View our selection of Professional Management & Leadership Products
The expertise of our speakers enables us to provide distinguished training services. The training is practical and employs methodology specifically designed for adult learning. The seminars are highly interactive, including simulations, case studies, group discussions, role-playing exercises, questions and sharing of information and experiences.
With an extensive network of professional trainers, The Learning Edge Inc. offers more than 60 seminars and workshops. Each session varies in length from two hours to one week.
Choose your area of interest from the topics below for a summary of our services. You can also download pdfs.
- Management
& Leadership - Human Resources
Management - Planning
- Communication
- Marketing
Management and Leadership
Team Building
High performance teams possess a powerful esprit de corps, a common feeling of purpose, pride, loyalty and responsibility. The team is united in its fulfillment of vision, organizational mission, and consistently meets the challenging objectives of new opportunities. In spite of today's ambiguity and uncertainty, the innovative spirit of teams is committed to continuously improving all aspects of the job.
Management Skills for Supervisors
In these times of tight budgets and rapid change, the supervisor has acquired new work responsibilities and new relationships. You need technical skills, abilities to get the job done, the cooperative attitude of others, a commitment to shared goals, and above all, the ability to direct and motivate the people you rely on. You need to be a powerhouse of efficiency and productivity, and to have the skills to handle your managerial responsibilities with confidence and with ease.
Developing Effective Leadership
Leaders are important for three reasons: they are responsible for the effectiveness of an organization; they are the anchors during upheaval and constant change prevalent in today's economy; and they have the skills, flexibility and creativity to acquire new knowledge and to use it to create continuous improvement. These qualities bring them to the forefront as navigators towards clearly defined organizational missions.
."Developing Effective Leadership Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Training the Trainer
Customers perceive employee skills training, product development and service delivery as a single unit, for the employee represents both the product and the service. Organizations providing outstanding service recognize the importance of intensive and continuous education of employees regarding customers, quality and superior service. Effective training methods are critical for sustaining commitment to the total quality service philosophy, and for competitiveness and survival of the organization.
Conflict Management
Not a day goes by that we don't see conflict happening - from subtle nuances to irrational demonstrations. Conflict is an inevitable reality in our lives, and ignoring it or accommodating it is not a solution. Properly handled, it is an opportunity for creativity and problem-solving. By recognizing that potential, parties in conflict can negotiate mutually satisfying outcomes, and develop a comfortable working relationship.
Stress Management
Stress is a constant in everyone's life - either negatively or positively. Understanding the difference, how each affects us, and learning specific management techniques, are essential to our well-being. In this time of rapid change and greater expectations in the workplace, learning to recognize symptoms and to take action to prevent burnout will energize and enrich your relationships and self-confidence.
Decision Making and Risk Taking
Every day, managers face decisions that involve potential costs and risks. Decision-making is a critical facet of every manager's job; how effective they are has direct application to organizational performance and the success of their career. Creative, innovative improvement contains a component of risk. By balancing risk with projected benefits, managers can maximize organizational potential and growth.
."Decision Making and Risk Taking Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Motivating Yourself & Your Employees
Self-motivation in high-achievers and effective leaders means always moving in the direction of established goals. Leaders understand that achieving manageable goals in the pursuit of excellence can realize self-esteem and outright exhilaration! Motivating and inspiring their employees can bring about the same results, as they unleash their creativity and deliver excellent service in an environment of ongoing positive feedback.
Human Resources Management
Human Resources Planning
Organizations are being forced to do more Human Resources planning due to continued pressure to reduce staff and restructure employment in order to lower operating costs to meet the demands of increased global competition. With consideration of government legislation, aggressive Human Resources planning is required to develop strategies for addressing people-related issues. It is also required for re-aligning and integrating staff functions and roles for optimal performance, networking and realization of organizational goals.
Recruiting & Selecting Employees
If people are the most important asset of the organization, then the practices adopted in attracting outside applicants and seeking them from within, need to be of value to an organization in achieving its aim. Recruitment and selection practices must reflect the culture and values of the organization. Effective recruiting and selection find people with knowledge, skill and interest in meeting or exceeding job criteria.
"Recruiting & Selecting Employees Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Effective Interview Skills
The interview is a vehicle for the exchange of information between a job applicant and the interviewer regarding suitability for and interest in a job. It also provides the interviewer with a sample of an applicant's behaviour in a one-to-one interaction situation. Given the continued use and resurging importance of interviews, efforts must be made to ensure that they are both job-relevant and non-discriminatory.
"Effective Interview Skills Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Hiring, Orientating & Training New Employees
Having recruited and selected suitable people to join the organization, it is imperative to integrate them into the company as effectively as possible. Orientation, training and development will add value by increasing motivation, ensuring adjustment and socialization, developing competency and responsiveness to rapid change in the business environment, and improving team and corporate performance.
Preparing Position Descriptions
A good job description program can be the backbone of a Human Resources Department. However, writing a good job description is not a simple matter. A job description must be specific, complete, meaningful and readable to the employee. The writer of the job description, (the job analyst) manager or supervisor, must have an understanding of the job for accurate content, an employee-focused orientation for appealing job presentation, and an effective writing technique for a readable product.
"Preparing Position Descriptions Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Employee Performance Management
Effective management of the employment relationship focuses on the key stakeholders in this relationship, and the degree of influence each can exert in workforce management. With concepts of empowerment and high-powered work teams not at the forefront of the new organizational "democratic process", performance management must evolve into a flexible, accountable, fair and equitable process that rises up to meet increasing demands and competition in the marketplace.
Designing Performance Appraisals
Performance appraisals have long been regarded as one of the most critical yet troubling areas of Human Resources Management. It is an important mechanism for the communication and control of organizational goals and objectives, and for providing feedback, guidance, and motivation to employees. Information communicated during the performance appraisal can have long-term effects on employees' attitudes towards their job, their supervisors, and the organization.
Preparing Employee Policy Guidelines
The ultimate goal in guide preparation is for the finished product to be inspired by and useful to its readers. The purpose is to provide readers with a readable document including specific information, and to be readily understandable and applicable. Creating a guide that works, requires the writers' awareness of needs of potential readers, and an overriding commitment to creating a friendly product that is a functional work tool.
Planning
How to Start a Small Business
Small business offers opportunities for success to anyone and everyone. No guarantees exist, and risks cannot be completely eliminated. Nevertheless, in addition to offering opportunities to those with the entrepreneurial spirit, small businesses have added vitality to the economy. An increased emphasis on quality products and services, and the need to adapt quickly to changes in the marketplace, have given small businesses the edge in today's competitive business environment.
"How to Start a Small Business Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
How to Prepare a Business Plan
A well-researched business plan is a critical component for creating a new business venture or introducing a new project or initiative in your organization. It is your portable document which forms the blueprint for your business. When seeking acceptance and commitment from financiers, stakeholders and decision-makers, it is a powerful tool for "selling" your idea and demonstrating your direction over time.
"How to Prepare a Business Plan Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Developing Vision, Mission and Goals
In today's ever-changing business environment, leaders must use visionary thinking to develop appropriate goals and strategies for their companies. They must examine how their organizational processes and human resources can work together with a unified focus to guarantee responsiveness in a competitive global environment. Innovative and proactive planning must achieve close coordination throughout the organization in order to retain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Effective Time Management
Are you managing your job or is it managing you? Are you doing more now than ever, and enjoying it less? Time, our most valuable resource, is very personal, and the way we elect to spend our time determines the quality of our lives. Too many of us compromise our creativity and freedom in favour of daily routines and demands. In this fast-paced environment, there is an urgent need for time management skills for people who must structure their time and be self-motivated. It's time to get started!
Managing Change
Organizations today must constantly change to remain competitive, and this has placed incredible pressure on their employees to adapt quickly. Employees are being told to become more efficient, creative and accountable, the impact of which has brought uncertainty and higher levels of stress to the workplace. In order to survive and thrive, organizations and employees must remain flexible and responsive, and must develop interdependent strategies, attitudes and skills to embrace and master change.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning means systematically adapting to today's changing economic and competitive environment. Today's business leaders must develop a planning process that is both focused and flexible, that sustains a competitive advantage, while aligning with the organization's mission and meeting the changing needs of the marketplace.
Succession Planning
Succession planning is becoming increasingly important and more difficult because of rapidly changing demands on managers in growing, evolving organizations. Grooming new managers has become a specific, evaluation-based process, in which criteria for assessing candidates and developing customized training are linked to expectations of future organizational changes and managerial staffing requirements.
Communications
Designing a Communications Plan
Throughout the world, men and women perform communication duties for organizations. They counsel managers, manage communications programs, write, edit and design publications, produce videotapes, do research, and promote organizations to the internal and external public. An excellent communications plan plays a critical role in meshing organizational strategic plans with supporting relationships of stakeholders.
"Designing a Communications Plan Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
How to Work a Room
A room full of strangers is not an uncommon setting for people in business. That room is also often a heaven of golden opportunities for business networking, initiating new contacts and seeding new relationships. Positive self-projection in such situations can create an unmistakable presence, a high comfort level, and the self-confidence necessary to seize those networking opportunities at every business and social gathering.
Interpersonal Communications
Many supervisors and managers take their interpersonal skills for granted as they go through their daily workplace routines. Yet communication skills form the basis of how people perceive supervisors and managers and their ideas. Business depends on how managers get through to people - by motivating, by influence and control, and by knowing the best relationships in business are those founded on honest, direct, and convincing communication.
"Interpersonal Communications Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Effective Negotiation
Almost all our dealings with other people, personal or professional, involve some form of negotiation. It is the most common method for satisfying needs, meeting goals, changing attitudes or influencing decisions. Successful negotiating depends on cooperative problem-solving, essential communication skills, and creative strategy formulation for producing mutually satisfying outcomes in business.
Presentation Skills
Presentations are an integral part of business; how well they are conducted can have a major impact on business and personal success. As business becomes increasingly complex, the need to communicate those complexities in clear, concise terms becomes more critical. Presentations are essential to the achievement of the goals of the organization, and are an extremely important avenue for career advancement.
Assertiveness Communication
In today's competitive workplace, the ability to assert yourself is essential to personal and professional growth. Communicating assertively means getting people to listen to you; it means taking charge in managerial aspects of motivation, of decision-making and of teambuilding. Developing assertive communication skills provides access to opportunities for professional productivity and personal success in the business world.
"Assertiveness Communication Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
How to Deal with Difficult People
Difficult people know how to keep you off balance - they constantly frustrate you, causing stress and lost time in the workplace. Unless you learn how to deal with them, they will succeed in controlling you. The ability to recognize the various "types" of difficult people, and their typical styles, will enable you to apply appropriate skills and responses that could lead to behavioural change and cooperation in these same people.
"Deal with Difficult People Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Conducting an Effective Meeting
Today's leaders must be competent in presiding over business meetings where goals are set and where plans of action to achieve these goals are developed. Since meetings are where major decisions are made, knowing how to plan for and conduct them efficiently will ensure achievement of objectives within reasonable timeframes, as well as assure interaction and involvement of participants.
"Conducting an Effective Meeting Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Marketing
Marketing
Marketing means the delivery of the right message to the right market via the right media. It is a brick-by-brick process, as well as, an art and a science. As an art, it involves creativity and insight. As a science, it involves planning, analysis and discipline. The two must blend and balance to maximize potential and to capitalize on strengths of your company and human resources.
Customer Service
In today's service-oriented economy, excellent customer service is more than a competitive edge it is a survival skill. It means meeting and exceeding expectations of both internal and external customers. There is a remarkably close and consistent link between how internal customers are treated, and how external customers perceive the quality of a company's services. Satisfying all the customers results in loyalty, enthusiasm, teamwork, enhanced productivity, and continual demand for your service.
Merchandising
Merchandising encompasses the areas of merchandise planning, resources, negotiating, pricing, distribution and control. Developing and implementing a merchandise plan is a primary component of retail strategy. To be successful, retailers must plan and supervise the marketing of goods and services at the right place, the right time, the right price and quantity to realize marketing objectives of the business.
Effective Selling Techniques
Demanding customers, technological innovations and incredible competition have changed the way sales professionals do business today. Sales forces that develop creative selling presentations and engage in planning and evaluation techniques maximize continuous quality service; those that develop effective listening and communication skills guarantee the fostering of strategic, long-term relationships with customers.
"Effective Selling Techniques Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Creative Advertising & Promotion
Promotion is the function of informing, persuading, and influencing the customer's purchase decision. The mix of a business' promotional strategy, personal selling, and advertising are all methods of communicating a product or service to the customer and should be simple and straightforward. This can turn everybody in the company into a promoter to clients to banks to employees or to the public.
"Creative Advertising & Promotion Seminar Objectives" printable PDF
Guerilla Marketing
In a tough economy resources are strained and marketing dollars must be stretched to the limit while still launching effective and profitable marketing programs. By learning how to implement a marketing mix appropriate to their funds and their stage of growth, entrepreneurs can create a track record that will bring big returns on creative time investments.