May 2019 - AdvantEdge Training & Consulting
PowerPoint

Engaging PowerPoint Presentations – Art of Expansion

PowerPoint Presentations that Keep Them Listening Have you sometimes noticed that your audience is not fully engaged with your presentation? Maybe they pay attention for a minute or two, but then they redirect their attention to their phone. Do you notice that fellow employees would prefer talking to each other or taking a nap, instead of following your presentation? How do you make sure you are giving engaging PowerPoint presentations? One thing to check is your presentation layout. PowerPoint slides are meant to be a placeholder, not a read-a-long. It is very easy to fall into the trap of giving your audience all the relevant information on the slide, leaving no reason to listen to your spoken words. If they know what you are going to say, before you say it, then it is the have no reason to pay attention; they already have gotten everything you have to offer. If you want a presentation that does not put people to sleep, it is important to learn the art of expansion.  When people are not sure what is going to be said, but have an idea of the subject matter, they are more likely to pay attention. Less is more, when it comes to PowerPoint. The art of expansion is being able to take a word or phrase and expand on the idea for two to ten minutes. For example, if you take the word ball, you can probably think of a story from your childhood that involved a ball, and spend 5 minutes talking about the experience. You could probably make up a story, or use a story from something you witnessed, and no one would be the wiser. It is no different for work-related information, except that you do not want to make stuff up to get your point across. For example, take the slide below, and notice there are only three words listed. The presenter, of well-prepared, will be ale to discuss each of the topics listed on the slide, giving the presentation substance. This technique allows the audience to understand the general ideas of this portion of the presentation, but demands that they continue to pay attention to get the full picture. Of course, not everyone can remember two to ten minutes of details on each main concept of their presentation. Such notes can be saved in Presenter’s Mode of PowerPoint, keeping the presenter on track, and not putting their audience to sleep. Learn all the ways to keep your audience riveted to your PowerPoint presentations, with a class from AdvantEdge Training & Consulting.

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Management, Virtual Employee Management

Effectively Manage Remote Employees

Quickly disappearing are the days of companies where all employees are based in one office.  In our globally shrinking competitive landscape, drivers for this change include: speed to service, less travel cost with clients being spread out, and improved customer service.   This creates challenges in company expectations of remote employees, and in effectively managing a remote workforce. Managing remote employees can prove rewarding, liberating and fulfilling . . . or you can feel like an empty nest parent whose kids don’t stay in touch.  You can’t manage a team of remotely dispersed employees with all of the same techniques, which used in the past, for supervising a group based in the same office.  There are some specific skills and techniques you need to use as a manager to make sure you have a strong team that doesn’t feel disconnected by the miles. Get the right skills to manage remote employees MCT’s online Remote Employee Management course teaches you the techniques you can employee to make sure you have a strong team, including: Keeping Remote Employees on Track – Remote employees are more apt to stray off course, by focusing on what they think is important, rather than what you think is important.  Its not that they are being malicious; they can just become easily disconnected with the overall objectives of the team and company when they are teleworking.  In this module, you will learn how to keep them on the right path, by setting clear visions and expectations, so there is no confusion about how they can be a successful part of the team. Increase and Don’t Delay Communication – With a virtual team, how can you make sure that they are getting the information they need without information overload? How do you insure that you are using the correct communication tools?  What is the appropriate way to communicate with a virtual team?  In this module, we will cover the different communication tools and channels to use, how to make your meetings run efficiently, and how to ensure you are engaged in accurate communication with your team, ensuring that they are getting the info they need to work just as if all in one office. Building Team Strength and Developing Trust – If not managed correctly, remote and teleworking teams are really not teams.  Instead they become a bunch of individuals working alone in silos that happen to report to the same manager.   However, that doesn’t have to be the case.  If managed correctly, remote teams can be strong, closer, and work better together than those based in the same office.  In this module you will learn how to create dynamic and interactive teams that have a closely woven team community, and strong trust, with mutual respect.  You will also learn how you can insure that your communication with them is clear and credible. Creating Accountability – One of the biggest company fears about a teleworking teams is that they will not be working when you can’t see them.  Unfortunately, this fear can lead to a micro-management style that gets you the opposite results of what you want.  So how can you hold your team accountable without becoming an micro-manager?  This module shows you how to empower your employees to manage themselves and how to create an accountability tracking system so YOU don’t have to be that system. Coaching Remote Employees – How can you effectively coach and develop your team of virtual employees when they are not based in the same office with you? Motivating Remote Employees – A team of dispersed working employees need a self-charged motivation technique.  How do you keep them excited and engaged in their work and with the team?  This module will show you techniques to create that self-charged motivation.  Also you will learn how to get your team as excited about work as they are about playing. Take the online course, or have us come to your location for a private group training for your management team.

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Management

Management 101 – The Basics

Have you recently stepped into a Management role, or are you planning to in the near future?  Management is both a very rewarding and challenging job all, if it is done right.  You must be a leader, coach, and motivator for your team. Ultimately, you work for your employees.  You are the person who removes obstacles for them, helps them succeed, you are their representative to the company, ensure they get needed company information, get them needed training and feedback, lead them by example, show them how to reach the vision through defining expectations and goals.  Basically, your job is to help them reach the finish line.  Whew!  And all of this has to happen while doing other job tasks for your company. So how do you know if you are doing all of that successfully?  Here are the 6 keys to successfully managing a team of employees: Lay a Clear Foundation – No one wants to do a bad job. But employees often fail because they have a misunderstanding of what doing a good job looks like.  It is important as a manager to lay  very clear groundwork for what is expected of employees to be successful.  This will help keep your team on track toward the same purpose and results. Create Accountability Systems – If you don’t create an accountability system for your employees, then YOU will have to be that system, meaning you will always have to micro-manage all of their tasks to see if they are completing them. Instead, create an accountability system where they report their progress to you, therefore holding themselves accountable and managing themselves at task level.  This will give them the responsibility of meeting their goals, with less headache for you, and generate a more collaborative and engaged work environment. Engage in Active Listening and Empathy – You have to care about your employees as individuals and you have to let them know you do, if you want to have a high level of respect and trust within your team. Two important ways to do this are to engage in active listening when interacting with them, as well as demonstrating empathy.  It is also important to find ways to foster this practice among team members as well. Pro-Active, Candid, and Ongoing Coaching – Good coaches coach before, during, and after the game. So make sure you are always finding opportunities to coach your employees, on good as well as not so good behaviors.  The moment we stop developing our employees (even our best of the bunch) is the moment we are telling them we don’t care about them. Develop a Team Culture – Team cohesion and strength doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes some fostering on your part, as a manager.  You need to find opportunities for your team members to work together on projects, as well as to learn who each of their team mates are as individuals outside of what they just do as a work role. Ask Questions – Too often as managers, we can fall into the “fix-it” role, where we are always in problem solving mode. Although it is true that we need to be there for our teams to help solve issues, we can be better at it if we learn to stop and ask questions first, before we jump in.  If we jump in to solve issues right away, we become part of the chaos.  Instead, it’s important to always be in analysis mode first, and gather as much information as possible before we offer solutions or opinions.  Better yet, guide your employees down the path of solving issues themselves, by engaging them in discussions around solutions, by asking questions rather than providing answers. Want to learn how to incorporate each of these keys into your management style?  AETC’s Management 101 class will give you all these tools and more to get you on your way to having a productive and engaged team of employees.

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