Courses

APPLIED KNOWLEDGE CONCEPTS

Applied Knowledge Concepts (AKC) is a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business providing Full-Service Talent Development. AKC trainers have over 160 years combined experience implementing thousands of measurably effective workshops, seminars and courses for Government and Private sector clients. Our facilitators specialize in competency-based leadership development along with other services to include Interviewing Training, Executive Coaching, Personality Assessments, Mentoring Program Design etc. AKC can tailor programs to your organization's specific needs.

Accountability

Upon successful completion of this course the trainees will be able to assess their level of personal ownership and accountability as well as that of subordinates. They will recognize the strengths and advantages of ownership throughout the organization. They will be able to identify barriers to attainment of a high level of ownership in the work group. Learn options to improve accountability and ownership. The trainee will explore the relational aspects of accountability and ownership and how to leverage these to foster improvement. They will develop an action plan to implement and evaluate future progress.

Coaching and Mentoring

This course will focus on one of the critical elements in performance management "Coaching". Coaching is an often -used term applied to a variety of activities, from organized sports to guiding the ranks of executive management. Through lecture, group discussion and simulation, the class will explore concepts such as situational leadership, motivation, goal setting and the skills required for delivering effective feedback. The course will explain the difference between coaching and mentoring. It will explain the need for mentors and role they provide in personal professional development.

Communication "Principles of Effective Communication"

The foundation of personal and professional success lies in understanding yourself and others. One must learn how to recognize and realize the impact of personal behavior on the people around you. Successful relationships don't just happen, they result from the skill of understanding and adapting to the needs of others. In this course the trainee will discover personal communication strengths and limitations. Understand various factors that can influence the communication process. Learn how perspective differences may affect communication effectiveness. Recognize personal barriers to effective communication. Understand the importance of listening for understanding.

Conflict Management

Conflict is unavoidable, but it does not have to be destructive. This engaging and highly interactive course uses a self-assessment tool called the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) to help participants explore the motivations that drive their own behavior and the behavior of others. With this increased awareness, participants can more readily recognize potential sources of conflict and adapt their own behavior in ways that minimize the potential for destructive outcomes. Applying the concepts from this course can enhance the chances of attaining mutually productive results when conflicts arise.

Creativity/Innovation

Creativity and innovation are imperative attributes for all government employees to possess to be successful and to accomplish agency goals and mission. Employees with the ability to think creatively are able to be innovative. The results of thinking creatively and being innovative are the ability to develop ideas and plans and implement solutions. This class will train participants in the methods and strategies for thinking "whole brain." The result will be the integration of good program and project skill thinking with the knowledge of how to think creatively and innovatively.

Critical Thinking

What is critical thinking? It refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. Critical thinking involves the evaluation of sources such as data, facts, observable phenomenon, and research findings. Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve a problem or make a decision. Learn how to unpack the skills, attitudes, traits, and behaviors employees need to think critically, find new answers, uncover new opportunities and make better decisions.

Customer Service

This workshop will focus on elements of customer service, prioritizing their needs of the customer and how to proactively meet the needs of the customer and how to proactively meet those needs in any industry. The trainee will learn how to explore aspects of customer relations and our responses to their needs. How to examine communication techniques to enhance understanding. To recognize the importance of credibility and perception in interactions with people. Learn to review critical aspects of listening and questioning and apply concepts of proactively managing conflict.

Developing Others Ken Blanchard's "Situational Leadership"

"Participants in this course will complete Blanchard's "Leader Behavior Analysis II" self-assessment at the beginning of the session, then spend the course exploring the situational leadership concept and using their self-assessment results to gain insight into their current leadership style and potential areas for improvement. Situational leadership can be a real "power tool" for becoming a more effective leader! Trainees will learn to describe diversity in the workplace. Diagnose the development level of an employee and choose the appropriate leadership style for their needs. Explain why there is no single "best" leadership style. Use a new way of discussing coaching and development with employees. Understand the negative impact of over-supervising and under-supervising on performance and morale."

Difficult Conversations

Based on the bestselling book, Difficult Conversations, this training will provide a step-by-step guide to having the most difficult conversations with less stress and more success. This training is especially effective for significantly improving conflict in the workplace and enhancing corporate culture. Whether you're dealing with an underperforming employee, disagreeing with your spouse about money or child-rearing, negotiating with a difficult client, or simply saying "no," or "I'm sorry," or "I love you," we attempt or avoid difficult conversation every day. Based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, Difficult Conversations walks you through a step-by-step proven approach to having your toughest conversations with less stress and more success.

DiSC Assessment and Training

The DISC profile is a non-judgmental tool used for discussion of people's behavioral differences. If you participate in a DISC program, you'll be asked to complete a series of questions that produce a detailed report about your personality and behavior. You'll also receive tips related to working with people of other styles.

Diversity

This course will Describe different aspects of diversity in the workplace. The core of the course will focus on Generational Diversity which is considered by many as the number one leadership challenge in the workplace today! Regardless of the type of organization Corporate or Government when you're at work take a look around you. When there is discussion about diversity in the workplace, it's usually centered on things like race and gender. However, age is another important dimension of diversity. Perceptions surrounding some of the stereo-types about different generations are overblown, it's true that people of different ages will bring very different and valuable perspectives and insights to the work environment.

Myers Briggs - MBTI

The MBTI is a widely used tool for assessing and understanding individual personality differences. The MBTI can be valuable for anyone who wants to: increase their self-awareness to better understand the internal drivers of their own behavior, enhance team performance by understanding individual preferences for how information is managed, how decisions are made, and how groups choose to interact, become a more effective communicator by shaping your message to appeal to a range of listeners who may have differing needs and expectations, and help resolve conflict by becoming more aware that your preferred approach to life and work may be different from the preferences of the people around you.

Leading with High Trust - Stephen M. R. Coveys "Leading at the Speed of Trust"

Leading at the Speed of Trust-ft' is leverage that dramatically impacts business outcomes through changing the performance of individuals and teams. This is not a separate initiative; rather, it is about HOW individuals and teams do their current work. Leaders who know how to create a high-trust, highly-engaged culture create the ultimate, long-term competitive advantage. The Speed of Trust Transformation ProcesslM drives a scalable, simple methodology that easily guides individuals, leaders, and organizations to become explicit and deliberate about creating a high-trust, highly-engaged culture focused on results.

Performance Management

Performance feedback is a vital tool in elevating employee productivity. When asked about performance appraisals, a large majority of employees state they are worthless. However, feedback, both oral and written, is invaluable in employee development. The key is utilizing them in the correct manner in an effort to develop and motivate personnel, not simply to complete an annual requirement. Participants will learn the value of effective performance feedback utilizing the concepts for developing SMART performance standards. This knowledge can make your performance appraisal process measurable and become meaningful.

Briefing Training

This course is designed to introduce a basic skillset to employees and supervisors. The participants learn about effective communication techniques for briefings, and then practice those techniques in a nonthreatening environment. Participants will review how to prepare and deliver effective, focused briefings. The course offers a roadmap to a successful briefing experience by providing the steps to follow in order to provide sharp, focused briefings that you will be proud to deliver with confidence. Completing these steps will help participants address fear of presenting.

Principles of Execution "Closing the Execution Gap"

The Challenge: Are your leaders get-ting the right things done? For many organizations, the right elements seem to be in place; a talented workforce, a compelling business model with an excellent product or service - but the results aren't. Somehow the most important things aren't getting done, and the unimportant things eat away precious time and resources. Without a clear map for executing on the most important things, results are mediocre performance year after year. The Solution: Learn the discipline of getting the right things done. Linking employees to their organizations most important goals is the key to eliminating the gap between knowing what needs to be done and getting it done. Of course, getting things done still takes discipline and accountability. Closing the Execution Gap is a powerful module that exposes the core issues that derail an organization's productivity and results, and then presents a straightforward plan for staying on task.

Problem Solving

Much of what people do is solve problems and make decisions. Often, they are "under the gun," stressed and very short for time. Consequently, when they encounter a new problem or decision they must make, they react with a decision that seemed to work before. It's easy with this approach to get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again. Therefore, it's often useful to get used to an organized approach to problem solving and decision making. During this class students will identify how they currently make decisions and how to use a more rational approach to decision making.

Self-Management - Stephen Coveys' "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People"

This is an intensive workshop that provides participants with a robust and tactical implementation plan to fully engage the 7 habits into their lives. Designed for anyone looking to become a more effective person - regardless of your occupation, position or stage in life.

Team Building "Developing Teams and Work Groups"

Every day in some way, you are part of a team. The question is "will your involvement with others be successful?" Teams are quic-kly becoming the accepted structural format for many organizations. This course will show reasons for the transition are that teams benefit from the diversity of the strengths and skills of the individual members. It will explain that the total capacity of a work group or team is greater than the sum of the individual capacities of the members. It will explain the supervisor's role in team development as being multi-faceted. He or she must coordinate the team's efforts by presenting the common goals that are shared by the team as well as participate in role assignment of the members. The supervisor must be able to manage internal conflict and guide the problem-solving process to maximize team effectiveness.

Time Management

One of the greatest challenges for managers and supervisors in the workplace is maximizing effectiveness, which correlates to managing time. The key is to develop proficiency in planning, prioritizing, and project management. Effective managers know how to minimize unnecessary interruptions, and eliminate time wasters. The increasing pressures to "do more with less" within strict time constraints can undermine harmonious work relationships and increase stress. Left unchecked, stress can result in chronic health issues. Managers must be able to recognize and minimize the effects of personal stressors. The course will provide tools to improve effectiveness in managing time and reduce the effects of stress.

Resiliency

Resilience is your ability to adapt well and recover quickly after stress, adversity, trauma or tragedy. If you have a resilient disposition, you are better able to maintain poise and a healthy level of physical and psychological wellness in the face of life's challenges. If you're less resilient, you're more likely to dwell on problems, feel overwhelmed, use unhealthy coping tactics to handle stress, and develop anxiety and depression. Resilience training focuses on four areas, including emotional, cognitive and mental, physical, and spiritual resilience. Training in these areas can improve your resiliency, enhance your quality of life, and decrease your stress and anxiety by teaching you to view life's inevitable challenges as opportunities.

Emotional Intelligence

Wouldn't it be great if you could better understand why certain people, events, and things bother you at work? And how your body and mind react in those sticky situations? If you want the tools to help you master your emotional intelligence (EQ), look no further! Unlike your IQ, your EQ is ever-changing. This course was designed to help you discover what EQ is and how you can improve it. In this course, I'll show you how you can better manage your emotions at work, improve your professional relationships, and recogni-ze the subtle social cues you may be missing in the workplace, all with the goal of moving your career forward.

Generational Diversity

Generational Diversity is considered by many as the number one leadership challenge in the workplace today! Regardless of the type of organization Corporate or Government when you're at work take a look around you. Are your colleagues or employees about the same age as you, or is there a big variation? Is this something you've ever noticed before? When there is discussion about diversity in the workplace, it's usually centered on things like race and gender. However, age is another important dimension of diversity. Perceptions surrounding some of the stereotypes about different generations are overblown, it's true that people of different ages will bring very different and valuable perspectives and insights to the work environment.

360 Assessment and Coaching

The Denison Leadership Development 360 measures a leader's performance on a set of 12 leadership behaviors linked to high performing business cultures. Based on the Denison Model, this 360-degree assessment benchmarks an individual's leadership and management skills to those of leaders in other organizations. Importantly, the Denison Leadership Development 360 allows leaders to compare their own ratings to those of coworkers and to identify gaps in perceived strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities.

Resume Writing - Applying with Confidence

This course is a resume writing course to develop a professional and informative resume that you can be confident about submitting. It discusses what information to include on the resume, how to format the resume and tailoring your resume for different positions in your job search.

Interviewing Skills

I got the job! - This course will have lots of practice at interviewing! We will show how to conduct research about the company and the position prior to the interview to gain knowledge and confidence. We will learn and practice how to answer questions, even those tough ones, for a favorable response. Learning how to ask the potential employer questions is key to a successful interview along with steps to follow up and follow through after the interview.

Coaching and Poor Performers

This course explores how, when and why to deal with poor performers. It examines how poor performers affect the entire team's performance if it is not managed. It also helps supervisors diagnose the problems whether misconduct or poor performance; how to correct poor performance.

Human Resources Overview for Supervisors

This training is a broad overview of harassment and discrimination in the workplace and steps supervisors need to take to detect it, correct it and prevent it. Discussion includes overview of employment laws, workplace bullying, examining retaliation claims as well as prevention in the workplace.

Negotiation Skills - "Powers of Persuasion"

This training provides participates tools to negotiate both large and small issues in the workplace. It reviews the types of negotiation, stages of negotiation, negotiating fairly for mutual resolution. We also review when parties do not come to terms when negotiating and how to resolve in the workplace.

Supervisory Competency Development

To allow organizations to meet the ever-chan-ging challenges in the workplace leaders must develop critical leadership skills. This course is designed to develop essential leadership skills for supervisors and managers. Any of the topics in our portfolio or topic of your choice can be combined into a 4- or 8-hour session as requested. This format is designed to be flexible to accommodate the individual organiza-tions requirement.

Developing Women Managers

This course provides tools and instruction necessary for women to develop and become outstanding managers, especially those in male-domina-ted industries. In the course we discuss many topics from a women's point of view. Men and women communicate differently so we discuss the differences and how to manage them. There are a number of assessments so that participants can learn more about themselves which supports their overall views, confidence and abilities to grow their careers.

Interviewing Training - Behavior-Based Interviewing (BBI)

This course teaches participants how to conduct a behavior-based interview and covers topics such as doing a job analysis; determining the core competencies and benchmarks for a job; and identifying behaviors that indicate competency possession. Participants will write and then practice asking behavior-based questions and clarification questions in an interview setting. Participants will also discuss rating the interview and selecting a candidate.

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