Skip to main content

Communication Skills Training

We specialize in workshops that help people get things done without ticking each other off. Mostly, that means helping people communicate more effectively.

To bring one of our workshops to your location, please contact us at:

doug@dougsmithtraining.com

Here is a selection of our most popular, and successful workshops:


Communication Boot Camp - 
How to Communicate for the Results You Want -

One day workshop to help you develop the skills you need to create deeper, more effective conversations, build stronger relationships, and communicate with tact, respect, diplomacy, and professionalism. Add a second day to develop more productive meetings and learn how to deliver more powerful and influential presentations.


communication training, communication workshops


It's Not About the Slides...
Powerful Presentation Skills - 

Get beyond the slides and into the hearts and minds of your audience. Whether you make one presentation a year or one every day, how you communicate during a presentation is either propelling you forward or dragging you behind. This hands-on, practice on your feet workshop will give you a fresh new view on how to best reach, engage, and energize your audience. One powerful day of training.


communication skills training, communication workshops



Get Stuff Done Without Making Enemies - 
Productive Meeting Skills - 

One day workshop to explore, discover, and practice the skills you need to convert your meetings from boring to productive. Whether you lead dozens of meetings or a few - or even if you find yourself simply a participant in dull meetings -- the productive meeting skills you'll cover in this workshop will change you from victim to guru. Make your meetings, your organization, and your life more organized and fun.




How NOT to Tick People Off!
Communicating With Tact and Professionalism -

One day workshop for anyone who struggles with interpersonal communication. Learn how to deal with the difficult people in your life, instead of saying what usually gets you in trouble. Practice thinking on your feet and reacting calmly under pressure. Take that foot out of your mouth and put it down with assertive assurance that you're communicating with tact and professionalism.





Talk About It! 
Deeper Conversations for Better Relationships -

It's easy to fall into communication habits that just don't work. As a result, many relationships suffer most from a failure to communicate. We make stuff up, we distract ourselves, we drift off into our own little worlds. That's not the stuff of resilient, friendly, collaborative relationships. During this one-day workshop you'll discover and practice the CLUES to communication success that are at the heart of all of our work here at doug smith training. You'll learn how to truly connect. You'll practice conversations around any topic - even during conflict - that will promote true listening, compassion, clarity, courage, and creativity. Attend with your significant other, with your team, or as an individual -- just come prepared to dramatically improve your interpersonal communication skills.


deeper conversations for better relationships



Creative Project Management - 

When it comes to project management, it is impossible to over-communicate. The biggest temptation to a project manager is to communicate less.  During this workshop you'll explore and practice the fundamental project management tools while integrating professional communication skills to build relationships and teams so that your projects will be both successful and fun.

 Bringing together the best (and fastest to learn and implement) project management and communication tools this workshop will help you with whatever phase of your project you find yourself -- from launch to completion. Two days.





Centered Problem Solving -

If problems are making a mess of you or your team, turn that energy around with some focused and applied centered problem solving. We've taken some time-tested tools and processes, blended them with our unique approach, and created new ways to focus, analyze, create possibilities, evaluate choices, and solve problems. Available as a one-day (exploration and discovery) and as a two-day (exploration, discovery, and application) workshop, Centered Problem Solving is an investment that will pay for itself over and over. One day program: $99 per participant. Two day version (work on solving real problems!) $149 per participant.

Contact me about bringing one or more of these workshops to your location. I'm located in the Bucks County, PA area so if you're near there there is no extra charge for travel.





Supervising for Success -

Two day workshop for front line leaders. You'll start on your goals and create the alignment and traction you need to achieve them. Ideal for front line leaders in any organization, we have deep experience (and time-tested tools) especially suited for leaders in the retail and service industries.

leadership training, communication skills training




------------------------------------------

doug@dougsmithtraining.com


facebook.com/dougsmithtraining


@douglasbrent

------------------------------------------


"Doug had an awesome way of delivering the content. Great advice and information to take back to the work place."
-- Tosha, Cherry Hill, NJ





"The enthusiasm of Doug was awesome! I definitely felt I learned more because he had many examples."
-- Jaimee, Des Moines, IA




"I learned so much more than I expected... I will definitely take these skills back to the workplace and share this knowledge with my fellow employees!"
-- Courtney, Schaumburg, IL





"Doug's positive personality really helped make this course very interesting and worth while."
-- Breanna, Bloomington, MN





"Doug was great! I loved how he shared life experiences to teach! Great guy!"
-- Lisa, New Haven, CT





"Overall wonderful experience. I've gained a lot more knowledge than I had anticipated. Great leader who kept the whole class engaged and thinking."
-- Ashley, Baltimore, MD






"Doug was very engaging & kept the class moving efficiently.
-- Sarah Pollen, Frederick, MD


"This training was outstanding! Doug did an amazing job. He was entertaining and knowledgable. Thank you for a wonderful two day training."
-- Stephanie, Washington, DC



------------------------------------------

doug@dougsmithtraining.com


facebook.com/dougsmithtraining


@douglasbrent

------------------------------------------

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Steps of Success

Remember to celebrate the goals you've already achieved. They are powerful steps toward your next great goal. -- doug smith  

Rival as Coach

Competition can be rough but it can also be educational. If you study your opponent you might learn their secrets. If you can listen to your opposition, they might be sending you valuable signals that could improve your own performance. What if your rival is also your best coach? -- doug smith

Start With...

Why do people follow you? Where's the magnet? What's the attraction? What's the draw? People look for leaders who are leading causes they believe in. Start with the cause and then look for commitment. If your cause is real, your team will respond. -- doug smith  

Appreciation

Your team members might need more validation than you've been giving them. Many of the artifacts of the past that indicated power and showed success are no longer provided. Flattening the organization has also eliminated promotion opportunities. Career tracks have turned into career plains.  How do you build a career and your self-esteem if money is your only measure of success? That might not be the wrong question, but the implied answer is incomplete. We still have other ways of measuring and celebrating success. We can find ways to show our team members that they are making progress. We can show our team members that we recognition their success and we appreciate their work. Elevate their status. Distinguish those who achieve their team goals and show them respect beyond the basic into esteemed associate admiration. People didn't stop caring about these things just because companies stopped providing them. No matter what your organizational culture declares, as a leader you ...

Communication Flexibility

Have you considered flexibility in communication? I thought about this yesterday when my first impulse as a response to something that someone said to me was to share my own experience, my own advice, my own perspective. But I didn't do that. It would have been easy, but it would have been wrong from an emotional standpoint. The other person hadn't asked for my advice.  If she did, I was ready. The advice, the point of view, was all ready to go. But she didn't so I simply listened. Quiet can communicate so much. Staying flexible in the moment, knowing the options and then selecting the most compassionate, caring, useful response greatly improves communication. Conversations can be dances where we don't step on each other's feet. Conversations can be fluid, flexible, light, and still substantive. Flexible. Even when I am absolutely sure that I know the answer... There is always more than one answer. -- doug smith

How Far?

How far will you go? How much will you work? How important is it to you? Your goals will go as far as you will go... -- doug smith  

What luck?

Some days you feel lucky. Some days you don't. I can still hear Albert King singing "if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all..."  As a kid I thought, that's too bad, that really is the blues, but that's how it is... Or is it? The thing about luck is that it doesn't seem to consult you. When we rely on luck, good or bad, we relinquish all control. Why do that? On average, luck just doesn't care, so don't let it determine your destiny. To quote the great voice teacher Dorinda Dercar,  "Luck is for people who think the answer is outside themselves..." You're better than that. Your answer is inside you. -- doug smith

Reinvention

How many you's are in you? You'll go thru many iterations on the way to the next you. New habits, new skills, new dreams, new goals. Like it or not, we live in constant change. We might as well take ownership of as much of that change as we can. Re-invent yourself when the old skin no longer suits you. It may be time for a new you. -- doug smith  

Turn That Feedback Upside Down

Is feedback painful? Do you hate both giving AND receiving feedback? Most people, in my experience, tend to avoid feedback because there is pain and even emotional trauma attached. Critical feedback hurts. Positive feedback, when it comes at all, isn't always enough to counter the trauma of the critical feedback. We do need critical feedback. We need to be able to benefit from observations and experiences to improve our performance going forward. As leaders, we have a responsibility to provide our team members with both support and challenge. Feedback should be part of that challenge. But it's not really "feedback" unless it's flipped upside down. On my Fender amplifier, if I play my guitar too loud and too close to the speaker the sound feeds-back. I like that sound (it reminds me of Jimi Hendrix) but many people don't and it certainly would not fit in most worship services or orchestra pits. The feedback is essentially telling me to turn it down. But I don...

Decide...

It might seem hard, even impossible. I've found myself immobilized at times out of fear of making a choice. Especially if a bad decision has created a problem. That decision, right or wrong, has been made. It's time for a new choice. The best way out of a bad decision is another decision. Decide.  -- doug smith