Program Overview

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The eie Course on Developing Your Communication Skills and Interpersonal Influence

Overall Programme Description

Learn how to clearly convey information and ideas in an engaging manner. Explore how to build trust, communicate effectively, and be heard in all parts of your organization. Learn important interpersonal communication skills and strategies for igniting curiosity, attention, trust, and respect.

Skills

• Interpersonal Skills
• Interpersonal Communication
• Communication
• Trusts
• Social Influence

Mode of Delivery

Online through Self-Study.

Duration

8 hours

Assessment

Quizzes at the end of each Module

Certification

Digital Certificates at the end of Each module, and an eie Certificate of Completion (this is NOT an Academic Qualification or Academic Award. For an Academic Award, please visit our MQF Levels section).

Modules

1. Interpersonal Communication

Communicating effectively isn't an innate talent that some people have and others don't—it's something that anyone can learn and practice. In this course, learn strategies that can help you hone and master your interpersonal communication skills. Join personal branding and career expert Dorie Clark as she shares techniques for getting your message across effectively in the workplace, and explains how to tackle potential communication challenges with your colleagues and supervisor. She also discusses how to grapple with tricky situations, taking you through how to handle interruptions, respond to critical feedback, and communicate across cultures.

2. Communication Foundations

Learn how to communicate more effectively. Your communication skills affect your career prospects, the value you bring to your company, and the likelihood of your promotion. This course helps you communicate better in a variety of professional situations, including meetings, email messages, pitches, and presentations. Instructors Tatiana Kolovou and Brenda Bailey-Hughes introduce the four building blocks of communication—people, message, context, and listening—and show how they apply in different circumstances. Through the use of vignettes and applied tools, the course shows how to build this core competency and communicate in a way that effectively and professionally conveys your message.

3. Building Trust

Trust is a fundamental aspect of any productive relationship. In business, trust has been proven to decrease turnover, increase innovation, and improve team performance. When trust is compromised, relationships and productivity can suffer. And as remote/hybrid work and globalization create a workforce of employees from different cultures who might never meet face to face, trust is even harder to build and trickier to maintain. In this course, Kelley School of Business senior lecturer Brenda Bailey-Hughes shows how professionals of all kinds can build trust with colleagues across their organization, using three drivers to gauge your trustworthiness: Competency, empathy, and authenticity.

4. Building Business Relationships

Have you been eyeing a promotion or new job? By learning how to form and leverage relationships with others in your professional orbit, you can propel your career to new heights. In this course, join Simon T. Bailey as he helps you master the art of building business relationships. Using scenarios and personal experiences from his own career, Simon explains how to build authentic professional relationships by focusing on four key areas: inspiring, influencing, impacting, and integrating. Discover how you can build meaningful rapport, set yourself up for visibility and success, manage up, build relationships with executives, and cross-train within a team to better serve your organization.

5. Igniting Emotional Engagement

Whether you work in product, sales, accounting, IT, or marketing, the ability to garner emotional buy-in is essential to making the initiatives and projects you lead more successful. In this course, join leadership coaches Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth McLeod as they share how to determine which situations require emotional buy-in, who to engage, and what to say. They explain how to respond to those who may be less than enthusiastic about your initiatives, and how you can neutralize the naysayers. Plus, they discuss how to rebound quickly from setbacks and sustain long-term enthusiasm.

6. Preparing for Successful Communication

For even the most seasoned professionals, mastering the finer points of communication can be a challenge. How do you establish your credentials without bragging? How can you organize complex ideas so they're easy to follow and remember? How can you think on your feet and respond to unfair or unkind remarks? The good news is, crystal clear, concise communication is a skill anyone can learn. In this course, Sam Horn—CEO of the Intrigue Agency—shares innovative strategies for communicating with confidence, whether you're presenting at a conference, speaking up at a meeting, seeking funding, or making a request of a boss, board, client, or colleague. Learn immediately useful tips that can help you personalize content, craft business stories that are interesting and actionable, connect with audiences of five or five hundred, and exude a powerful executive presence that commands attention and respect whenever you speak.

7. Learning to Be Approachable

No one wants to go through life misunderstood. If you are worried you have a reputation for being unapproachable, there are ways to change that perception without changing your personality. In this course, personal branding expert Dorie Clark helps you first determine whether you are sending signals that might be off-putting to others—whether through body language or some other kind of communication. She outlines strategies to make yourself more approachable both in person and online, by helping others feel included. With the right mindset, and the right messaging, you can help people see the real you.

8. Communicating Nonverbally

People communicate constantly using nonverbal gestures, posture, movement, and facial expressions, but most people focus only on words. Join behavioral expert and author Vanessa Van Edwards as she shares how to spot and interpret nonverbal cues from others and how to take control of your own nonverbal communication. Vanessa also discusses how to read hidden emotions, how to show others you are engaged, and how to leverage your nonverbal communication.

9. Communicating with Diplomacy and Tact

Diplomacy is a mindset; tact is a strategy. In this course, communications professor Tatiana Kolovou helps you realize the benefits of communicating with tact and diplomacy in workplace situations. She walks you through four scenarios that you might encounter on an average day, and coaches you through appropriate responses to challenging situations at work. She emphasizes core skills, such as authenticity, empathy, and listening, and shows examples, stories, and facts that bring their importance to life. By taking opportunities to practice at work and in your personal life, you can strengthen this delicate balance of skills and build relationships that can survive difficult interactions.

After this course

Once you complete this short course, you might consider furthering your education with another short course but ending up with an academic qualification. We offer an array of Awards, which are considered as short courses (30 / 60 hours) but have an MQF Level and a number of ECTS's attached to them. These Awards are recognised by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA).

You might also consider starting a full qualification such as a:

• Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration (MQF Level 6 - 180 ECTS)
• Undergraduate Higher Diploma in Business Administration (MQF Level 5 - 120 ECTS)
• Undergraduate Diploma in Business Administration (MQF Level 5 - 60 ECTS)

These qualifications are offered through Online or Classroom modes.