Workshops

Assertive Communication

Each of us is responsible for the way we react and interact. But many people have difficulty expressing exactly what they mean, never mind truly understanding someone else’s point of view. To be an assertive communicator is not about bullying or getting your way. Instead, it means having the sensitivity and strength to show restraint when challenged and craft an intelligent, productive response. This session empowers you to remain in control and clearly articulate and defend for your position while acknowledging the needs, opinions and desires of others.

Communication Skills

When “everybody’s talkin’ at you but you can’t hear a word they’re sayin’,” it’s time to go back to basics and improve communication skills. Since clear, precise and convincing communication – written and oral – is the bedrock of business success, a failure to communicate can be disastrous. In this workshop, participants go beyond the standard exercises and explore how to understand other perspectives and identify personal bias, how to eliminate confusion and mistakes resulting from miscommunication, and how to unlock the secret to successful communication: active listening.

Conflict Management

“This is a no-win situation!” “I’ve tried everything – there’s no getting through to this guy!” “Better not rock the boat.” When Mary hears this kind of negativity, the bulldog in her comes out. Not afraid to dig deep and get to the bottom of any conflict, Mary battles resistance and defeatism to lead everyone to new growth and insight. This session will get personal, transforming your team into a more open, caring unit by exploring how conflict emerges and how to effectively resolve disputes so every party feels engaged and respected.

Interpersonal Skills

Organizations crave individuals who consistently demonstrate exceptional interpersonal skills. People who connect with others, regardless of their personality type or role within the organization, are highly prized. Such people easily gain commitment and co-operation and – because of their open approach to dialogue – can uncover solutions to even the most difficult challenges. However, this kind of communication is not solely an innate gift; anyone can develop better interpersonal skills by choosing to implement effective communication strategies and value the perspectives and opinions of others.

Lend Me Your Ears: The Art of Active Listening

Dr. Frasier Crane taught us the power of those four little words: “Go ahead, I’m listening.” It is incredibly empowering to know that someone is trying to understand your point of view, which is why listening is the most powerful skill you can develop to communicate effectively and strengthen relationships in the workplace and at home. This session teaches proven active listening strategies and techniques that will move your communication from ordinary to extraordinary.

Presentation Skills: “It’s all in the presentation”

Most people don’t enjoy being the centre of attention. But presentation skills are considered a core competency because of the importance of effectively presenting information and ideas to colleagues, stakeholders and clients. This workshop will help participants evaluate the effectiveness of their current presentation style. Mary will suggest ways that speakers can take their delivery and content to the next level. Mary can also provide tips and tricks to help the nervous presenter shift the audience’s focus off the speaker and onto the content. She will address participants’ fears – real or imagined – and give them the tools they need to feel comfortable in the spotlight.

Leadership Development Certificate Program

Mary’s nationally implemented Best Practices leadership course transforms the concept of leadership by helping leaders encourage creativity, empower others, embrace change, enhance presentations, and expect excellence from themselves and their employees. This hands-on, multi-session course uses actual workplace scenarios to promote accountability among leaders and explore how different leadership styles can be used to motivate teams, facilitate effective communication, and inspire a customer-driven corporate culture. Contact Mary for more details about the courses that comprise this program.

Coaching Skills & Mentoring

Coaching is the art of preserving self-esteem while boosting motivation and productivity. This workshop teaches managers and supervisors how to help their employees develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes they need to succeed. Mary provides tried and true coaching strategies, working with managers one-on-one or in a large group to address and resolve specific personnel issues in a no-holds-barred environment. This workshop strives to turn managers into positive role models and ensure consistency among large management teams.

Interviewing Skills for Hiring Success

As job applicants become more skilled at responding to interview questions, the interviewer’s ability to differentiate between those who say they can and those who can is critical. This workshop teaches interviewers to read people as accurately as possible, without letting their unconscious biases creep in and create false impressions. Mary teaches cutting edge behavioural-based interviewing, ensuring that questions are relevant, specific, focused on the job in question, and based on the company’s established, comprehensive criteria list.

Critical Thinking Skills

Think smart to stay sharp. Learn how to employ critical thinking techniques that help challenge assumptions and influence others to make well-rounded, better informed decisions. Critical thinking is about exercising sound judgment. Critical thinkers are skilled at quickly evaluating arguments and articulating alternative opinions. This workshop will provide an opportunity for you to enhance critical thinking skills, improve methods of reasoning, develop stronger arguments, problem-solve more effectively and communicate convincingly.

Personal Accountability

Successful people exhibit a strong sense of personal accountability. They find ways to accomplish tasks and reach goals, overcoming barriers they encounter with ease. They have a capacity to bounce back quickly when mistakes are made, and draw out lessons from their experiences to make better decisions in the future. This engaging and interactive workshop will provide participants with the fundamentals of personal accountability: taking ownership for their success, identifying solutions for overcoming obstacles, taking action to achieve breakthrough results, and sustaining success.

Change Management

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Increasingly, employees are asked to do existing jobs in new ways. It can be very easy to slip into the victim cycle. Instead, we must become enthusiastic agents of change, finding an element of control in a changing environment and making positive choices to successfully respond to new challenges. After all, if it wasn’t for periods of change and upheaval, there would be no innovation. This interactive and energetic training session helps participants put a positive spin on change in the workplace and identify what they can do to move themselves and their colleagues forward into a brave new world.

Time Management: Stop Living in Crisis!

People are working harder and faster, but still feel they are falling further behind. They can’t catch up because they rely on inflexible time management systems that set strict rules and don’t take into account their individual personalities. They also may not communicate their limitations with those making demands on their schedule, or take time during the week to reduce stress through exercise and recreation. There is no time management cure-all: everyone will schedule their day differently, and it’s up to each person to optimize their peak performance times. This practical session helps you optimize your time and stop living in crisis by identifying why your old system wasn’t working and zeroing in on the ideal way for you to manage time in the future.

“Under Pressure”: Stress Management

Stress can be fantastic, or it can be fatal. Without everyday concerns to worry about and generate energy, we wouldn’t be motivated to get out of bed. Like carbon turning into a diamond, handling pressure well can transform an ugly problem into a beautiful solution. This workshop offers key strategies for managing stress: reflecting before reacting to a stressful situation, and finding the right balance to use stress effectively toward a successful outcome.

The Positive Power of Humour

Employing humour in the workplace has been proven to promote positive relationships, improve productivity and increase job satisfaction. Along with reducing the negative effects of stress, humour allows us to quickly find perspective during difficult situations, boost morale, facilitate change and fuel creativity – preventing conflict, burnout and “hardening of the attitude.” Learn the FUN-damentals of how you can contribute to creating a healthier, happier and more productive work environment, where everyone can experience the internal and external benefits humour provides.

Customer Service Excellence Training Program

Mary has delivered her Best Practices “CUSTOMER SUCCESS Excellence Training Program” to corporations across the country. Over this three-day course, participants practice distinguishing the various types of customers and learn strategies from world class customer service organizations. They will experience how the power of choice contributes to a customer-inspired work environment where practicing commitment, compassion, consistency, and continuous improvement is contagious. Contact Mary for more information about this interactive and empowering program.

Managing Your Career

This customized program combines four workshops (Career Planning & Self-Assessment, Interviewing, Resume Writing, and Resiliency During Career Transition) that can also be delivered individually. The overall program is designed to provide the job-seeker in today’s ever-changing labour market with the full skillset needed to identify and pursue employment opportunities. The program is also useful for employees seeking to better market themselves to gain promotion within their companies. Managers can use these skills to take stock of their employees’ talents and potential, in order to motivate them to seek new opportunities within the organization.

Career Planning & Self-Assessment

With people changing jobs and even careers every few years, it is essential that job-seekers and employees take an inventory of their strengths, values, skills and aspirations so they can make the best career choices for themselves and their employers. Having a clear sense of self and focusing on long-term goals helps individuals make intelligent choices about the future.

Resume Writing

The competition for available jobs is more intense than ever. Research suggests that employers spend an average of five to ten seconds reviewing an applicant’s resume to determine whether it will make the “short list” – those who will get called in for an interview. This training examines different resume styles and helps participants transform their current resume into a dynamic marketing tool that reflects their skills and aspirations and is appropriately targeted to the desired job.

Interviewing: It’s Showtime

Your stellar resume has worked, and now it’s time for the interview. Before panic sets in, Mary will prepare you to portray yourself and the skills gained from your previous experiences as a perfect fit for your prospective employer. You will learn to articulate your knowledge, skills and attitude in a compelling way. The session also covers how to research the company and identify your strengths and weaknesses as per the job requirements. Finally, you’ll go on the hot seat as Mary and other participants pepper you with common behavior-based questions to prepare you for the real thing.

Resiliency During Career Transition

Whether chosen or forced, changing careers can be a daunting task. This workshop helps you identify your marketable skills, which could lead you down a new career path. Mary will help you manage the transition by teaching you how to stay positive and optimistic amid the confusion, and find the hidden opportunities that change creates. Resiliency is the attitude you need to eliminate fear, stay strong, and turn the need for change into a positive.

Master the Art of Networking

Networking has been proven to be one the most significant contributors to both individual and organizational success. 85% of most business opportunities and employment opportunities are a direct result of networking. It is more than a stack of business cards. It involves identifying contacts and relationships with others who have similar interests, ideas and goals. It also involves perceiving opportunities and benefits from each interaction. Regardless of your innate personality type, the art of networking is a learned skill anyone can master. This hands-on, interactive session will enable you to experiment with fundamental and fruitful networking strategies that can open up the door to possibilities and greatly improve your personal networking effectiveness.

Building a Successful Team

This special session aims to transform teams into cohesive units by fostering trust and individual accountability while creating a sense of team commitment. Mary guides team members through a powerful, action-oriented process rooted in a reflection on the values, meaning and mission of each specific team. By promoting and practicing the core components of an effective team, participants establish a no-blame environment in which each team member focuses on personal accountability and works to implement effective, lasting change. Exceptional results are a natural byproduct once team members feel accountable to themselves, each other, and their mission.

Facilitating for Results

It is a valuable strength to be able to generate participation among a group of individuals, to guide group discussions, lead problem-solving sessions, and assist in group decision making. This workshop looks at the art of asking questions and encouraging rather than discouraging dialogue among team members. By being sensitive to different perspectives and welcoming input from all members, you will be able to draw out your group’s expertise, ideas and insights, leading to a better outcome for all.

The Colours of Personality: Unleashing the Potential of Your Team

Accepting and understanding differences is an important concept to master. To succeed in today’s workplace, it is critical to understand and value your own skills as well as those of the people you work with. Mary uses the True Colours, Meyers-Briggs and Personal Dimensions personality models to deliver a dynamic, engaging and edu-taining workshop that’s sure to be a revelation. Participants will leave with a more nuanced understanding of the different personality types and work styles, making them better able to work as part of a united team, understand their own needs as individuals, and leverage the strengths of others for the good of the team.

Putting your Colours to Work!

Very often, team members who seem disinterested or dysfunctional just need to let their true colours shine through. This interactive and insightful workshop – a sequel to “The Colours of Personality: Unleashing the Potential of Your Team” – is designed to enrich participants’ application of the personality model. Participants will deepen their understanding of how blending various colours effects group dynamics, and learn how to maximize the effectiveness of any colour combination by adding more communication strategies and techniques to their toolkit. Each colour brings different strengths to the table, and this session teaches how to harness the rainbow of personalities and skill sets present in every group to foster collaboration and cooperation among team members. Using a variety of practical, hands-on activities and ‘edutaining’ exercises, participants will experience how valuing difference and embracing their team’s unique colours enhances communication and, ultimately, results.

Unlocking the Right Brain: Creative & Innovative Thinking

Why can the typical adult only offer a few suggestions in a brainstorming session while most children can come up with new ideas for hours? Adults tend to shut off their creative side at work, depriving them of one of their most useful resources. Don’t fear creativity; let imagination in, and employees will work better since they are allowed to think outside the box and take risks. Managers tired of useless, lifeless meetings can’t expect different results unless they choose to do things differently. This revolutionary session will help you discover the potential for innovation around every corner, turning everyday challenges into opportunities for creating thinking and creating a corporate culture of continuous improvement.