COMMUNICATING FOR RESULTS

Communicating for Results is a two day intensive course covering both effective business writing and verbal communication. This is a course designed for groups of up to ten delegates. The outline is as follows:Day 1 – Effective Business Writing

The first day is geared toward one central aim – to ensure that all future written communication produced by your people is read, understood and acted upon quickly. This is crucial when their writing is under such intense pressure for the time and attention of the reader during the busy working day.

The session combines classroom based practical learning with individual 1:1 coaching.

Topics covered include –

· Why good writing pays off

· Putting the reader first

· Having a clear objective

· Building a persuasive argument

· Getting started – assembling the facts

· A logical structure – making the information flow, meeting (all) readers’ needs

· Intros and endings – building rapport quickly and making endings memorable

· Improving readability – reader-centred writing, make your writing active, writing in plain English and structuring       your sentences for easy reading

· Making the most of email

· Confident grammar

Day 2 – Effective and Memorable Verbal Communication
Communication training must be experiential to create lasting behavioural change. We start by raising awareness of how the delegates are coming across. With the use of the camera, we’ll analyse this. There is often a gap between how they think they come across and how they actually come across, and the camera helps to bridge this perception gap.
We then look at the obvious but often overlooked qualities of good communication – what is needed in order to appear confident and engaging whilst ensuring that every word is clearly understood. By exploring the concepts of energy (to increase presence), and the story structure (to bring content alive, creating clear messaging) we work on putting your people in control of their impact, so that they come across as engaging, comfortable, natural and authoritative.

Exercises will include (though not an exhaustive list);

· 2 min presentation (filmed)

· Energy theory (foundations of communicating with impact)

· 3 words (they articulate how would like to come across – we benchmark this against their video performances)

· Video playback (how are they coming across under pressure)

· Energy exercises (the foundation of charisma)

· Content theory (creating clear, simple and relevant messages)

· Prep (revisit initial message applying content theory)

· Final version (audience gets to see big transformation)

Creating a high performing team
Being an effective leader requires the ability to develop and sustain high-performing teams. At Laughton Scott we believe the characteristics of a high-performing team include:

having a clear organisational direction  making insightful strategic decisions
identifying and developing individual talent  focusing on team success versus individual agendas.
Additionally, high performing teams:

Are fully engaged and motivated Share a common vision and values  consistently deliver clearly defined business results share best practice throughout the organisation Author Patrick Lencioni, in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. outlined the five qualities of a successful team. These qualities include the following:

1: Building Trust – Members of great teams are confident that their peer’ intentions are good, and there is no reason   to be protective or careful around the group. They believe their vulnerabilities will not be used against them and can   engage in discussion with complete openness.

2: Mastering Conflict – Teams that trust one another engage in passionate dialogue around issues and decisions key     to the organization’s success. They do not hesitate to disagree with, challenge, and question one another in the spirit   of discovering the truth, finding the best answers, and making great decisions.

3: Achieving Commitment – Teams that engage in unfiltered conflict are able to achieve genuine buy-in around    important decisions, even when various team members initially disagree. They are confident that all opinions and  ideas have been put on the table and considered while deciding on the best course of action.

4: Embracing Accountability – Teams that commit to decisions and standards of performance do no hesitate to hold  one another accountable for adhering to those decisions and standards. In addition, they do not rely on the team  leader as the primary source of accountability; they go directly to their peers.

5: Focusing on Results – Teams that trust one another, embrace conflict, commit to decisions, and hold one another    accountable set aside their individual agendas and focus on what is best for the team. They do not give in to  temptations to place their own needs ahead of the collective results that define team success.

Building trust is the foundation of effective team collaboration. If members do not feel safe in a group, they will watch for signs of betrayal or disrespect, overreact to threats, become argumentative when they feel slighted, and take feedback too personally. They may withdraw, or they may overcompensate by dominating the group or positioning for recognition.

Team trust doesn’t happen overnight. It requires consistency in behavior and avoidance of actions that can erode trust. Common behaviours that engender a lack of trust among leaders include:

Not demonstrating respect for the unique skills of team members.
Dismissing ideas without letting team members express themselves fully first.
Sharing information from team meetings with others that should be kept within the team.
Talking negatively about a team member behind his/her back instead of addressing the issue directly with that person.
Allowing members to dominate team meetings or pursue individual agendas.
We can work individually with the leaders of your teams or we can work with the entire team. We can help to identify their unique skills, build trust and get them to communicate authentically and honestly; all key factors in getting the results you want.