Personal Development Training Course - Two Day

Definition: What is Personal Development?

Personal development is the systematic improvement of professional skills, in order to get the best performance from yourself and others.

Self-development training is the key to a better future

YOU are the most influential person in your life, because wherever you go, you are always there.

The best way to improve your circumstances is to improve yourself, in terms of better goals, better communication, planning and motivational skills.

How can you get the best performance from yourself and others?

On this course we will focus on developing the six most important skill sets:

• Self-development: self-awareness, self-control, self-motivation, self-determination
• The ability to inspire others (leadership skills)
• Effective performance management
• Better planning and time management
• Clear accurate communication
• Setting and achieving goals

Goals are the starting point of all achievement

Setting and achieving goals

Personal effectiveness relies upon setting clear goals.
We will discuss why goals are so important.
What happens to motivation if the goal is non-existent or hazy?
What happens to motivation if the goal is clear and distinct?

Our goals must Add Value to others

Everything you do will either

• add value
• fail to add value
• detract from value

Our goal must be to always Add Value to others.

The difference between a wish and a goal

Many people mistake their wishes for goals.

We discuss what distinguishes a wish from a goal, and we will create a template for effective goal setting.

Goal setting by means of 8 Part Smart

We will formalise goal setting into a practical tool that you can use every day to:

• Express your goals
• Discover what others want
• Plan for the future

Impression Management

Every day you leave an impression in the minds of others. People judge you based on two things:

• Everything you say
• Everything you do

We will discuss, “How do you want to be perceived by others at work?”
Decide what impression you wish to leave, and then act accordingly.
Practical exercise in impression management: personal branding.

The correct and incorrect use of humour

Some people use humour in the wrong way.
We want our humour to add value to the situation.
We will discuss when it is right to laugh, and when it is NOT right.
We will talk about “The Team Clown”.
We will talk about “The Smiling Assassin”.

Developing your Personal Communication Skills

Communication is the accurate transfer of information and ideas.
Vague or ambiguous communication will cause errors and frustration.
Therefore, it is important to master the art of accurate language.

How to express your exact meaning

It is important to be able to explain yourself with absolute clarity and accuracy.
We will show you a simple, three step method that you can use to improve your written and spoken communication.

Practical exercises to improve the accuracy and precision of your language.

It is important to master the art of accurate language

Affirmative vs Negative Language

Affirmative language tells people what is, negative language tells people what is not.

Many people spend too much time talking about what they don’t like, can’t or won’t do.

Instead of that, train yourself to talk about what you like, what you can do, and what you will do.

Distinguish the Critic from the Cynic

Cynics are negative thinkers with a negative impact.
Critics are negative thinkers with a positive impact.
We must NOT become cynical; but we need to develop our critical thinking skills.
We will discuss the role of critical thinking at work and how to ensure that our critical thinking ADDS VALUE to the organisation.

Negative vs Positive suggestions

Don’t panic - suggests panic.
Don’t worry - suggests worry.

It is important to avoid giving negative suggestions.
Instead frame your instructions in the positive sense.
Practical exercises in reframing negative sentences into the positive sense.
Don’t panic → Stay calm.

Action planning

How can you immediately apply the course material at work and at home?

Develop your ability to handle conflict and difficult people

Conflict is inevitable. It is inevitable because not everyone shares your views. Everyone has their own opinions about what is good, right, fair and funny. Consequently, people disagree.
You must know how to deal with conflict situations in a RATIONAL, not emotional way.

How to manage negative emotions

Conflicts often degenerate into negative emotions.
We need to prevent the negative emotions from taking over.
We need to know how to take the heat out of the situation.
When in conflict, do not use opinionated, emotional, subjective language.
Instead, use only factual, non-emotional, objective language.
We will explain the difference between objective and subjective language.

How to use Objective Language in a Conflict Situation

We will practice changing everyday ANGRY, UPSET language into fact based, objective language and how to use it in real-life conflict situations.

When in conflict:
Keep it simple, keep it safe.

Prepare Your Words in Advance

When in conflict, it is important to decide exactly what you will say, before you say it.
Don’t just blurt-out anything that comes to mind.
The more you say, the more likely you will say something wrong.
Keep it simple, keep it safe.

Distinguish Between Reasons and Excuses

There is no such thing as a “reasonable excuse”.
It is either a reason, or an excuse.
We will differentiate between what you should take as a reason, and what you should dismiss as an excuse.

When to compromise and when not to

Know when to find a middle ground compromise. Know when to “hold steady” and stand firm.

Five real life situations on which you can practice your new skills

We will show you five real life work scenarios and we will discover the best ways to handle them.

You can then put your new skills into practice.

Excellent body language and voice tones

Body language means; eye contact, posture, hand gestures and facial expression.
Voice tones means; volume, pitch and rate of delivery.
We will discuss these various factors and determine the best advice.
How will you improve your voice tones and body language?

Always finish on a positive note

It is important to remember The Power of Praise.
Appreciation is free to give and costly not to.
Always take the time to say, “Thank you, I appreciate it”.

Action planning

How will you put this material into practice?

Time Management and Personal Effectiveness

Time management is the art of doing the right things in the right order.
You are a limited resource; facing an unlimited demand.
Therefore, you need to make good decisions about how you will prioritise your time and effort.

Operate according to your plan, not your mood

Success comes by doing the most VALUABLE things first.
Not the easiest things first.

Don’t automatically do the easiest things, first.
Instead do the most VALUABLE things first, even if they are not easy.

How to overcome procrastination

Procrastination is when you put-off doing what you know you should do, simply because you are not in the mood.
Procrastination is the opposite of time management.
We will discuss; in the long run, what happens to the procrastinator?

Prioritisation: How to prioritise properly

Effective people judge tasks by two criteria, by Value and by Time.

When deciding how to prioritise your time and effort ask two questions:

1. What is the Value of the task?
2. What is the Deadline Pressure for this task?

We will show you how to prioritise your tasks into four categories.

Distinguish between 'busy-work' and 'productive-work'

Busy-work is work that keeps you occupied, but is relatively non-productive.
Productive-work is high value, but not YET deadline driven.

How to deal with time-wasters

There are three categories of time wasters:

1. Your own bad habits
2. Other people’s bad habits
3. Inefficient systems

We will discuss strategies to deal with all three types.

How to handle interruptions and low value distractions

We live in an age of distractions.
Everyone wants a piece of your brain.
Learn to concentrate your mind onto a point, without allowing it to be distracted by trivia.

Delegation is the art of entrusting a task to another

Proper Delegation

Delegation is the art of entrusting a task to another.
You cannot do it all.
You need others to do things for you.
You need to be able to effectively delegate certain tasks to others.
We will help you to delegate the right task, to the right person.

How can you improve email management?

Top tips on how to manage both incoming and outgoing messages.

How to create a “track to run on”

Without a track to run on, you will run off course.
We will show you how to write your daily priority planner.

The 80/20 principle and its application to personal effectiveness

The 80 20 Pareto principle tells us that majority of the value, is to be found in a small minority of the content. You need to find the 20% of the task content, that will account for 80% or more of its value.
We will help you to do that and become more efficient.

Gain the maximum value, in the minimum time

You are a limited resource, facing an unlimited demand.
Therefore, you need to find the maximum value, in the minimum time, without causing offence to anyone.

How to put these ideas into practice

Personal action planning.

Personal Effectiveness and Emotional Intelligence

Emotions affect behaviour.
If you can manage your emotions, then you can improve your performance.
If you can inspire positive emotions in others, you can improve their performance too.
We start with managing our own emotions, since you cannot manage other peoples’ if you cannot manage your own.

Your emotions are caused by your thoughts

Your emotions (feelings) reflect your dominant thoughts.

Simply put:

• Positive thoughts create positive emotions
• Negative thoughts create negative emotions

Emotional intelligence is based upon your ability to manage your thoughts

We show you how to create a positive mindset and how to maintain it, during tough times

Create and sustain a Positive Mental Attitude

Attitudes are habitual thought processes, which can be changed.
With effort, negative thought habits can be transformed into something more positive.

Create a positive mind-state and maintain it, especially during tough times

Conversation Control

There is a relationship between the words you use, and how you feel. Therefore, controlling your conversation is the best way to manage emotions.
We will learn how the needless repetition of negative thoughts, can be replaced with something more optimistic and productive.

Practice exercises

Change the way you speak, and you will change the way others feel.

The Five Part Success Formula

Success is simple, but not easy.
Success comes from the consistent application of five words:
Purpose. Plan. Action. Feedback. Change.

How to Transform Failure into Feedback

You can become almost unstoppable, when you learn how to transform “failure” into “valuable feedback”.
How to transform “Destructive criticism” into “Constructive criticism”.
We will show you how to benefit from setbacks, difficulties and defeats.

How to “Stack the Odds” in your Favour

To a certain degree, your life is affected by chance. But you can stack the odds in your favour by doing and saying the right things, whilst avoiding “rookie mistakes”.

Personal Development Plan

Draw up your personal development plan, by listing all the things you will do differently as a result of learning the material we have covered on this course.