Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers

About this resource
This Trainer’s Activity Pack brings together the key interpersonal skills into
one easy-to-use resource. It aims to introduce users to the key concepts of
interpersonal skills in clear, jargon-free terms.
The activities focus on the power of interpersonal skills to achieve high
performance and business success.Whatever their level of technical
competence and expertise, managers need to be able to choose and use
interpersonal skills effectively in order to achieve their business objectives.
Each activity, even when used in isolation, is designed to help participants
improve their self-confidence, productivity, motivation and self-esteem.The
activities are constructed as self-contained modules that provide an
introduction to each topic area.When combined, they provide a compelling
experience that will enable participants and their teams to achieve
organisational goals. Although the activities are numbered, they are not
intended to be used in any particular sequence.
The activities can be used for group training with managers and teams or
as material for one-to-one coaching and development.
Each activity concludes with a learning review session, during which
participants write an action plan to secure the transfer of learning back to
the workplace, thus ensuring full value for money and a return on
investment in training and development.
This Trainer’s Activity Pack will give trainers and developers tools to help
them influence their organisation’s culture through the creation of
energetic and transforming training events.The 20 activities have been tried
and tested on a wide variety of training programmes. They are equally
applicable if you are facilitating an in-company or open training event,
whether you work for a large or small organisation, in the public or private
sector, in customer services or production, in head office or on the ‘front
line’ of the organisation.
I strongly believe that people are the key resource in any organisation.
Everyone in every organisation has to achieve results with and through the
efforts of other people. My main premise when writing these activities is
that, in order to use the interpersonal skills that enable you to work
effectively with others, you need to develop insight into how other people
feel, think and act. By exploring the behaviours that underpin most
interpersonal skills, you will be able to understand how to motivate
individuals and teams to maximise their performance. Armed with this
fresh perspective, you can then manage your interaction with others so
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Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers © Fenman Limited 2003
that they work with a sense of commitment rather than merely complying
with the minimum needed to get by and not attract adverse attention.
The activities are designed to be led by someone in the central role of
‘trainer’. My approach does not require a great deal of expert input; it is
based more on acting as a facilitator, establishing a learning climate and
encouraging self-awareness among the participants. As such, someone
whose more usual role is that of a manager, coach, colleague or consultant
can readily facilitate the activities.
When used effectively, this pack should help you to:
● Assist learning by generating a safe and supportive environment.
● Encourage self-learning and self-development in your participants (and
yourself).
● Develop greater empathy, rapport, listening and communication skills that
your participants can use to motivate themselves and their teams.
● Foster a creative and energetic environment in your training events.
● Improve individual effectiveness by developing skills for handling people
and problems in more productive ways.
● Help participants find sources of inspiration in themselves, their
colleagues and their teams.
● Help participants promote a creative and energetic environment in their
workplace.
Each activity can be used to:
● Save time in researching and developing material by providing a variety of
ideas and options.
● Fit into current training events on a wide number of topics (career and
personal development, leadership, time management) at a variety of
points (establishing core knowledge, developing skills, identifying actions).
● Combine with other resources currently in use (such as practice
scenarios, objection handling, team building, and interviewing skills).
● Save on resources when carried out in the workplace, not just the
training room, as most activities use a minimum of resources which are
easily obtainable in any working environment.
My aim is to give you exactly what you need to suit different situations and
participants.