For further information about workshops and seminars, conference presentations, or custom workshop design, contact Dan King, dking@careerfirm.com or call 617-723-7696.
In this new Mind Tools course, you’ll learn how to tackle the deep structural
problems that cause stress in your working life. As well as introducing you to
relaxation techniques, its unique approach shows you how to win control of your
job and career, build positive relationships with powerful people and co-workers
and thrive under intense pressure.
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Navigating Your Career: Career Management in Today's Changing Workplace
Managing your career amidst the constant change and uncertainty of today's workplace presents a unique set of career development challenges. Yesterday you could depend on a lifetime of employment and job security with the same company. But today, confronted with organizational restructuring, process reengineering, and downsizing, workers face critical career decisions on a regular basis. Many of us wonder: Where do I fit? Should I stay or leave? Change careers? Make a lateral move? Relocate? This workshop will help you answer these and other pressing questions, by helping you realistically assess your career situation and assume greater control over your career development. Participants will examine current workplace trends and demographic factors, evaluate potential career paths and alternatives, and devise appropriate
strategies and courses of action. 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Coaching Careers and Performance
As a stand-alone seminar, or as a supplement to the Navigating Your Career session, this workshop is aimed at helping managers develop skills to encourage their staffs to take personal responsibility for their career development and performance. Emphasis is on improved one-on-one communication skills and coaching strategies. Through a combination of case studies and role plays, managers will learn effective ways of motivating and supporting people to be productive, to keep developing themselves and to reduce negative or ineffective attitudes and behaviors. Half-day or 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
New Rules, New Roles: Changing the Way We Think About Work and Jobs
Until recently, the average adult's worklife was characterized by a 9 to 5 job, a predictable work environment, and lifetime security. Work was seen as a means to a fairly conventional end: financial security. But now it seems the rules have changed. Our traditional vision of work is quickly becoming obsolete, giving way to new roles where temporary projects, contingency work, and alternative work arrangements are commonplace. So while labor statistics show that employment is on the rise, many of us are still asking: "Where are all the jobs?" This course will acquaint you with some of the new ways that people have found to earn a living in a workplace reshaped by relentless change. Options discussed include "portfolio" careers, contract work, consulting, "composite" careers, job share,
flextime, telecommuting and more. You'll learn tips and strategies to help you rethink your worklife and create your own security. Half-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
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Winning at Organizational Politics Without Losing Your Soul
Politics. A dirty word that connotes backroom deals, conniving end-runs, unscrupulous tactics and misdeeds? Perhaps -- but like it or not, politics are a normal part of daily life in today's organizations and are not likely to go away anytime soon. Simply put, politics is a means to an end -- politics is the means, power is the end -- and power is a part of every human equation. Sure, it can be, and often is, abused in business as in all arenas of endeavor. But power can also be used to do great good. It only becomes uncomfortable when it compromises our most cherished beliefs and principles. This lively presentation will show you how to hone your political instincts, increase your personal and professional power, and keep your integrity intact -- and you’ll leave with a fresh view of "politics" as an essential
career building tool. Half-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Retaining Your Top Achievers:
Employee Retention Strategies for a Changing Workplace
Retaining key talent in today’s rapidly changing work environment calls for new skills and strategies. Your high performers are the very ones who are most marketable to the outside. If you’re not talking to them about their career options, someone else probably is. What are you doing to ensure that they stay? This full day interactive workshop will provide a framework for getting at career management and employee retention issues with your group. Through a combination of case studies and role-plays, you’ll learn how to identify individual factors leading to employee satisfaction and continuity. 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Exploring Flexible Work Options: Alternatives to 9-to-5
Until recently, the average adult's worklife was characterized by the traditional, confining 9-to-5 schedule. Work was seen as a means to a fairly conventional end: financial security. But today's focus on work, family and personal commitments, has forced all working adults to evaluate their career options differently. Some people have made alternative career decisions that make it possible for them to pursue other lifestyle choices by tailoring their worklife for better balance and personal fulfillment. Options discussed include part-time, job sharing, flextime, telecommuting and more. Participants will learn strategies for identifying and creating flexible work schedules. Half-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Adapting to a Retirement Lifestyle: Exploring Issues and Options
Many people in retirement start a second career ... or start a business. Others work a part-time job or volunteer with organizations they care about. Some pursue a life of leisure with mixed results. Often, the prospect of "retirement" prompts a mix of anticipation, apprehension, and anxiety. When your life has revolved around full-time employment, retirement can affect your routine, social life, goals and challenges, even your self-image. Making a successful adjustment to retirement is the focus of this course. Participants will have an opportunity to discuss concerns, ideas and expectations about retirement, evaluate various work/leisure options, and take steps to enhance the quality of life in retirement. Half-day or 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Becoming More Effective at Work:
An Introduction to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
How many times have you felt like you were "beating your head against the wall" just to make a point? Often, when someone doesn't understand us, we just make the same point over again....only LOUDER! Whether it's with our boss, a fellow employee or a difficult customer, when communication breaks down, it's much easier to blame the other person for the failure. But perhaps the other person can't see your point because of the way you are presenting it. Maybe you're both not seeing the same thing. This workshop introduces participants to the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator," a personality assessment tool that enables people to appreciate other viewpoints by recognizing valuable differences that naturally exist in the workplace. The instrument identifies your preferences for looking at things and deciding
about things. Participants will receive written and verbal feedback on how to use their personal strengths and talents to improve communication and teamwork, resolve conflicts, solve problems, and make more satisfying career decisions. Half-day or 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
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Four Generations at Work: Bridging the Gap
For the first time in our history, the American workplace has become a playing field of competing viewpoints and attitudes about work and the workplace -- The recent college graduate navigating unfamiliar channels in search of personal and professional fulfillment, the ambitious Gen X’er striving to balance the competing demands of work and family life, the mid-career Boomer longing to stabilize a career rocked by years or reorganizing, reengineering, and relentless change, and the successful mature professional seeking to preserve an ethic of work built on commitment and responsibility. How do we, as individuals, bridge our separate but complementary ideals of worklife and workplace? In this seminar, we’ll clarify the four generational work ethics, explore defining events and trends, and identify
ways to utilize the value multi-generational viewpoints to advance our careers and sustain a stronger, more committed workforce. Half-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
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Successful Interviewing: Skills and Strategies for Hiring Top Performers
More than 75% of turnover can be traced back to poor interviewing and hiring practices, according to a recent study -- and it's clear that a structured interview process increases the probability of hiring the best person for the job. In this seminar, participants target the factors that contribute to a successful interview, learn how to create a "skills profile" for identifying the right candidate, and develop a structure for a one-hour interview. Topics covered include: interview strategy, questioning techniques, behavioral interviewing, reference checking and candidate selection. Opportunity to practice a simulated interview is provided. 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Managing Performance: Skills and Strategies for Giving Feedback
Creating a high-performance team is contingent upon a team leader's ability to provide consistent, ongoing feedback to members of the team. This seminar offers practical guidelines for discussing performance with staff. Participants learn how to set performance objectives, determine when to coach and when to correct, develop techniques for communicating both positive and negative feedback, and facilitate personal and professional development. Actual workplace scenarios are integrated into the session for role-playing practice. Participants may also receive a separate one-hour session with the workshop leader following the workshop to discuss specific performance issues and design appropriate corrective actions. 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Reshaping Your Leadership Style for a Changing Work Environment
Leadership today requires a continuously adaptable and fluid approach. The techniques we used yesterday may be incongruent with today’s economic realities and workplace dynamics. This workshop will acquaint managers and supervisors with changes affecting their staffs and their environment and provide a framework for developing an effective leadership style, consistent with an organization’s changing philosophy and goals. Emphasis will be placed on organizational culture -- climate, structure, changing demographics, customer/client and worker expectations -- to help participants to recognize the need for reshaping their management philosophy and to introduce contemporary tools and techniques. Half-day or 1-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Beyond Recruiting to Retention: The Business Case for Career Development
In today’s changing workworld, recruiting key talent is part of the equation -- but retaining key performers after they’ve signed on has grown to equal importance. Your high performance employees are the very ones who are most marketable to the outside. If you’re not talking to them about their career goals and options, someone else probably is. What are you doing to ensure that they stay? This workshop will provide tips and strategies to help your organization protect human assets by providing the tools and resources employees need to manage their careers. You’ll learn what progressive organizations are doing today to align individual visions of career success with strategic business goals and objectives -- and why it’s not just a "nice" thing to do, but a business imperative. Half-day or 1-day format.
Maximum participation is 20.
Gazing Through the Career Kaleidoscope: A Spectrum of Options for Managers and Professionals
Today’s world-of-work offers a myriad of options for managers and professionals. As changes in the workplace evolve, both individuals and organizations are experimenting with alternative approaches to meeting work demands. This session will offer a glimpse of some of these new ways of working. We’ll explore the spectrum of options from organizational consulting to contract recruiting, from part-time to flextime, and a myriad of others. You’ll hear perspectives on consulting, outsourcing, contracting, "portfolio" work and entrepreneurship -- and you’ll leave with some fresh ideas for managing your on-going personal and professional development. Half-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Career Transition Seminar
The focus of this seminar is on the development of skills necessary to conduct a successful search for a new position. Through a combination of group interaction and individual assignments, we progress through three phases:
- Assessment - logistical and psychological readiness, self-inventory, identification of marketable skills, and establishment of career direction.
- Planning - development of resume, supporting correspondence, and job search plan, including research on potential employers, tapping the hidden job market, and generating job leads through networking.
- Implementation - job campaign strategy, interviewing techniques, interview practice, negotiating compensation, leveraging job offers and decision-making.
1-day or 2-day format. Maximum participation is 20.
Career Focus Workshops
As a stand-alone or as a supplement to the Career Transition Seminar, these sessions provide more focused, individual attention toward particular aspects of a job search. Two-hour or half-day formats. Maximum participation is 20.
Marketing Your Talents: Resume Writing Workshop
Effective Job Search Strategies
Network, Network, Network: But I'm Not Any Good At It, I Don't Know Anybody, and Other Common Dilemmas
Use of the Internet as a Job Search Tool
Guidelines For Successful Interviewing
Getting Unstuck in Your Job Search
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