With online meetings, our work environment and how people work together is different. The following Concordia Consulting On Demand programs offer team-building and skill-building courses that can be tailored to your specific needs and provided virtually. 

With all the change, some employees are busier than ever, but others have time to pursue professional development. These tailored programs can be offered to even one person at a time and they are ready right now!

Increasing Positivity and Decreasing Stress:

• Module I: Misconceptions About Happiness and Stress Reduction 
• Module II: Our Expectations and How They Create Joy or Stress 
• Module III: Our Biases and Our Backgrounds  
• Module IV: What It Takes to Really Reduce Stress  
• Module V: Implementation  
• Modules VI to X: Sticking With Your Own Commitments to Yourself

Increasing Engagement During Virtual Meetings: 

• Start With the Basics — Lighting, Volume, Background
• Work With a Co-facilitator
• Use Polling, Breakout Rooms, White Boards, and Screen Sharing to Increase Effectiveness
• Practice With Messaging and Private Messaging
• Practice Before You Are “on the Hill” and “in the States”

Facilitation Skills: 

• Including the Right People in Meetings and What to Do When the Wrong People Attend
• Setting a Realistic Agenda
• Finding Common Goals When There Are Competitors in the Room
• Developing a Common Purpose
• Increasing Engagement and Overcoming the Norm
• Preparing Questions in Advance
• Handling Disagreement
• Working Through Passivity
• Voting Techniques
• Using Chat Rooms When Presenting Virtually
• Overcoming Resistance

Email Taming and Best Practices: 

• When to Use Email and When to Use the Phone or a Webinar
• Email Etiquette Regarding Timing
• Your Email Signature
• Who to CC and BCC
• Response Time and Your Industry
• Out of Office Responders
• Importance of Subject Lines
• Email Lives Forever
• Your Server and Your Email
• Best Practices in Your Organization

Leading High Performers: 

• Allowing High Performers Autonomy
• Creating Ways to Provide Positive Public Feedback
• Creating Development Opportunities
• Promoting the Positive Work of Employees

Giving Feedback to Anyone, Anywhere: 

None of us work in isolation, and all of us have bosses, colleagues, vendors, and employees we need to effectively interact with. 

• How do we share our observations? 
• How do we tell them that we are upset? 
• What happens if they yell at us, shut down, cry, or walk out of the room when we tell them?
• What if you had a model that made it easier to give feedback and more importantly, made it more likely for the person to hear it?

In this workshop, you will learn and practice a model that will help you give feedback to the most easy and open people at work, as well as those who are not.

Blame, Shame, and It’s Not My Fault!: 

• Our Natural Inclination to Blame
• Separating Blame and Accountability
• Why Organizations Struggle With Accountability and How Accountability Helps Trust and Performance

Goal Setting: 

• Goal Setting and Priorities
• “Chunking” and Making Intermediate Goals 
• Defining Smart Goals
• Writing Goals and Creating Ways to Measure and Revise

Hiring the Best Talent: 

• Interviewing Skills
• Using Your Network
• Keeping Your Pipeline Filled Even When There Are No Positions
• Considering the Best Methods of Advertising
• Creating Diversity in the Applicant Pool
• Conducting the Screening Interview
• Legalities to Remember
• Preparing Scenarios
• Staying in Communication Without Making Promises
• Welcoming the New Hire

Delegation Effectiveness: 

• How to Transition from Doer to Leader
• Managing People Who Are Already Leaders
• Delegating Is Also Managing Up

Managing Up:

• Your Role in Creating Culture
• Being Candid Without Being Upset
• Excellent Organizations Have Unified Teams
• Sharing Your Perceptions Tactfully
• Why We Don’t Manage Up
• If Not Now, When?

Writing and Delivering Motivating Performance Appraisals for Managers:

• Setting Realistic Objectives
• Keeping a Weekly/Monthly Journal
• Communicating Expectations Throughout the Year
• Building Trust and Dialog Throughout the Year
• Developing Questions That Promote Dialog
• Documenting Wins
• Utilizing the Self Appraisal
• Incorporating the Self Appraisal Into the Document
• Brainstorming Areas for Growth
• Conducting Performance Appraisal Discussions for Over Achievers
• Conducting Challenging Performance Appraisals

Managing Disagreement and Conflict: 

Using the Thomas Kilmann Conflict Mode Indicator, you will learn more about your conflict management style.

• How Others in Your Work and Personal Life Perceive You
• How to Find Common Ground
• How to Influence Others
• How to Impact the Outcome of Decisions and Behavior

Presentation Skills: 

• Defining Your Purpose
• Creating Clarity Around Your Audience
• Establishing Rapport in the First Minute
• Creating Appropriate Visuals and Supporting Materials
• Recognizing the Difference Between Presenting, Lobbying, and Testifying
• Preparing Questions in Advance
• Preparing for Difficult Questions
• Preparing for Difficult Audience Members
• Role Playing and Practicing
• Reviewing Your Work and Getting 1% Better Each Time

The Art of the Anecdote

This session will be devoted to helping you craft and deliver your own story.

• Effective presenters draw us in by involving our emotions.
• While data is critical to their message, what’s often lost is the emotional message. What is the human plight? 
• How are you integrating stories into your briefings, testimony, and meetings?
• What stories make you relatable and influential?