Learn how to communicate more effectively at work and achieve your goals. Taught by award-winning Wharton professor and best-selling author Maurice Schweitzer, Improving Communications Skills is an essential course designed to give you both the tools you need to improve your communication skills, and the most successful strategies for using them to your advantage.
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You'll learn how to discover if someone is lying (and how to react if they are), how to develop trust, the best method of communication for negotiation, and how to apologize. You'll also learn when to cooperate and when to compete, how to create persuasive messages, ask thoughtful questions, engage in active listening, and choose the right medium (face-to-face conversation, video conference, phone call, or email) for your messages. By the end of the course, you'll be able to understand what others want, respond strategically to their wants and needs, craft convincing and clear messages, and develop the critical communication skills you need to get ahead in business and in life.
Course 2 of 3 in the Achieving Personal and Professional Success Specialization
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Cooperation, Competition and Comparisons
In this module, you'll learn when to compete and when to cooperate to achieve success. You’ll explore the three key principles of cooperation and competition: scarcity, sociability and dynamic instability, and learn how to determine which approach to use based on your situation. You'll also discover how to use comparisons to provide motivation, and how to avoid "invidious" comparisons which can lead to discouragement or unethical behavior. By the end of this module, you'll be able to attain a better balance between competitive motivation and cooperative satisfaction to make your interactions more productive and successful.
WEEK 2
Trust
In this module, you'll explore how to gain and built trust to develop cooperation, and understand why this critical step can be so challenging. You'll examine the factors that develop a trusting relationship: demonstrating vulnerability, building rapport, and expressing warmth, and learn how to increase trust by uncovering common goals, common enemies, and interdependence. You'll also learn how to communicate with team members, friends, and opponents in a way that encourages trust. By the end of this module, you’ll understand how to build trusting relationships to achieve cooperation and mutual satisfaction.
WEEK 3
Deception
In this module, you’ll learn what deception is, how to detect it, and what to do once you know it's taken place. You'll examine the most common cues that indicate deception and explore practical steps to take when you discover deception. You'll also be able to evaluate deceptions and transgressions to determine whether they are core or non-core violations. Finally, you'll analyze the components of successful apologies, so you can can create your own, if necessary. By the conclusion of this module, you'll be able to better detect deception, and devise an appropriate reaction that will help you achieve your objectives.
WEEK 4
Effective Communication
This module was designed to teach you both the key principles of effective communication, and how to harness the power of setting goals to improve your performance. You’ll learn how to create memorable and persuasive messages, ask thoughtful questions, engage in active listening, and choose the right medium (face-to-face conversation, video conference, phone call, or email) for your messages. You'll also learn the how to use goal setting for maximum benefit while avoiding the common pitfalls of overly ambitious targets. By the end of this module, you'll be able to communicate effectively using the right medium, and use goal-setting to increase your productivity and boost your performance.
