Essential Skills of Communications

Essential Skills of Communicating
(This course runs 4 to 6 hours depending on optional content)

“He was one of our top performers. Everyone loved working with him.
So why is he failing as a manager?”

It seems like a logical step. Take your top performers and promote them into management positions.
Have them transfer their individual style and success to the whole team. It can work, but it usually
does not. Why not? Because…

Great contributors do not automatically make great leaders.
Our experience has proven that the skills required to perform as an individual are fundamentally
different from the skills critical to leading a team.

For over 20 years, Vital Learning’s Supervision Series has helped thousands of organizations equip
managers with the tools they need to succeed. We know that managers who don’t have the skills
required to lead will have a negative impact well beyond their work teams. In fact, their failure can limit
the success of an entire organization.

The management skill level of first-line managers affects team member retention, overall productivity,
even profitability. It’s the relationship between team leader and team member that’s critical to the
success of an organization. And a strong relationship, built on mutual trust and respect, begins with
effective communication.

Essential Skills of Communicating (ESC) provides the tools necessary to develop clear, concise
messages. Focusing on communication as a two-way process, the program can help even
experienced managers improve their messages by making them clear, well organized and aimed at
the needs and interests of the listener. By developing the essential skills of communicating,
managers improve relations with their team members and increase productivity.

Program Description
Essential Skills of Communicating helps managers learn the latest
techniques in developing effective communication skills - improving their performance and
increasing the productivity of the team and the organization. Throughout the workshop, managers will
review video presentations and case studies, participant in group discussions, practice new skills,
and receive immediate feedback. Managers leave with implementations tools, troubleshooting
guides and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job. The 4-5
hour workshop is designed for 6-18 participants and includes the following:

Create a Climate of Open Communication
The foundation of good communication is openness. The manager’s role is to support an
environment that encourages the free exchange of open, honest communication.

Design Clear, Concise Messages
Develop messages that avoid complex and pompous language. Learn to logically organize
messages and aim them at the listener’s interests.

Manage Nonverbal Behaviors Effectively
Understanding nonverbal factors, such as voice tone, intonation and gestures, is an important part of
effective communication.

Listen to Communicate
Effective communication is a two-way process. Managers learn the importance of active listening and
the role of responding appropriately by reflecting, probing, supporting, and advising.

Course Materials include:

Facilitator Guide
•        Complete instructions on how to conduct the workshop.
•        Explanatory text for the trainer, sample trainer narrative, transcripts of video segments and
facilitation notes.
•        Facilitator Resource CD-ROM containing PowerPoint presentation, additional resources, and
reproducible pages from the facilitator guide as well as entire participant workbook.

Participant Workbook
•        Exercises, forms, skill practice aids, and a video synopsis.
•        Job Aids section with tools and resources for applying the skills learned in the workshop.
•        Memory Jogger Card providing a handy reminder of the workshop’s skill points.

Video
•        Introduction followed by a scenario displaying positive use of the skills discussed in the
program.
•        Video segments focusing on modeling positive behaviors for skill practices.
•        Scenarios in both office and industrial settings.

Essential Skills of Communicating* participants have also benefited from these other Vital Learning
programs:
•        Essential Skills of Leadership*
•        Resolving Conflicts*
•        Delegating*

* Available in Classroom, Web-based, and Blended Solutions.