This course is about practical communication skills essential for organisational and personal success.
It provides a superb opportunity for professionals to enhance their skills, maximising their personal impact and achieving business objectives.
There is a wealth of practical guidance on improving the effectiveness of various forms of written communication.
This course will present how writing and presentation skills can work in tandem to achieve results.
If you want your reports, memos, letters, and emails to be read with interest and acted upon and if you want to present your ideas with impact and effectiveness, this is the right course for you.
Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Improve the effectiveness of your reports, proposals, emails, letters and other communication
- Develop more efficient writing processes, improving project and time management
- Meet the needs of your readerships/audiences, enabling them to achieve their own objectives
- Develop your presentational skills and the techniques to enhance impact and effectiveness
- Deploy the proper methods, tools and skills for a wide variety of communication challenges
Day One
Improving Business Communication & What Makes an Effective Report
- Barriers and pitfalls of business communication
- Differences between written and spoken communication and their implications
- Characteristics of an Influential Report
- Understanding the readers’ needs
- Report layout and design for clarity and impact
- Structure – the macrostructure and the microstructure
Day Two
Readability, Writing Style and the Writing Process
- Sentences, paragraphs and readability
- Generating ideas – Mind mapping and brainstorming
- Sources of information and research techniques
- Selecting and structuring the content – logical sequencing
- Proofreading, grammar and punctuation
- Tables, diagrams, figures and graphs
Day Three
Emails, Letters and Other Business Writing/What Makes an Effective Presentation
- Managing emails to be noticed
- Writing effective business letters
- Writing professional agendas and minutes
- Writing instructions and guidelines
- Characteristics of effective presentations
- Preparing a persuasive business presentation
Day Four
Presentation Skills
- The pillars of effective presentations
- Setting and meeting objectives
- Meeting the audience’s needs
- Structuring the presentation and making a case
- Positive body language
- Using visuals effectively
Day Five
Making a Case & Influencing Skills
- Choosing words for maximum impact
- Handling questions from your audience
- Team presentations to convince critics
- Supporting presentations with written documentation
- Making a persuasive business case
- Influencing Skills and getting support online
