Three Skills You Will Theoretically Re-Learn During PMP Exam Training
Article by Jessica Parklanes
Admittedly, the four-hour rigorous PMP examination is a multiple choice type of test. However, you will re-learn three skills necessary to become a successful Project Manager during your PMP exam training, if not in practice then at least in theory.
You will re-learn these skills precisely because you have to re-visit the five areas of expertise and the nine knowledge areas during the PMP exam training, which touch on these three skills.
Interpersonal Skills
During your PMP exam training, you will encounter sections dealing with interpersonal skills. Your skills with people are a very vital component of your success as project manager because you deal with people, first and foremost. It will indeed be an easier world for you if only you do not have to deal with human emotions and vagaries! Then again, with easiness comes boredom and stunted growth.
Your people skills should occupy the highest level of priority. There are many aspects that you need to develop before you can say with a certain amount of confidence that you are the leader of your people.
First, there is serving and helping. This does not mean that you have to reverse roles with your people; instead, you have to help them align their personal goals with the project’s goals. Second, you have to communicate. Indeed, it is said that as Project Manager, you will spend 90% of your time communicating to the team! During PMP exam training, the need for communication cannot be overstressed.
Third, you have to persuade and negotiate. These people skills are important to your success because a certain amount of compromise will have to be reached on the finer points of the means to the end. Fourth, you have to supervise and instruct. Though you can expect minimum supervision for people, you also have to provide for clear instructions and supervisory approaches to achieve the desired goals. Fifth, and arguably the most difficult of all, is mentoring your people. You have to provide a role model, and like it or not, it will be you.
Information Skills
Information is the lifeblood of any project. Without it, you and your people will be operating on blind faith, a classic case of the blind leading the blind. The process of analyzing the information and acting on your analysis lies entirely in your hands. You can re-learn the processes and rationales behind information skills during PMP exam training, too.
These will include coordination among multiple sources of data, creation of innovative approaches to problem-solving, and data synthesis. Though you probably encounter practical applications of these skills everyday, revisiting theory can be a new experience.
Tool Skills
Your skill with things, tools and other thingamajigs for decision-making comes least in the order of priority. This is not to say that you should disregard tools for decision-making. Rather, you have to see these tools in the context of their assistance towards developing your people and information skills.
During PMP exam training, you will be exposed to tools and techniques like quality audit and weighting systems. You have to take note of these tools since the PMP exam contains sections on them.
These skills are used everyday in your job as Project Manager, though you might not consciously label them as such. The fact that you can re-learn the theory behind the practice during PMP preparatory training is an added bonus.
Scenes from “Skillstreaming the Adolescent: People Skills, Doin’ Em Right”, available from Research Press: www.researchpress.com
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Leave a commentHow to Get More From Your Employees With Soft Skill Training
Article by Sarah Haines
Soft skills training can be a lot more challenging than teaching any other skill set. This is because they are skills deeply dependent on the individual as a person. Simply, they can be difficult teach because they are so heavily associated with the general interpersonal skills of the employee. These skills are incredibly important though for success, be that at work or in your personal life.
Many would argue that soft skills are basic every day things. Most would consider an ability to get on with others, good manners and dependability to be soft skills. Somebody with the right skills will be able to inspire others around them, as well as influence, strategize, negotiate and problem solve. Rather than dismissing other people’s ideas they will give feedback.
Soft skills are incredibly in any management role. Good managers know how to get the most out of their team. You will find that when making staff feel good about their jobs and inspired, soft skills are key.
Treating people with respect is the fundamental key to having good soft skills. When you are working under pressure it can be easy to just push your team and disregarding anything but the deadline, this can harm the working relationship though. That isn’t to say that it won’t bring short term benefits, tell someone that they have to do it whatever and it will probably be done, but it can make things hard in the long term.
Recognition of the importance of soft skills is becoming more common in businesses. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, it was stated that some top business schools around the country are getting it and providing their students with soft skills business courses. There are also many post-graduate leadership development courses that are highly regarded and prove highly effective in developing strong soft skills.
When promoting an employee to a management role it can be a good time for this kind of training. Sometimes an employee who excels in their particularly field will need additional interpersonal training if promoted to a team leader or office manager position. Confidently delegating things to a team is something else that a new manager will sometimes struggle with.
A lot of these courses simply look at the personal side of things and help to bring out people skills we may rarely use. Often, the real learning is enforced early in life as we define how we treat and react to others. Perhaps someone who is struggling within work relates very differently to their family and some of these skills can be harnessed in a new environment Honing and refining these skills will help to go on and create great relationships at work.
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Sales Skill Training to improve your potentiality for along run
Article by Jasmine Smith
If you are the employer or a businessperson or a simple employee in the sales field you need to know three basics skill to become successful in the field of sales. You need to know three core sales skills for the requirement on the way to success. They are three must have requirements for your sales career to gather Sales Competency. Such skills will be under your control. These are certain skills that can bring you to the peak of success as you can hold your potentiality of achievement. Corporate Sales Training helps a lot to acquire certain skills to prosper in the field of sales. Initially you need to focus on small steps, which can lead you to he success. According to many sales tycoons setting big eccentric sales goals can be very harmful at the very beginning. This is the first way to your achievement avoiding unnecessary negative internal dialog. These are certain facts that you should take under consideration. Employers take notice on such of your specifications through Online Sales Assessment or Sales Assessment Test for a better accomplishment. It is very unfortunate that a number of new sales person or fresher make a bunch of cold calls for getting result in positive. Undoubtedly this is an action of foolishness. This is not the process to have proper and perfect result for your business or sales. Even some of the pretty rude interactions can hamper your confidence and time as well making all of your effort on a vague. Even it can happen that after calling so many people you do not get any perfect appointment that make any positive sense for your career. You need to go for one with the perfection rather spreading your hands over numerous places. You need to be right at one lace rather than being wrong at various fields.
The very first step will be your convincing power to make people listen to your call and give an appointment to meet you. Getting a person to interact over telephone in a perfect manner is the first perfect step for your sales career for that time. Having one single person in a perfect manner can be judged as the realistic approach of your sales potentiality. After getting this initial potentiality a sales person should focus on the next step, which includes a commitment to daily progress. You need to compare your growth and success for all the time. From the beginning to you failure to the growth of you success you should know and acknowledge everything. This step definitely increases your potentiality and paves the path of your success. This comparison is essential for your career in a long run. If you really experience progress it is better to give a pause and make your self-compact to maintain the progress in a continuous mode. You must have the commitment to make you experience of progress certain and concrete. You should taste the progress in your career that does not mean the earning sales from day one. You can calculate the small actions producing measurable results.
The last but not the least core skill is to gain the self-responsibility and self-accountability. You are the sole responsible person for your success or for your failure. No one but you are the only one to know the matter best. No one will help you in this regard. You need to learn, practice, adapt and implement all of your skills to become a success full person. This will lead you to the way of success and commitment in huge manner in the filed of sales while improving your potentiality.
People skills training for managers – can you afford not to?
Copyright (c) 2009 Shona Garner
OK, so I have a vested interest. Yes, I am a trainer and coach – and yes, I increasingly find myself helping managers hone their people skills. But when I started out in coaching and training I hadn’t particularly decided that was to be my focus.
My focus on people skills developed because the problems, issues and challenges which people presented me with were all challenges caused by lack of confidence or skill in dealing with people. I found managers struggling with apathetic staff; with “difficult” staff; with de-motivated staff; with underperforming staff; with appraising staff, with recruiting the right staff; with how best to develop their staff and even with unsupportive line managers of their own!
I could go on! I guess you get the picture?
I conduct surveys with all the managers I work with, whether they attend workshops, or as part of a 1-1 coaching programme; and what’s clear is a huge proportion feel they would appreciate more help with the people side of management – and they are only too aware of the implications of poor people management. After all, most of them can tell you a story of a “nightmare” line manager they’ve had in the past and what the results of that were!
A recent CIPD/ACAS report in June this year simply reinforced what I am finding in my own practice. As we find ourselves in the rather quiet period over the summer break, I’d like to share some of their findings because this is I think, quite a good time to reflect on and plan your strategy for the final quarter of 2009.
You’re busy, so for ease, I’ll bullet some of the main points from the report which particularly struck a chord with me.
* 80% of UK managers have been asked to do things at work for which they feel they should have been given some training beforehand. (Skillsoft survey, 2008)
* 78% of UK employees identified line management as the job function in most need of additional training (Skillsoft)
* The UK spends less per manager on management development than any other European country (Leitch review 2006)
* Half of training and development at work is now initiated by line managers, as opposed to HR or training departments. (CIPD – Who learns at work? 2008)
* 44% of employees say their line manager rarely or never coaches them (CIPD 2009)
* 33% of employees say their line manager never discusses their training and development needs (CIPD 2009)
What are the implications of all this? Does it really matter? Does it make a difference to the outcome if a line manager is feeling uncertain how best to tackle some of the most common people issues?
Ruth Spellman, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute says this about training:
“If you think it’s expensive to have really competent people, try incompetent.”
How much does it cost you in wasted time dealing with conflict? (OPP Research , 2008, shows an average of 12 days a year are spent dealing with conflict in the workplace – more than time lost to absence).
How much does it cost you in time and money dealing with disciplinary or grievance procedures?
How much does it cost you to find, hire and re-train new staff because valuable, experienced staff are leaving?
Study after study shows a huge proportion of employees leave bosses, not companies.
What’s heartening for me is that in my experience, as with all employees, managers want to do a good job. They want to be able to encourage a culture where people communicate well, where they give of their discretionary effort, where they are committed, loyal and enthusiastic, and where they have fun, learn and produce good results.
But with the exception of a very few, naturally talented and skilled communicators (and even these will tell you there is always room for improvement!), most managers come to the role with little or no understanding of basic human psychology and how to successfully and consistently apply techniques which will ensure they get the best out of themselves and others.
So as we head for the final quarter of 2009, what are you doing to support and develop the most critical roles in your organisation?
Money may be tight – but rather than simply take the simplest, and least creative route of putting all management development “on hold”, why not take the time in these quieter summer weeks to ask a more creative question:
“How can we still support and develop our managers despite financial pressures?”
You may not be able to justify the “bells and whistles” programme you had planned – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways you can still give some support. There’s a book called “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson, which gives brilliant ways of marketing on a shoestring. Perhaps it’s time to write a book called “Guerrilla training for managers!”
As a coach, I know it’s more about asking the right questions, to help you come up with better answers! So ask yourself what you can do to support your managers in the next 3 months and see what you come up with!
After all – you might actually find you save a bob or two!
New Supervisor Training In 14 Hot Skills: Help New Managers And First-Time Supervisors With Supervisory Training Modules
New supervisor training is most effective when essential skills are delivered in intense, information-packed modules. These 14 skills are great starters. They were picked based upon the needs of new supervisors, the mistakes the commonly make, and the questions then brought to my office over the 25 years of consulting help. New supervisory training should also be available to supervisors 24/7 so they can access help on the fly, anytime they need it. There are many ways to do this with current technology, but start with the following 14 skills and build from here:
Now let’s discuss the 14 vital skills but do it “Dave Letterman” style:
Speak with clarity and purpose for maximum results. Many supervisors dread confronting employees. It’s often easier to drop hints and make indirect threats rather than initiate a face-to-face, fish-or-cut-bait conversation with an individual who must shape up, pronto.
Treat documentation as a communication tool to preserve facts and remove ambiguities.
Experienced supervisors know that the first question their boss will ask when they propose terminating a problem employee is, “Do you have all the documentation you need?”
The best answer: “Sure. I’ve built a file that documents everything completely. We’re on solid ground.”
The wrong answer: “No, but I’ll put some documentation together so we’re safe.”
Pick your battles and focus on shared goals to referee disputes effectively.
As much as you want to supervise people who get along well all the time, the harsh truth is conflicts will erupt. And when they do, it’s not necessarily your job to intervene.
Give employees ongoing feedback on their performance so that they
always know what they’re doing right—and what they need to improve.
Effective supervisors shower employees with frequent feedback.
Assessing performance is a central part of their daily interaction with
their staff. They praise superior work and provide constructive
suggestions on how employees can elevate mediocre or substandard work
into something truly excellent.
Your top priority is protecting employees and providing a safe workplace. Even if 99% of your employees are fit for duty, the remaining 1% can prove a handful. The out-of-control behavior of drug or alcohol abusers may endanger you and your staff, so it’s your responsibility to identify such behavior quickly and address it decisively. Follow your organization’s fitness for duty policy and its procedures, but have a comprehensive list of signs and symptoms that represent behavioral problems that you can refer to year round.
By choosing the right people and getting them to believe in a shared goal, you lay the groundwork for a winning team.
Building successful teams revolves around trust. People work together more effectively when they share a desire to achieve group goals without egos or rivalries getting in the way.
One of my favorite skills. Relate to the top brass on their terms and present your ideas as solutions to problems they face. Relating to upper management boils down to one critical skill: analyzing issues from their perspective, not yours.
Use empathy to deepen your understanding of the bosses’ outlook. Step into their shoes. Ask yourself: What aspects of your operation does management care about most? What do they like to measure? What pressures do they face? How do they define success?
Look for evidence to support your impression of how employees do their jobs.
There’s no substitute for observing employees’ performance. It’s an invaluable tool to assess workers’ skills, abilities, motivations and attitudes about their job.
Some supervisors prefer to study activity reports, spreadsheets and work-flow charts. But that’s a mistake. Sitting at a desk behind closed doors poring over paperwork prevents you from seeing with your own eyes how workers behave and what they actually do during their shift.
Express both good and bad input with judgment-free specificity so that it has a more positive, lasting impact on the employee.
Old-school managers fold their arms across their chest, bark orders and tell workers what they’re doing wrong. With a perpetual scowl on their face, these managers point out every mistake but rarely dish out praise.
Today’s more enlightened supervisors, by contrast, give feedback with an eye toward motivating employees. They treat feedback as a way to help fuel good performance, teach new skills and provide guidance that leads to improvement.
To boost your efficiency—and your team’s morale—hand off assignments to the right people.
Delegating is a win-win proposition for you and your employees. You free yourself to focus on what matters most, while you train and motivate your workers by entrusting key assignments to them.
Supervisors often harbor misconceptions about delegation. They equate delegating with doling out tasks to people. But it’s actually the process of having employees address meaningful projects—including ongoing duties–that go beyond short-term, to-do items.
Take an unbiased, fact-based approach when investigating employee complaints.
A litigation explosion has occurred in the past 20 years. Employers face mounting legal exposure on many fronts, from harassment to discrimination.
By investigating employee complaints properly, you can keep your employer out of court and help all parties reach a fast, fair resolution. As soon as you learn of a problem that merits investigation, speed and responsiveness are critical. Your prompt attention to the matter sends a message that you take the employee’s complaint seriously. Procrastination or putting off an investigation is viewed as negligence and apathy, even if you were just too busy at the time.
Treat disciplining as a way to educate employees and elevate their behavior, not as a form of punishment.
Effective discipline flows from clear communication. If you and your employer provide clear, written guidelines to employees on your standards and expectations for acceptable behavior, then discipline becomes a simple, straightforward educational and enforcement tool.
Your employee handbook should state your policy for responding to improper conduct or poor performance. As long as you dispense discipline in a uniform manner, you can address inappropriate or unacceptable behavior using a fair, consistent approach.
Energize employees by taking every opportunity to recognize their contributions and urging them to excel.
Every conversation with your employees produces one of three results: positive impact, no impact or negative impact. You want to create as many positive encounters as possible.
To inspire people, set their sights on a faraway goal that’s so exciting and potentially rewarding that they cannot help but covet it. Help them visualize what it’ll feel like to reach the mountaintop—to know that they gave every ounce of their effort to deliver superior performance.
Awareness of the red flags that can signal violent behavior can save lives. Know the conditions that breed violence and protect your workplace from toxic conflicts.
Much of the violence we read or hear about in the news occurs in faraway places. But when it erupts at work, it’s an entirely different type of tragedy because we may feel more control over the circumstances surrounding the situation.
It’s impossible to prevent all workplace violence. But we can become more astute at predicting when and where violence can occur—and take sensible steps to lower its odds.
Learn more …
Posted in Success Skills | FirstTime, Help, Managers, Modules, Skills, Supervisor, Supervisors, Supervisory, Training | Leave a commentJack Canfield – Peak Performance Principles – How to Boost Your Self-Esteem and Discover Your Purpose – Personal Development DVD Training Video
Student Activity Guide for Changes & Choices: Personal Development and Relations
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Posted in Personal Development | Boost, Canfield, Development, Discover, Jack, Peak, Performance, Personal, Principles, Purpose, SelfEsteem, Training, Video | Leave a commentPersonality Development Training
If one looks up the definition of Personality development, you will find different explanations but the one that sums it up to an easy and effective understanding, is the following definition of Personality development which goes like this- ‘an improvement in all spheres of an individual’s life, be it with friends, in the office or in any other environment.’
This above listed definition is a clear and simple way for anyone to follow the meaning of personality development, in fact the definition has an underlying message about the importance of personality development for an individual as well. You wonder why and you wonder how? Well, by having the words ‘improvement in all spheres of an individual’s life’, it lays importance to the fruitful aspects of having a personality-development process, this can be done via various means, be it a module to learn from, classes and seminars that one can attend, tips to follow and also, an on-going updation for personality development becomes necessary often enough, in the ever-changing world of today. In any environment, one stands out if his or her personality is one that is bright and communicative. People skills are an integral part of any personality development programme. A pleasing personality is one, that has a balance in behavior and is moderate in his or her reactions in public, while simultaneously maintain a friendly, approachable, yet sensible approach towards people. The developing personality is one that has attributes that are enviable; the ability to perform well in public and be able to hold your own and make an impression on people with your skills socially and as a good personality, is something that cannot be matched up to by any other skill.
Our Courses: 1) Presentation skills 2) Time Management 3) Communication skills 4) Assertiveness at work 5) Customer service 6) Telephone Techniques 7) Building Business relationships 
Business and report writing 9) Managing conflict 10) Negotiation & Influencing skills 11) Personal Impact 12) Stress Management 13) Health & safety at work.
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