anger, upset or evasion. We recommend a rational approach to conflict management. We will discuss what it means to be rational, and how to use this approach to resolve conflict situations.

We want to rationalise, not emotionalise, conflict. We need to take the heat out of the situation, by reviewing the details that led up to the conflict. Then we must agree on a factual solution. In order to rationalise the situation, we must use objective language and refrain from using emotive, opinionated, derogatory and judgemental, subjective language. We will show you how to achieve this.

We will show you how to negotiate a solution, when to give concessions and when to stand firm and hold your ground.

It is not enough to know what to say, you must say it in the right way. That means assertive voice tones, and body language. We will learn how to use gestures, eye contact, expressions and posture.

Always leave a conversation on a positive note. Remember to give thanks, appreciation and praise. Failure to give appreciation is itself, a common source of conflict. We must always appreciate what others have done.

You will have plenty of time to practice the techniques you learn, and if you wish you can get involved in a role-play, or if you prefer, you can learn by observation and listening to others. It is up to you.

We wrap up the day by asking you how you will apply what you have learned.

You have only a limited time and effort available, but you face an unlimited number of things you want to do. Therefore you must prioritise your time, money and effort. In this half-day session we will develop your time management skills to make you more productive and effective.

Many people destroy their effectiveness by falling into the habit of procrastination. We learn how to eliminate procrastination and replace it with personal initiative.

The two primary principles of time management are Value and Deadline. You must always do the most valuable, deadline-driven activity first. Many people avoid the valuable tasks, in favour of the easy tasks. In the long run that will never achieve their goals. We learn to do the right things in the right order.

It is important to identify those people and things, which waste your time. We will analyse the situation into three categories, your own bad habits, other people’s bad habits, and systems failures. We will name the causes and create definite countermeasures!

The ultimate skill is the ability to always make the right decision. We discuss the various decision types and we learn how to make quick, rational and accurate decisions, both as individuals and in groups.

• Prioritisation decisions
• Yes or No?
• Which one
• What kind
• Problem cause solution

80% of the value is contained in 20% of its content. That means that a majority of the value you add to your life is contained in small number of tasks, and the other 80% is relatively a waste of time. We will learn to apply the 80/20 rule to interruptions and to other aspects of your work.

You can’t do everything and it is a mistake to try. Learn to let go and trust others to do lower-value tasks, whilst you get on with the more important things.

This is the essence of personal effectiveness. You win by getting the best from yourself and others.

We discuss ways in which you are going to apply the techniques we have covered and make plans for a better future.

We are strongly affected by how we feel. Therefore, to be truly effective we need to become experts at managing and influencing emotions. First, our own emotions, and then other people.

Your emotions are a product of your thinking. If you think negatively, you feel pessimistic. If you think positively you feel optimistic. Nobody controls your thoughts other than you. Consequently you can choose to feel pessimistic or optimistic by controlling the focus of your dominant thoughts. We will show you how to generate a feeling of RATIONAL OPTIMISM.

Your emotions are a product of your thinking. If you think negatively, you feel pessimistic. If you think positively, you feel optimistic. Only you control your thoughts. Consequently you can choose to feel pessimistic or optimistic, by controlling the focus of your dominant thoughts. We will show you how to generate a feeling of rational optimism.

Emotional management is not merely an act of self-interest: you can use it to help others to feel more optimistic, enthusiastic, confident and able. By making people around you feel stronger, you will make life better for them too. We will show you how you can help others.

If you want to be effective, you must never become self-satisfied. There is always more to learn, and always ways to improve upon your personal best. We discuss the philosophy of continuous improvement and how to implement it into your own life and work.

We know that negative feedback, in the form of criticism, inevitably leads to discouragement. We will learn to reframe failure into feedback. We must take “negative feedback” and use it to come back stronger, with an improved plan. By adopting this approach, you will become more resilient and effective.

The world is changing rapidly and you must be ready to change with it. People who refuse to change, will fail to make sufficient progress. Many people hate change because it forces them to replace their established habits. But you must always be ready to drop old procedures, and to implement new practices, more suited to the changing conditions. By being adaptive, evolutionary and progressive, you will remain personally effective.

Knowing is not enough. We must apply what we know. We will review what we have covered on this personal effectiveness course and ask you what ideas you are committed to applying in your life, for your own benefit and for the benefit of others.