Communication and Interpersonal Skills for Technical Professionals

Whether you’re an IT professional, engineer, scientist, or researcher, communicating with others—both technical and nontechnical professionals—is an essential part of the job. This seminar will give you the interpersonal and communication tools you need to ensure mutual clarity and understanding when dealing with others, so you can maximize all your business interactions and achieve your critical goals.

Who Should Attend

All technical and IT professionals who need to develop the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to effectively convey their knowledge to those around them.

How You Will Benefit

• Recognize and manage differences between you and nontechnical professionals
• Deliver clear messages to non-technical professionals
• Apply verbal and nonverbal techniques to build shared understanding
• Strategically apply a communication system to enhance relationships and achieve performance goals
• Develop active listening skills that promote better work relationships
• Get your points across in diverse communication contexts
• Use influencing skills to complete projects faster and grow your reputation
• Be able to productively manage conflict

What You Will Cover

Identifying Differences Between Technical and Nontechnical Professionals

• Recognizing the differences in communication needs/expectations of technical vs. non-technical professionals
• Understanding the impact of generational characteristics on communication within and outside of technical areas
• Analyzing your own work situation based on communication needs and expectations

Interpersonal Strategies to Help You Get Your Points Across in Diverse Circumstances

• Distinguishing communication style preferences to better understand and influence others
• Determining your personal communication styles with the DiSC® profile
• Identifying the strengths and limitations of your DiSC® profile
• Using behavioral clues to determine others’ personal styles
• Describing how to more effectively work with other styles

Strategically Applying a Communication System to Enhance Relationships

• Differentiating between verbal and nonverbal communications
• Assessing your own nonverbal traits and developing an improvement plan
• Identifying criteria for establishing trust and building credibility
• Using a communication model to conduct more effective conversations

Developing Active Listening Skills to Promote Better Work Relationships

• Recognizing the role of listening in effective communications
• Knowing when and how to acknowledge emotions and ideas
• Applying effective listening techniques to own work situations

Communication Strategies to Help You Achieve Your Goals

• Determining when to use open and closed-ended questions
• Demonstrating and applying the effective use of informing, directing, and criticizing

Productively Managing Conflict

• Using and applying the AEIOU model to assertively build shared expectations
• Determining your own conflict style using the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
• Developing an action plan to apply these techniques to your own work situations