This workshop teaches essential interpersonal skills for technical professionals

ESSENTIAL  INTERPERSONAL  SKILLS  FOR  TECHNICAL  PROFESSIONALS  WORKSHOP

DRM Associates

© 2007 DRM Associates and Auxilium

DRM Associates
New Product Development Training
Training Experience
Product Development Forum
NPD Body of Knowledge

This one-day workshop provides a comprehensive overview of essential interpersonal and business skills, and detailed discussion of the most important competencies that apply to most jobs. Participants engage in exercises and leave with tools that help them continuously develop these competencies. Many topics are covered briefly to give participants a big-picture view of important interpersonal skills.

The workshop is intended for engineers, technical managers and supervisors, scientists, IT professionals, project leaders, prospective managers, technicians, and others who can benefit from improved interpersonal skills. The workshop fee includes a comprehensive workbook and email/phone follow-up with the instructor after the workshop to assist with skills development. This seminar may be customized to meet your needs, and can be delivered at most locations internationally. The workshop covers the following topics.

1. Overview of Essential Skills

  • Balancing technical and non-technical skill development
  • The importance of “soft” skills
    • Writing skills
    • Conversation skills
    • Listening skills
    • Presentation skills
    • Customer service skills
    • Teamwork
    • Commitment
    • Time management
    • Planning skills

2. Conversation Skills: The Key to Successful Collaboration

  • Why frequent face-to-face conversation is important
  • The art of listening
  • How to make conversation easy – even for the highly introverted
  • When to use email or phone instead of face-to-face conversation

3. Teamwork

  • Building rapport with business associates
  • Integrating your ideas with surrounding influences and business objectives
  • Helping others to see your view
  • Understanding the process of “give and take”

4. Presentation Skills

  • Presenting to groups, both small and large
  • Length and detail of presentations
  • Keeping the audience engaged
  • Tips for using PowerPoint or other visual aids

5. Customer Service

  • Satisfying the needs of both internal and external customers
  • Prioritizing demands from multiple customers
  • Commitment: The ultimate customer service tool
  • Achieving the highest level of customer service

6. Project Planning

  • Overview of project planning skills and tasks
  • Individual accountability for estimating, planning, and scheduling work
  • Integrating strong level of commitment into successful project plans

7. Creating a Development Plan

  • Characteristics of a good professional development plan
  • Balancing personal goals vs. work requirements
  • Self-assessment

©2007 DRM Associates and Auxilium, email: k.crow@npd-solutions.com