Tel: 0844 394 8877

Boulden Management Consultants

Core Communications Skills  >  1-Day Courses

Essential Communication Skills

Training in communications skills

Communicate with clarity and confidence

One-Day Course

Course Brochure Download
Essential Communications Skills brochure
  • Learn how to avoid being manipulated by aggressive people
  • Understand the importance of ‘outcome thinking’
  • Master communication tools for dealing with peers, managers, and customers.

Overview

The focus of the course is on improving interpersonal skills when dealing with people on a ‘one-to-one basis’. Participants will learn how to listen fully so as to understand other people’s viewpoints and how to put their own point of view clearly and succinctly.

Learning objectives

By attending this highly interactive one-day course you will:

  • Gain an insight into the ‘golden rules’ of effective communication
  • Understand how communication is structured
  • Use the concept of ‘behavior labeling’ to take control of a meeting
  • Acquire specific assertiveness skills to make your point firmly but politely
  • Master powerful techniques for coping with verbal attack patterns

Who should attend?

Any employee who wants to have a thorough refresher course on how to communicate effectively. Also those who have had little formal skills training and who wish to acquire a methodical and professional approach to communicating persuasively with others.




Day 1

The psychology of communication

What is going on inside a person’s head (their state of mind) is crucial to good performance. Here we consider the mind-set and beliefs of the expert communicator.

  • Examining your current beliefs
  • Reviewing expert beliefs
  • Making changes that you feel are appropriate for you

Exercise: applying the ‘affirmation technique’

Understanding Transactional Analysis

In the 1960’s Eric Berne developed a model of personality, which he called Transactional Analysis [TA]. We can use Transactional Analysis to recognise and understand our own thoughts, feelings and emotions and these insights can develop an understanding of how habitual thought patterns affect the way we communicate.

  • Understanding ego states
  • Charting transactions
  • Ulterior transactions - the hidden message
  • Bullet Proof Glass technique

Pairs exercise: series of pair’s exercises on assessing ego states and charting transactions

Outcome based communication

Communication tools for putting your point of view across in a firm, clear and polite manner.

  • Well formed outcomes
  • Behaviour labelling
  • 3 step assertive technique

Pairs exercise: pairs exercise on the 3-step technique

Testing understanding

Checking that you have fully understood the other person’s point of view and that they have understood you

  • Summarising
  • Remaining silent
  • Observing non-verbal behaviour

Exercise: role-play on observing non-verbal behaviour

Gaining acceptance

Making it easy for the other person to listen to you and accept your point of view.

  • Fogging
  • Broken record
  • Workable compromise

Pairs exercise: mastering the fogging technique

Attack patterns and the structure of manipulation

How to apply the tools of outcome based communication, testing for understanding and gaining acceptance to handing aggressive, challenging and manipulative behaviour

  • The structure of manipulation
  • 8 common verbal attack patterns
  • Possible counter measures

Pairs exercise: series of exercises for dealing with attack patterns

 

Customisation

All our programmes are run on an in-house basis and (where appropriate) we conduct interviews and facilitate focus groups to gather information with which to write bespoke case studies that precisely reflect the culture and work environment of the participants.

Feedback

Feedback is based upon peer review using a Boulden assessment checklist. Completing the assessment checklist is not only valuable to the people involved in a given case study, it also helps those completing them to gain an in-depth understanding of the building blocks that make up an outstanding communicator.


Remote Training

All of our workshops can be delivered as Remote Training via e-learning modules plus Zoom based virtual workshops. Please see our Virtual Training page for more information.


Contact

Further information on this course is available by contacting
Boulden Management Consultants:
via our Contact form
Tel: 0844 394 8877