• Communication Skills
   
• Assertiveness Training
   
• Conflict & Confrontation Skills
   
• How to Deal with Difficult People
   
• Teamwork
   
• Leadership & Management
   
• How to Deal with Poor Performers
   
• Dealing with Negativity and Bad Attitudes in the Workplace
   
• Customer Service
   
• Dealing with Difficult Customers
   
• Dealing with Adversity, Change, Stress in the Workplace

Communication Skills

Secrets to Effective Communication

• Learn secrets to exceptional communication from basic to advanced skills that are needed to be effective in communicating in the workplace
• Accepting negative feedback and complaints with mutual dignity, esteem, and respect
• Written communication including email
• Recognizing the difference between assertiveness and aggression
• Projecting confidence and credibility
• Effectively dealing with conflict and confrontation
• How to listen better and use your improved listening skills for better communication
• The Garbage that shuts down communication; How to prevent it and open up communication if it has already happened

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• Assertiveness is an attitude more than an action
• Assertiveness does not mean you'll always get your way - Avoiding the traps of aggressive, passive, and passive-aggressive behavior
• Using the assertive attitude to identify assertive responses
• Learn how to use the universal ABCDE model for structuring an assertive response when you need someone's behavior to change
• Yes, you can say "no".  How do do it without bullying or getting bullied.
• Using Powerful instead of Powerless phrases

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Conflict & Confrontation Skills

No one likes conflict, but we all deal with it many times a day.  Becoming effective at dealing with Conflict and Confrontation skills will allow you to get over more obstacles and deal with more types of people effectively.

• Identifying the small conflicts that you already deal with will help you be more effective at dealing with the bigger conflicts
• Understanding the difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable
• Why it doesn't work when you "get in other people's faces" and how it can come back to kick you
• The 5 styles of dealing with conflict

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Teamwork

How to Play Well with Others and Get Others to Play Well with You!  (Alternate Title:  Building Better Work Teams)
 

• How the Garbage Factor affects teams:  Identify the factors involved with effective work teams and learn how to implement them as strategies.

• Learn how to create a team "rule book" for handling common situations such as: group feedback, unfinished work, and using each others equipment/technology

• Understanding how emotional intelligence plays a part in improved work teams

• This program's effectiveness improves exponentially when coordinated with the programs: The Secrets to Effective Communication and Conflict & Confrontation.

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Management & Leadership

Coaching Effectively

• Learning Styles—When you open a box to put together a new bookshelf, do you a) read the instructions, b) look at the picture, c) have someone else read the instructions to you while you tinker, or d) just dive in and start putting it together? We all approach a new task differently, and each learning styles uses its own vocabulary. Learn how changing your vocabulary can help people understand instructions better.
• Tell ‘em what you want—Learn to define expectations clearly and follow up on what you expect from staff.
• Which Hat Shall I Wear? As a coach, you wear many hats: supervisor, teacher, motivator, discipliner. Learn how to recognize coaching mode and what elements are needed to be an effective coach.
• One Bad Apple Can Spoil the Whole Bunch—Learn how to deal with bad attitudes and poor performers before they infect the rest of your staff.
  People don’t quit bad jobs, they quit bad environments—Learn to reduce turnover by understanding what makes people leave. Hint...it’s not about the paycheck, it’s all about the Garbage Factor

 

Other Leadership Topics

Management & Leadership Skills

Motivation and Creativity in the Workplace

Time Management Skills

   Improving Performance through Feedback & Coaching

Criticism & Discipline Skills for Managers

How to Deal with Negativity & Bad Attitudes in the Workplace

How to Set Goals & Improve Motivation!

Writing Job Descriptions & Standards

Training Skills for Managers

Effective Performance Appraisals

 

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How to Deal with Poor Performers

We’re all being asked to do more with less. This won’t work when some of your folks are doing less with more. They’ve got the ability; learn how to get them to use it. Whether it is lack of knowledge, poor skills, or bad attitude, all of these performance issues can be turned around (that’s right...even attitude). Learn the skills needed to move their performance up to standard or move them out of the position.  Marian just finished writing a comprehensive "how to" manual on this topic."  Be sure to get your copy of It's not about the Money:  Real Reasons for Turnover and How to Prevent it through Improved Management.

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Customer Service

Customer Service that Means Business
 

Customer service as a business focus means more business for your business. Learn from a customer service expert what chases customers away and what keeps them coming back without giving your business away in the process.

Marian's passion for customer service is evident in her topic choice for her first book.  Along with 19 other customer service experts, she completed Fantastic Customer Service Inside & Out. (Ask how each of your attendees can get a copy of Fantastic Customer Service Inside and Out.)

Communicating is more than what is said...it is intentions, understanding, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-confidence, and delivery.  Learn the nuances of communication to improve every customer service situation.  Marian gets right to the heart of customer service through: 

• The Communication Dynamic

• Secrets of Effective Communication

• The Powerful Impact of Body Language & Tone of Voice

• Electronic Etiquette:  Positive & Negative Affects of Technology on Communication

• Small Talk:  The Art and Benefits of Schmoozing, Brown-Nosing & Kissing Up.  It doesn't have to be manipulative or negative.

• Assertiveness:  The Underlying Rights of Every Communication Encounter

• The Deadly Dozen:  The 12 Deadly Sins of Customer Service

Marian is known for her stories.  Join her as she shares stories on customer service that are funny and some that will make you cringe.

 

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Dealing with Difficult Customers

Customer Service That Means Business Part 2 (Alternate Title: From Nightmare on “M” Street to Pleasant Valley Road:  How to Turn Difficult Customers into Raving Fans!)

Difficult Customers takes all forms depending upon the nature of your business.  They drive us nuts...and too many of them drive our businesses. We have dozens of customers we deal with all day without incident...some of them are even delightful...but then that one comes along and the day becomes jaded.  We can no longer recall any pleasant encounter...only that one that sent the day south.  And sometimes, the difficult customer is internal...in other words, it’s a co-worker.  With the right tools, most every difficult customer situation can be turned around. 

Quick Tip - Studies show that a complaining customer can be one of our best assets.  Many leave our businesses without telling us why, so we are not able to correct mistakes.  The complainer cares enough about the business to tell us...and wants us to fix it.

This is a highly customized program.  Here are the types of situations that can be addressed in this program:  Do you have difficult customers that your employees have to deal with?  Are your customers demanding because of the exclusivity of the environment or product that you sell?  Are there challenges when dealing with your wealthier clients?  This program is a separate program and can be taught alone or as part two of the first program  It specifically focuses on difficult and challenging customer service situations.  If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, then this is the program for you.  

 

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Dealing with Adversity, Change, Stress in the Workplace

No More Garbage:  Dealing with Change, Challenges & Chaos in the Workplace (Alternate Title:  From Survivor to Thriver! Resiliency in the Face of Change, Stress, & Adversity)
 

Is your group experiencing overwhelming amounts of change?  Do you find negativity rampant?  This is a practical & funny program to help you not just get through life’s obstacles, but to look at them differently so that you might turn the circumstances around to your benefit. Marian shares basic principles (pearls of wisdom) to help her audiences get through the obstacles of life and to thrive.

Life is made up of events...some of them positive and some of them negative. We don’t have a choice in the events that happen to us...but we do have a choice on how we respond. A friend of Marian’s once said about her “you were not blessed with the best of luck.... but you have certainly been blessed with the courage to persevere.”


In this program, Marian will share techniques on problem solving, communicating with others, conflict resolution, managing stress, and cultivating an attitude to persevere in the face of adversity.

Learn how knowing the difference between what is and is not controllable in stressful situations is key to managing your life. Gain insight on different ways to deal with the root cause of stress and how a sense of humor may be the best skill to get your life in control. As a well-known international speaker, Marian is famous for her dynamic & energetic personality. She uses lively humor to motivate, engage, and inspire audiences to get control of their stress.

• Yes, you have a choice — 5 options for any situation mean that you have more choices in dealing with difficult situations than you realize.

• The Control Zone—Identifying the aspects over which you have control in each and every situation. 

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• Keynote Presentations
   

• Motivational Speeches
   

• Training & Education Seminars
   

• Breakout Sessions
   

• Workshops
   

• In-Service
   

• Spouse/Partner Programs
   

• Youth Programs
   

• Consulting

Curious about the custom programs Marian has done (and still does) for other groups?  Many clients have chosen to utilize the expertise that Marian has acquired over the past 20 years by customizing a topic just for their group.  Listed below are some of the customized topics that she has done in the past.  Just let Marian know if one of these topics is more suited to your organization's needs, she’s glad to do the program once again for a new client, or, she can customize one especially for your group.

Communication Topics

• Building Rapport & Relationships in the Work Place Quick Tip - People judge other people's behavior by what what it would mean if they were doing the same thing.  However, the same behavior can actually have multiple meanings.  For example:  If you recently experienced a death in your family, some people would like privacy and so they'd give it to you.  If you want friends around, you could view it as aloofness or disinterest.

• Communication, Credibility, & Confidence for Women Quick Tip - When challenged by a another woman, most women have been socialized to say "let me check my facts."  This tactic is generally greeted positively by women by hurts a woman's credibility when heard by a man. It sends the message that you are "not sure" and as a result, a woman's credibility suffers.

• Conflict & Confrontation Skills Quick Tip - In a conflict, most people are focused on themselves.  In other words, they are not trying to do anything "to you."  They are trying to protect or get something for themselves.  What's happening "to you" is the furthest thing from their mind.

• Improving Written Communication (including email)

Quick Tip - Email is read in the mood people are in, not in the mood that you sent it.

• What to Know to Get to Yes: Negotiating Skills Quick Tip - When all the negotiation is over, ask "what else can you do for me."  It's amazing how much more people will offer.

• Stage Might: How to Present with Style, Impact, and Confidence Quick Tip - You are the only one who knew what your presentation was supposed to look like.  So unless you tell your audience that you "messed up" they will never know.  They will think that what they saw is exactly what they were supposed to see.

Stress Management, Resiliency, Adversity, and Attitude Topics

• Are We Having Fun Yet? Getting Control of Stress! (Can be customized for an all female audience)   Quick Tip - Researches believe that more than 75% of our illnesses are related to stress.

• How to Set Goals & Improve Motivation! Quick Tip - Many supervisors overlook setting goals and as a result, they have no objective way to measure results.

• The Intangibles of Successful Selling Quick Tip - People's ability to like and trust the sales person greatly influences the decision to buy.

• Time Management Skills that Get Things Done! Quick Tip - A recent study from the University of Michigan found that multi-tasking was inefficient.

• Tell Me Something Good! Maintaining Resilience in the Face of Adversity Quick Tip - Most people focus on what they can't control instead of what they can control which delays resilience in adverse circumstances.

Here are some topics that go back to Marian's financial background.

• Notary Public Training (Rave Reviews) Quick Tip - A copy of a birth or death certificate can not be notarized and is not valid.  Only an official copy from the county office is recognized.

• Understanding 401(k) Plans (The financial background comes back now and then) Quick Tip - 80% of Americans have not done a calculation to see how much they should be saving to meet their retirement goals (and as a result, have no idea whether or not they are on target).

• How to Get Employee's to Participate in 401(k) Plans (Exactly what HR folks need)  Quick Tip - Employees don't consider the match "free money?" They look at their contributions as a "cost" to get the match.

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