- Choose the ways to create rapport with negotiation counterparts.
True Blue
- Match the aspects of trust with the related trust-building actions.
On Stage
- Select the ways to present yourself effectively.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of using linguistic tools in negotiations.
Clarity Is King
- Select examples of clear communication.
Speak Their Tongue
- Choose the ways to appeal to your negotiation counterpart.
Word Power
- Match verbal techniques with examples of using those techniques.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of understanding body language.
Silent Movies
- Match body language cues with their meanings.
Walk Your Talk
- Choose the body language cues that reinforce verbal statements.
What Didnt You Say?
- Match critical body language cues with the appropriate category.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the importance of becoming an effective listener.
Active Listening
- Select the methods for becoming an active listener.
Barriers to Listening
- Identify the barriers to effective listening.
Listening Inside
- Select the guidelines for using your intuition.
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Elements of Marketing Strategy
Overview/Description
You want to develop a powerful, and well-documented marketing strategy in order to get your new product or service approved. This course is designed to give you a strong start in developing your marketing vision, direction, and ultimately a plan. Youll get an overview of the key factors encompassing the broad scope of strategic marketing. Youll be able to discuss cost structures and their influence on your marketing strategy. The impact of product life cycles on your markets is another focus. Methodology to achieve or increase profitability is another featured section of this course. Apply the best thinking and research techniques to the development of a superior market strategy plan to gain the backing you need to be successful.
Target Audience
Managers and technical leaders who have the responsibility for developing a marketing plan.
Expected Duration
3.0 hours
Lesson Objectives:
Foundations of Marketing
- Recognize the elements of basic marketing terms and concepts to situations and problems in your own organization.
- Identify the main components of key marketing terms and concepts.
- Identify internal and external environmental factors critical to developing a marketing strategy.
- Specify the market factors that pave the way to market definition and segmentation.
- Identify the four Ps of the marketing mix as they relate to the customer.
Strategic Profitability
- Recognize the value of landmark research findings for business strategy.
- Identify the fundamental PIMS rules of business strategy and their implications for market planning.
- Specify the primary factors that influence profitability.
- Identify the elements of a method to determine what products should be pushed, maintained or phased out using profit potential factoring.
Cost Drives Strategies
- Recognize the critical importance of cost structure in determining your market strategy.
- Differentiate three principle cost categories, what drives them, and what they drive.
- Summarize the cause and effect relationships between fixed costs and contribution margins.
- Specify how to determine the break-even point for a product.
The Product Life Cycle
- Recognize the importance of determining current life cycle position of products.
- Identify the five stages of the Product Life Cycle.
- Identify methods of analyzing the product life cycle stage of a product or service.
- Identify elements of market forecasting that occur with cycle indicators, research, and projection tools.
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Enhancing Listening Skills
Overview/Description
Have you ever been taken by surprise by an unexpected deadline? Have you ever left a meeting unsure about what was decided? Have you ever asked a supervisor for advice, only to later forget what your supervisor told you? You can avoid problems like these by using effective listening skills. Effective listening helps you to know whats going on in your organization, get cooperation from your co-workers, solve problems, and be successful in your work. However, most people dont listen very well. This course will help you to improve your ability to listen to others. You will learn the skills you need to understand what people say, read their unconscious nonverbal messages, and get others to want to listen to you. You also learn how to apply these skills in a variety of business situations such as interviews, business meetings, and negotiations.
Target Audience
People at all levels of an organization. This course is particularly useful to those who need strong listening skills, such as managers and team members, to be effective in the workplace.
Expected Duration
2.0 hours
Objectives :
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of improving personal listening skills.
Listening to Yourself
- Identify the best practices for listening to yourself.
Listening to Others
- Use strategies to listen effectively to another person in a given scenario.
- Match the strategies for effectively listening to others with an example of each.
Handling Emotional Hot Buttons
- Use the strategies for effectively handling emotional hot buttons, given a scenario.
- Identify strategies for effectively handling emotional hot buttons.
Lesson Overview
- Identify the benefits of getting others to listen.
Nonverbal Behaviors that Encourage Listening
- Identify nonverbal behaviors that speakers can use to encourage others to listen.
Speaking to Get Others to Listen
- Use the guidelines to encourage others to listen in a given scenario.
- Identify the guidelines for encouraging others to listen.
Confrontation: Getting Others to Listen
- Apply the strategies that encourage others to listen during a confrontation, given a scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Identify the benefits of listening effectively in professional situations.
Taking Good Notes
- Select the best practices for taking good notes.
Interviewing
- Use strategies for listening effectively to a given job candidate during an interview.
Small Group Discussions
- Choose examples that appropriately describe the strategies for listening effectively in a small group discussion.
Lectures and Presentations
- Select the best practices for listening effectively to lectures and presentations.
Course Number: comm_03_a04_bs_enus
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Asserting Yourself Professionally
Overview/Description
Do you sometimes wonder if your professional style is too passive-hesitant and weak? Or do you find yourself acting too aggressively toward your co-workers or subordinates--too critical and overbearing? Do you wonder if there is another professional style that might be better for you?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, its a good time to learn to be an assertive business professional. This course will guide you as you move into a proactive, responsible, professional style. Youll learn methods to help you identify an appropriate assertive style and strategies to prepare you use that style. Youll also learn how to implement the assertive style in your work environment. With the assistance of this course, youll no longer worry about being too passive or too aggressive.
Target Audience
Business professionals, managers, executives, and supervisors
Expected Duration
2.5 hours
Objectives :
Lesson Overview
- recognize benefits of learning change strategies for becoming an assertive business professional.
Determining Your Professional Style
- identify questions to ask to determine personal professional style.
Achieving Your Assertiveness Goal
- match the methods for achieving an assertive professional goal with the corresponding statements.
Modifying Your Professional Style
- match the guidelines for modifying his or her personal professional style with the corresponding statements.
Lesson Overview
- recognize the value of learning proactive listening strategies.
Becoming an Active Listener
- assess an interaction in a business scenario to determine whether someone was successful as an active listener.
Becoming an Effective Listener
- assess an interaction in a business scenario to determine whether someone was successful as an effective listener.
Using Questioning Methods
- apply the appropriate methods for using assertive questioning in a given business scenario.
Lesson Overview
- recognize benefits of using constructive feedback strategies.
Clarifying Your Feedback Strategy
- assess an interaction in a business scenario to determine whether someone successfully used the steps to clarify the feedback strategy.
Giving Positive Feedback
- assess an interaction in a business scenario to determine whether someone successfully used the steps necessary to give positive feedback.
Providing Constructive Criticism
- apply the appropriate methods for providing constructive criticism in a business scenario.
Saying No Responsibly
- match guidelines for saying no responsibly with corresponding statements.
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E-mail as a Marketing Tool
Overview/Description
How can you find new customers? How can you build stronger relationships with new and existing customers? How can you boost sales of your companys products and services? This course will provide you with useful strategies to help you incorporate electronic mail into your marketing approach. Learn how to communicate effectively with your customers through e-mail. You and your company will benefit from better customer relations and increased sales.
Target Audience
This course is specifically targeted at individuals who use e-mail for their personal correspondence or while doing their jobs; managers and business leaders who want to maximize business opportunities and strengthen their organization as a whole.
Expected Duration
2.0 hours
Lesson Objectives:
Marketing Opportunities with E-mail
- Recognize benefits of seizing e-mail marketing opportunities.
- Identify techniques for using e-mail as a customer relationship management tool.
- Select approaches for networking with e-mail.
- Select ways in which e-mail and a companys Web site can be used together to boost marketing results.
- Identify steps for conducting market research with e-mail.
E-mail Marketing Basics
- Identify the benefits of knowing e-mail marketing basics.
- Create an effective e-mail message using principles for writing high-impact e-mail, given a scenario.
- Identify methods of soliciting customer feedback with e-mail, using a multiple choice template.
- Recognize ordered steps for creating a targeted mailing list.
- Determine if steps have been effectively used for creating a targeted mailing list, given a scenario.
E-mail Marketing Applications
- Choose the benefits of using e-mail as a corporate marketing tool.
- Determine whether steps for developing newsletters have been effectively followed, given a scenario.
- Use e-mail effectively to get the most from trade shows, given a scenario.
- Select strategies for evaluating e-mail marketing, given a scenario.
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Effective Telephone Techniques
Overview/Description
This course provides the learner with critical information about making a good impression when communicating over the telephone. It emphasizes the importance of good telephone etiquette, offers tips for building trust over the telephone, and discusses important non-verbal actions that are present in most telephone interactions. Additionally, it helps the learner make the most out of technology when using voicemail, speakerphones, cellular phones, and conference calls.
Target Audience
This course will benefit business professionals who wish to communicate more effectively over the telephone.
Expected Duration
5.0 hours
Lesson Objectives:
Making a Good Impression on the Telephone
- Recognize the importance of making a good impression on the telephone.
- Identify examples of the principles of non-verbal communication.
- Identify examples of the principles of good telephone etiquette.
- Use good telephone etiquette in a simulated telephone conversation.
- Match the factors that impact image over the telephone with examples.
- Recognize examples of techniques used to build a callers trust.
- Build a callers trust using appropriate techniques in a simulated conversation.
Making the Most of Telephone Technology
- Recognize the importance of telephone technology to the business world.
- Identify examples of the principles for effective use of voicemail.
- Apply the principles for effective use of voicemail when presented with a scenario.
- Identify examples of the rules for speakerphone etiquette.
- Use speakerphone etiquette in a simulated meeting scenario.
- Select examples of appropriate cellular phone etiquette.
- Match the principles for the effective use of conference calls with examples.
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Techniques for Improved Time Management
Overview/Description
If you dont feel that you are the organized type, or if making lists or drawing up detailed plans doesnt come naturally, dont worry. There isnt just one way in which time can be managed effectively. This course will introduce you to several different techniques for improving your time-management skills--experiment with them, and then choose and apply the tools which best suit your own situation.
In order to achieve anything it is important to establish goals. You need to know what you want to do, before you can decide how and when you are going to do it. You then need to establish deadlines. If these deadlines are unrealistically tight, your interest and commitment in the task may be undermined, or you may experience stress which can have a negative effect on your performance. Deadlines are important, but they have to be realistic.
Making To-do lists is a useful technique, but you can end up feeling overwhelmed by the amount that has to be achieved in a day, a week or a month. It is vital to prioritize the tasks, and the Priority Matrix is a quick and effective way of sorting the urgent, from the less important.
It is relatively easy to make changes to the way in which you work while you are concentrating on making improvements, but it can be much more difficult to sustain these improvements. Once you have taken better control of the way in which you manage time, you need to find ways of maintaining this control. The final lesson in this course will provide some suggestions as to how this can be done effectively.
Target Audience
Anyone in business who would like to have more time to do the things that they really need or want to do
Expected Duration
2.5 hours
Objectives :
Lesson Overview
- identify the benefits of establishing goals and setting priorities.
Setting Realistic Deadlines
- identify methods for setting realistic deadlines.
Making Use of Lists
- identify which criteria have been applied in examples of to-do lists.
The Priority Matrix
- apply the Priority Matrix to a described situation.
Lesson Overview
- identify the benefits of using tools for effective time management.
Estimating Time Frames
- use the time frames equation to estimate the shortest possible completion time for an activity.
Improving Time Management by Sequencing
- apply sequencing to a described situation.
Using Queuing to Improve Time Management
- make recommendations for the use of queuing to improve time management in a described situation.
Lesson Overview
- recognize the benefits of maintaining control of time.
Making Decisions
- apply the PMI technique to make the right decision.
Improving Efficiency
- apply methods for improving efficiency and time management in a described situation.
Blocking Out Time
- match the types of blocking out time with examples.
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Working for Your Inner Boss: Personal Accountability
Overview/Description
Most employees in business organizations must answer to someone else. From the top of the organization chart to the bottom, nearly every manager and employee must look to a supervisor, a director, or even a customer to establish priorities, assign tasks, set deadlines, and evaluate results. Whoever gives this direction is called the boss. On one level, the boss decides how employees will perform their jobs. How well an employee meets requirements set by the boss determines whether that employee succeeds or fails, receives rewards or penalties, and earns praise or criticism. On another level however, the judgment of an external boss isnt enough to make a job personally fulfilling and rewarding. Thats something all employees of an organization decide for themselves. Everyone who works must also answer to an inner boss, a personal, internal voice that provides guidance on whether a job is worth doing and whether it is done well. Accepting personal accountability for your work means your inner boss sets demanding standards and that youre willing to commit to meeting those standards and answer for the results of your work. In this course, youll learn how to listen to your own inner boss, how to identify your internal standards, how to create a plan to meet those standards, and how to apply your inner bosss guidance to gain more control over your work, your goals, and your future.
Target Audience
Members of business organizations who want to increase their effectiveness at work while exercising more control over their own day-to-day activities and improving their ability to meet long-term personal career goals
Prerequisites
None
Expected Duration (hours)
2.0
Lesson Objectives
Working for Your Inner Boss: Personal Accountability
- identify the benefits of defining the values that drive personal accountability.
- identify the statements that demonstrate characteristics of personal accountability.
- identify examples of statements that isolate a persons motivating work values in a given scenario.
- match categories in a work values matrix with the values each one contains in a given scenario.
- identify benefits of practicing personal accountability at work.
- select appropriate examples of the elements of a personal accountability plan.
- sequence examples of the steps for validating an accountability plan.
- gain validation for a plan to exercise personal accountability in a given scenario.
- select examples of statements that should be included in an accountability self-assessment.
- present a self-assessment that demonstrates personal accountability in a given scenario.
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Generating Creative and Innovative Ideas
Overview/Description
Is creativity within everyones grasp? Are people innately creative, or is this a skill that some learn, and others dont? If you have ever watched children at play, its easy to conclude that all people start at the same level, with the same creative ability. Perhaps they lose their creative toolboxes with the self-consciousness of adolescence, or as other demands compete for attention. Whatever the reason, its important that you regain your ability to be creative and innovative. More and more organizations are turning to in-house human resources as a rich source of ideas in the knowledge economy. Indeed, the well-known mantra: People are our greatest asset has never been so accurate. This course is designed to help you to boost your creative toolbox. You will look at team methods of fostering creativity and innovation in the workplace, such as brainstorming and the Nominal Group Technique. Then you will explore techniques that can be used individually for personal inspiration, including the importance of conflict, and how nature and history can help you in your quest for greater creativity. Finally, you will also consider the importance of keeping grounded and of building on ideas.
Target Audience
Anyone who wants to be more creative and innovative at work. This includes team members and team leaders, and those who have been appointed to roles with responsibility for innovation, such as innovation directors, product development managers, and research and development specialists.
Expected Duration
3.5 hours
Lesson Objectives:
Boosting Team Creativity
- Recognize the benefits of using team methods to enhance creativity and innovation in the workplace.
- Effectively run a hypothetical brainstorming session, to generate creative and innovative ideas.
- Sequence the steps of the Nominal Group Technique.
- Apply the steps of the Nominal Group Technique to a specified project.
- Analyze the success of a given role play situation.
Enhancing Your Creativity
- Recognize the benefits of enhancing your creative potential in the workplace.
- Classify creative or innovative ideas as being inventions, extensions, or demand-led discoveries.
- Distinguish between the target and source domains of specified analogies.
- Identify the considerations used to judge the effectiveness of an analogy.
- Identify strategies for using conflict to foster greater creativity and innovation in the workplace.
Improving and Building on Creative Ideas
- Recognize the value of keeping creative ideas grounded, and incubating them.
- Make an appropriate recommendation for improving the workability of a given creative or innovative idea.
- Select the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of builds.
- Assess the effectiveness of builds on specific creative and innovative ideas, in a hypothetical business situation.
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Basic Business Skills to Get You on the Fast Track
Overview/Description
Everyone wants to get on the fast track to success. But without basic business skills, you wont even find the on ramp. To get on the fast track, you have to master the basics and build from there. In this course, you will focus on the basic skills of decision making, organization, delegation, and negotiation and learn how to apply these skills in getting onto the fast track. Without these skills or the knowledge of how to use them effectively, youre going nowhere fast.
Target Audience
Anybody who wants to advance his career
Expected Duration
2.5 hours
Lesson Objectives:
Decide to Be Decisive
- Recognize the importance of learning effective decision-making skills.
- Identify the various methods of making effective decisions.
- Identify the steps in making quality decisions.
- Identify the examples of ways to make the most of a bad decision.
Get Organized
- Recognize the importance of learning to be organized.
- Identify the ways to get more organized.
- Identify the steps to regain control of an out-of-control desk.
- Select the methods of effectively prioritizing work.
Dont Be Afraid to Delegate
- Recognize the importance of learning to delegate effectively.
- Identify examples of ways to overcome resistance to delegation.
- Select examples of ways to implement effective delegation.
- Identify the steps to effective delegation.
Negotiation Is a Conversation
- Recognize the benefits of learning good negotiating skills.
- Identify the examples of how to view and deal with the issues from the other persons perspective.
- Choose the examples of ways to view and address the issues from a neutral perspective.
- Identify the important keys to win-win negotiations.
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