Straight Talk is designed for business professionals whose professional and managerial communication skills are expected to be excellent in terms of focus, organization, support, and delivery.

Who Should Participate

• Senior executives who represent the company by communicating with clients, shareholders, civic organizations, and employees

• Account executives or marketing managers who communicate informatively and persuasively to other sales representatives, external clients, and end users

• Managers who motivate, inform, persuade, or give positive or negative feedback to their subordinates, peers, or superiors

• Office professionals who represent the organization with customers and clients on the "front line" and who communicate with supervisors, subordinates, and peers on a daily basis

Workshop/Seminar Objectives

You will develop your abilities in the following ways:

• Identify areas of effectiveness and target areas for growth and development in your personal, professional, and managerial communication skills

• Increase overall perceptions of your credibility through understanding target audiences and preparing messages with a focus on the needs and concerns of each audience

• Consider the best choices for media, source, and timing of your messages

• Learn fast, easy, high-impact organizational “tricks” to inform, persuade, and give bad news

• Improve confidence in your delivery skills through objective evaluation and positive reinforcement

• Learn to ask for, give, and receive constructive feedback

• Enhance your effectiveness in all career responsibilities through relevant application of communication strategies

• Realistically assess the impact of your communication efforts on other people

Workshop/Seminar Topics

• Understand the context of your communication.

--What’s going on in your organization right now?
--What’s going on in your industry and with the competition?
--How does the corporate culture affect how everyone in the organization communicates?
--Who are your most important audiences, internal and external?
--What are the consistent concerns of those audiences?
--What are your goals with those audiences?

• Consider your options.

--Who has credibility with your target audiences and why?
--What are your options in terms of media (email, one-on-one, meetings, presentations, etc.)?
--What kinds of constraints do you have with timing your messages, in terms of both when you communicate and how long you have to present your message?

• Use that knowledge to select and organize specific information to meet your objectives with your audiences.

--Which information will meet your audiences’ needs the best?
--How can you organize material quickly and efficiently?
--What are some "quick and dirty" organizational patterns to persuade, inform, give bad news, or make decisions?
--What stories, facts, and other support material will enhance your message?

• Deliver your message with a confident, personal style.

--What the best qualities of your communication style?
--Which behaviors you want to improve or change?
--How can you be your best and still be yourself?

• Evaluate feedback for continued growth and success

--Whom do you ask for feedback?  How do you ask?
--How do you give constructive feedback, positive and negative?
--How do you respond to feedback?
--How can you be sure you have done your best to be perceived as credible?

What Makes Straight Talk Unique

Emphasis is based on a Strategic Communication Model.

The Strategic Communication Model provides a foundation for all communication competencies: writing, speaking, interviewing, and interacting in teams and groups.

Participants focus on audiences and situations that accurately reflect their actual workplaces. 

Facilitator encourages audience participation and discussion.

Take-aways include relevant, pragmatic, easy-to-apply solutions for workplace communication issues.

Dr. Sherron Bienvenu is an experienced interpersonal and corporate communication specialist with proven success analyzing, developing, and implementing effective professional, managerial, and organizational communication strategy.

Short video: Dr. Bienvenu talking about feedback

Short video: Dr. Bienvenu talking about confidence