Whether you are trying to improve communication with your spouse, your children, colleagues or stakeholders, you can improve the communication skills that enable you to effectively connect with others, build trust and respect, and feel heard and understood.

The way we communicate forms a core element to our Identity; Communication sits in the Identity part of our Investors in Learning Driving Success model. This is because every time we; say anything, do anything, create anything, read a book, listen to some music, display any type of behaviour, choose not to say anything, in fact, however we behave, we are giving a message about who we are. Therefore working on and refining our communication is an effort well spent. Raising our own self-awareness about our communication approach and the impact we make on people around us will also help us to continually improve and consciously adapt the impact we wish to make.

Communicating effectively lies at the heart of individual, team and organisational success. It is also a key part of our identity. We all develop habits in all areas of our lives. Communication habits are no exception. Once we raise our awareness and focus on what is going on around us, and we understand what to look for, poor communication habits become very apparent. Habits by their very nature are usually automatic. Therefore we need to raise our behaviours to a conscious level in order to be able to change and adapt our ingrained habitual behaviours. We need to make a conscious effort to change our behaviours and we need to know exactly what we are working on in order to be able to self-correct and improve.

Our programmes will support you to improve your communication and awareness at an individual, team or organisational level.

This programme will support you to:

• Understand the psychology of communication
• Define Effective Communication and apply it to your personal context
• Understand your own communication style and the impact you are having on others
• Develop your self-awareness and your power of self-reflection in order to be able to review and refine your communication skills and adapt these meaning fully to varying audiences
• Assess your personal Communication style, skills and habits, in order to be able to self-evaluate and self -correct your communication style and therefore continually refine and improve
• Create a Communication self-development plan setting yourself specific goals with strategies to continue to develop your skills into the longer term
• Develop effective and engaging presentation skills presenting information to different audiences
• Become a confident speaker and presenter with your unique chosen style
• Get honest feedback about your communication style from others so that you can learn to appraise your own communication and presentation style and the impact you are having

George Bernard Shaw ‘s quote "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion it has taken place" is very thought-provoking. How true it is! How many assumptions do we make in any one day that we have effectively communicated our message? How many times do we consciously check in with ourselves to ensure that we actually have communicated the message that we believe we wanted to communicate? Even if we are self-aware in that respect, what is our methodology for checking in on our communication without being condescending or appearing pedantic? What can we do in a team to support each other with our communication style and to become a communication- aware team? How do we create the essential traits and culture in order to become more effective and sophisticated communicators?

This programme will support you to:

• Recognise the different communication styles within the team
• Assess the strengths and areas of development of your team communication style, and team habits that may exist
• Understand the traits that are important to be an effective communicator
• Develop Team awareness and implement review strategies in order to ensure continual team learning and development
• Create a team development plan to improve communication across the team
• Implement tried and tested approaches to continually support each other as team members in a supportive and safe environment
• Understand the impact your team is having on the rest of the business
• Create positive learning conversations
• Build a team culture of trust and respect
• Understand the different communication styles needed for external stakeholders
• Create, gain commitment , disseminate and implement a sustainable team communication strategy

Ensuring all staff have effective Communication Skills, increased Self-awareness & ability to adapt to communication styles, will have a direct impact on your bottom line. The style of Communication within your business and with external Stakeholders creates your Business Identity. Poor communication can damage your organisation over time. Internal control breakdowns, lack of accountability, elevated stress, poor relationships, and lowered morale are just some of the possible consequences of poor communication within an organisation.

Therefore investing effort into refining and improving communication skills and approaches throughout the organisation is a key component of business success.

Developing an organisational communication strategy can clarify the areas of strengths and areas for development and set a commitment to action and planned change

This programme will support you to:

• Understand the Psychology of Communication and the factors that will impact on our communication across an organisation
• Raise awareness of the organisational factors that are impact on communication styles and approaches
• Understand the impact that organisational culture is having on the way in which we communicate
• Understand the key elements of organisational culture that will impact on effective and open communication trust and respect
• Conduct an organisational culture assessment in order to gauge the strengths and areas of development that exist various parts of the business
• Create positive and meaningful conversations at all levels within the business
• Create, gain commitment , disseminate and implement a sustainable Organisational communication strategy
• Ensure that effective reviews are implemented to foster a long term strategy where new success habits can be built and sustained.