Personal Effectiveness Training Course - 2 Days

We start the course by introducing the six major themes of the course, and asking you to score yourself against each one, out of ten. Then we talk about where we are strong, and where we need to get stronger.

We get into details of the six skill sets: goal focus, communication, planning, conflict, self-management, inspiring others.

We learn the power of goal focus and why it is important to know exactly what you want, AND exactly what the other person wants.

The intersection between “what you want” and “what other people want”, is the bases 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: We always strive to add value. We NEVER detract from others, since nobody will thank us or pay us, unless we add value to them.

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

There are three basic minds sets, 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 three types 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 that affect us emotionally. (Don’t Panic! = 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, and you will have to manage conflicts between others. HOW you manage them is important.

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. The question is; what does it mean to be rational, in a conflict situation. Tune-in for the next three hours and you will learn everything you need to know.

We want to rationalise the conflict, NOT emotionalise it. We want to take the heat out of the situation and get back to a FACTUAL description of the events that led up to the conflict. And we want to agree 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. Always remember to give thanks appreciation and praise. Failure give appreciation is itself a common source of conflict. We 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.

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 single habit is enough to sink their boats. 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 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.

How are you going to apply these techniques? Let us 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 peoples.

Your emotions a product of your thinking. If you think negatively, you feel pessimistic. If you think positively you feel optimistic. Nobody controls your thought 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.

Positive thinking is not a game. It produces tangible, measurable, financial, social and health benefits. Your life is run on a mixture of intellect and emotion. You get the best results when you develop your intellect and your emotional resilience. We will show you how.

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. It is your job to make people feel stronger. We will help you to 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 setbacks and defeat are inevitable. We will learn to reframe failure into feedback. We take “negative feedback” and use it to come back stronger with an improved plan. By adopting this approach, you will become virtually irresistible.

The world is changing quickly and you must be ready to change with it. People who refuse to change, will fail to make the progress they otherwise would. Many people HATE change because it forces them to change their established habits. But we are always ready to drop old-habits and implement a new set of habits that more suited to the new conditions. We are adaptive, evolutionary and progressive. This is how we will remain personally effective.

Knowing is not enough. We must apply what we know. We will ask you to go over your notes, and tell us, what ideas you are committed to applying in your life and work, for you own benefit and for the benefit of others.