Emotional Intelligence

Conflict is a part of life. But well-managed conflict can produce benefits and positive changes, both in productivity and relationships. Communication skills, specifically the ability to communicate assertively, are among the best skills to acquire for dealing effectively with the demands of people in conflict with us, whether they are employees, colleagues, our managers or our clients. In the workplace, whether we are in a position of authority or not, we need to manage our interactions with people. We need to know what power is and how to use it: to negotiate, to express our ideas clearly so people will listen to us, even if they don’t agree with us; to stand up for our convictions, even when they are unpopular; and to deal with the emotions created by situations of conflict. At this workshop you will practice what you learn to enable you to apply the skills more readily when you return to your workplace. You are encouraged to bring examples of situations you would like to resolve.

Whether you’re delivering bad news, giving a negative performance evaluation, challenging a colleague or client, objecting to additional workload, presenting options in the midst of a crisis, or simply letting people know that the direction on a certain project is changing — communicating difficult subject matter can be an emotionally charged event. Understandably, many people would do anything to avoid that situation. Yet avoiding critical and difficult conversations or mishandling them can result in many negative consequences. Learn how being assertive, open, honest and fair in your critical conversations, and fostering others to do the same, can develop alignment and agreement within your organization. Encouraging open and honest dialogues around important, emotional, or risky topics – at any level – can significantly reduce and resolve conflict, nurture relationships and boost productivity and efficiency. This workshop is designed to help individuals, teams and organizations improve the way they approach their critical conversations, with confidence, and manage the conversation skillfully so that feelings are spared and the organization’s best interests are kept front and center.

The pace of work has never been faster. The amount of change is unprecedented. The standards of performance are rising. The tools that help us burn out are abundant. Our challenges just keep ramping up. The stakes seem so high. For better or worse, this pace of change is here to stay. As a top performer, if you can’t change the circumstances around you, change the circumstances within you. This program will give top performers what they need to stay strong and get stuff done – for the long haul.

Learning how to deal with difficult people at work starts with better judgment: What is actually happening, what work standard is being strained, and what response fits your role? When difficult behaviour is left unclear, teams start working around it, participation drops, decisions slow down, and time is lost to avoidable friction. This course helps participants recognize repeated behaviour patterns, assess the impact on the work, and decide whether a direct conversation, raising the concern, or a pause-and-consult approach is the right next step. Participants leave with practical language for resetting expectations clearly and fairly, helping teams reduce workarounds, protect follow-through, and keep the work moving.

Are you excited about your retirement but worried about getting bored and not having enough to do? Has your work consumed you over the past 30 – 35 years and you are no longer sure what interests you have outside of work? Are you concerned about a lack of a predictable structure, a different or limited social network or the demands that may be placed on you by your parents or children? Do you have a pretty good idea of your basic plan but want to make sure all core components are in place? Are you considering a new career in retirement and want an opportunity to network and share ideas? Are you starting out in your career and want to ensure that your career and life plan are in balance with each other? While being financially prepared for retirement is important, addressing the emotional, physical and psychological realities before retiring, and integrating them into a balanced plan is ultimately the key to a successful and meaningful retirement. This one-day workshop prepares you for a successful transition into retirement by addressing key areas of concern with realistic strategies.

Leadership and management are some of the most challenging roles in work and business. Leaders strive to achieve results while effectively leveraging the skills and talents of their teams. In today’s workplace it is critical to recognize that people bring both their minds and their emotions to work and the reality is that emotions drive performance. The research is clear—leaders who have higher levels of emotional intelligence create positive work environments, generate higher levels of employee engagement, deliver higher performance, manage change better and experience less work-based stress. This course considers the impact of emotional intelligence (EQ) on leadership and organizations. It presents research that supports the business case for EQ in the workplace. Participants will be introduced to key concepts of EQ and self-evaluate their current leadership style, identifying areas of strengths and opportunities for development. Participants will build knowledge and skills related to self-awareness and self-regulation and how to be emotionally intelligent leaders. The second half of the course will focus on how to use EQ to motivate teams and implement practical strategies for organizations.

Emotions are a key component of what makes us human. While emotions have often been seen as less important than intellectual reasoning, emotions motivate us to act, inspire us to create and connect our relationships. Our experiences shape how we understand, process and manage our emotions. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to identify, assess and positively engage with one’s own emotions and the emotions of others. Many people have not developed the foundational building blocks to be emotionally intelligent, resulting in emotions getting in the way of our judgement, relationships, or careers. This workshop provides opportunities for participants to build emotional intelligence by focusing on developing understanding and skills in: self-awareness, emotional management, physiological and behavioural reactions, understanding the connection to values and motivations, overcoming barriers to communication, building trust, and exercising empathy. Participants can apply their new skills in EQ to their personal and professional lives.

This course follows Personal Effectiveness Through Emotional Intelligence – EQ1. It builds on the theory and tools presented in the initial program and dives deeper into developing the practical skills and behaviours that increase one’s own emotional intelligence both at work and in personal life. This course provides the opportunity to gain greater knowledge and skills to understand, express and regulate one’s emotions. In addition, participants will develop strategies to manage emotional interactions with others. Participants engage in a variety of self-reflective exercises, group activities, and discussion to explore and develop higher levels of emotional intelligence in a supportive environment.

Designed for small groups, the workshop is led by an experienced public speaker who will entertain, inform and inspire you to deliver effective virtual and in-person presentations. Does speaking in front of a room of people make your heart beat faster, your hands sweat and your knees go weak? Would you like to master the art of public speaking? Do you want to have a greater impact on your audience? The impact we have is largely based on how well we communicate our ideas. Whether we are providing information to an internal audience or making an impassioned plea externally, we need to be confident in our ability to express ourselves. This two-day workshop is specifically designed to reduce the anxiety of public speaking and help you gain competence and confidence. Gain practical tips that you can apply immediately. You will participate in a number of different exercises and also have a chance to do a mini presentation and gain immediate feedback and coaching.

More and more people are encountering stress, overwork, and the pressure of time constraints in their lives. Some stress is actually good for you because it inspires you to meet life’s challenges. Too much ongoing stress causes an almost continuous activation of your body’s stress-response system. The overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can increase your risk of obesity, insomnia, digestive problems, heart disease, depression, memory impairment, and physical illness. It is important to recognize when we are in DISTRESS. This workshop will provide practical tips and techniques to help you achieve better results and health through the effective management of distress.

Stepping into management changes more than your responsibilities. It changes how people interpret your actions, how standards need to be applied, and how often you find yourself needing to address issues you may have previously overlooked, tolerated, or left to someone else. This course uses PMC Training’s Four Shifts framework to help new and experienced managers lead more consistently across role, relationship, communication, and routine. Participants learn how to communicate more clearly, apply expectations fairly, navigate changing team dynamics, and build the structure that supports team accountability. The result is a steadier approach that strengthens trust, visible fairness, and day-to-day performance for both the manager and the organization.

Leaders come from diverse backgrounds. Sometimes you report to them, sometimes they lead your project, and sometimes they are in charge of your kids’ sports team or the place where you volunteer. Some leaders naturally align with your preferred style of following, while others do not. Adapting to different leadership styles is key to maintaining your motivation, performance, resilience, and peace of mind. The instructor for this course trains, coaches and supports 2,000 plus leaders from every sector each year. He designed this program to help followers create a successful collaboration with the wide variety of leaders he works with.

As workplaces become busier, and organizational change becomes the norm, the art of effective listening becomes all the more valuable. Good listeners find themselves involved in interesting work, healthy working relationships and long term career success. This is no coincidence. Effective listening skills are a large part of personal success in the workplace. The difference between hearing someone and listening to someone is enormous. Making colleagues feel that you are truly understanding not only their words but their personal point of view and how they feel can change office dynamics in a profound way. Active listening has a way of making those you are communicating with feel valued and understood. In this highly interactive workshop participants can expect to not only learn the theory behind active listening but also to engage in participatory exercises and activities to practice the learned skill of active listening.

Organizations perform at their peak when the Vision, Values and individual Needs (for autonomy, respect, appreciation and contribution) of their people are agreed upon and met. This enables individuals to flourish within the organization to come together as a team united in a shared group identity. It can be achieved with an agreed purpose and direction based on a set of common values and behaviors. Individuals are inspired then to take personal responsibility to unleash their creative talent in harmony to meet the objectives and goals of the organization.

Change is a time-consuming distraction. It takes us away from our regular work, it slows productivity and it often creates conflict. You may even notice an increase in absenteeism during periods of change. The reality is that you may never be happy with the change you are experiencing, and that’s okay. At some point, though, you will have to learn to live with your new reality. The more quickly you can do that, the sooner you can get back to being productive and feeling like yourself again. The Change Cycle™ is a change management model that helps individuals and teams deal with change pragmatically, resourcefully and effectively. Change is the result of change, choice, progress, or crisis, and is often unpredictable. People react, respond, and adjust to change in a sequence of six predictable stages which identify thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with each stage of change. There is no better map to assist individuals in navigating through the changes in their work and life.

Courage is like a muscle; the more you use it the stronger it grows. Although some may have an aptitude for it, anyone can learn to be courageous. Being courageous can take various forms, including: not shying away from uncomfortable situations, encouraging rather than stifling creativity among those around you, and a willingness to take calculated risks and decisions and stand by them. Demonstrating courage can fast track your career. It’s not always easy to be a courageous leader, but usually a leader like this will be remembered with admiration and respect. At this workshop, you’ll gain an understanding the qualities of courageous leadership, and learn how to apply and implement them – regardless of your position or role. This workshop is highly interactive, designed to engage participants through meaningful discussions, real-life scenarios, and shared experiences to maximize learning and impact.

Canada is becoming increasingly more diverse, and this brings new opportunities and challenges to respond to. Employers and employees have the challenge of working in new ways with other team-members, of being part of an effective team where the members are unlike each other in race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, culture, language, generations or customs. Managers need to create an inclusive environment in which all employees understand, value, and respect each others’ differences. These opportunities and challenges remain the same with other stakeholders such as clients, customers and the community. This program is designed to address all these in an interactive session.

Is your organization going through a shuffle or “reorg”? Is your team feeling disoriented and without focus?  Or is it struggling to hone a meaningful identity and purpose for itself in an environment where the culture is changing? Culture change is always going to happen. What’s important to recognize is that everyone reacts differently to it and will apply their particular coping mechanisms to deal with it. As a result, a team can lose its motivation, become fragmented and at worst, dysfunctional. What you need is a team that is cohesive, confident and impactful! Using the DISC personality assessment tool, you and your team will understand the drivers behind your behaviour and coping mechanisms, and how you can best leverage your strengths in order to rebound and build a team that is cohesive and resilient to change. In addition, you will develop a robust team strategy to help you embody and communicate your value proposition so that you can position yourselves as experts in an organization that needs you.

As diversity increases in the workplace, people from different backgrounds and orientations will integrate with the workplace culture and perform when they feel welcomed, safe and included to become a part of the organizational culture. The program is designed to create an interactive conversation to help understand what equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) means and how people from different backgrounds and cultures may experience it in their daily lives. It is acknowledged that there is no one perfect or certain approach to dealing with EDI. It is very much related to the existing leadership and organizational culture and what the organization aspires to be in meeting its goals. The program will be facilitated through a mindfulness lens with a focus on unconscious biases and possible systemic barriers to inclusion and equity.  The facilitator will encourage self-reflection and a compassionate inquiry into how to effect change, and overcome biases and barriers, so every member of the team is valued as a part of an inclusive culture. The program will be facilitated in an interactive co-inquiring manner encouraging participants to actively contribute to the learning process.

The practice of mindfulness – centering your attention in the present by focusing on the breath – has been around for thousands of years. A growing body of scientific research demonstrates that a regular mindfulness practice can have a powerful impact on your well-being and wellness through how you think, feel, act, relate, perform and collaborate at work – reducing the daily stress of life in a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. On an individual level, mindfulness practice helps you to control your emotions and stress – anger, frustration, fear – so you can be inquiring, thoughtful, logical, rational and strategic, and focus on the work that needs done, rather than on the situations that may distract you from your priorities. In effect, being mindful and aware allows you to be compassionate, acknowledge emotion and move towards logic and reason in any situation. This results in a better state of mind, health and wellness for mental clarity and endurance through the daily challenges of life. This one-day interactive workshop, facilitated by a long-term workplace mindfulness practitioner, will show you how to integrate mindfulness with emotional intelligence and organizational behaviour theories and tools, so you can immediately begin to enhance your own well-being and improve your relationships and effectiveness at work.

As human beings, we often hunger for feedback. However, many people will tell you that when they do get feedback, it’s often because of something they have done wrong. This one day course is designed to help workplace leaders learn how to provide feedback any time that the message is due. Whether feedback is formal or informal, and whether it is provided to employees, peers, or someone else, there are ways that it can be structured to be effective and lasting. This course will help participants learn why the way we deliver is feedback is important, how to deliver a message so that people accept it and make changes that may be needed, and how to accept feedback that we are offered.

In the current work environment, most employees are dealing with a lot of uncertainty and change, with a subsequent negative impact on productivity and job satisfaction.  This two-day course will help you to recognize the importance of being a more positive model as a leader in order to have more engaged employees.

Confidence is not just an asset that’s nice to have. It is a fundamental basis for success and satisfaction in your professional and personal life. Whether you are selling your ideas, taking calculated risks, responding to criticism, working as part of a team, interacting with co-workers or clients, applying for a promotion, or a myriad of other everyday activities, you will achieve more faster if you have self-confidence. This workshop explores the positive impact of self-confidence in your career and personal life. Through exercise, you will discover the sources of low self-confidence and develop new skills to increase your self confidence in order to increase your effectiveness and comfort in various areas of your life.

Being a Manager/Leader is a challenging, complex, risky yet a rewarding endeavor.   Staying grounded through the daily storms of uncertain, ambiguous and emotionally draining situations can be stressful.   Being calm and collected through a typical volatile day requires a person to manage self and emotions by gaining space to put things in perspective – to keep a focus on the rational and logical – to get things done. That is where the time-tested practice of mindfulness is important.  Centering attention in the present moment with a focus on the breath has been around for thousands of years – now being validated through neuroscience for its effectiveness on clarity of the mind, for health and well-being.  This will help manage stress levels for leaders think, feel, act, relate, perform, lead and collaborate by evolving safe and inclusive spaces for people to perform. Many organizations are investing in mindfulness training programs for their managers and leaders to mitigate stress, gain mental clarity, and improve their decision-making and performance. This interactive workshop, facilitated by a long-term mindfulness and martial arts practitioner, will include breath-centered practice sessions that are put into context through the five virtues of great leaders. You will learn how to practically apply mindfulness tools to have an impactful leadership style to create psychological safety within the organization for diverse people to perform as a team, make difficult decisions and inspire people to action.   The program is designed to provide the foundation for creating lasting personal change towards being a self-aware, courageous and authentic leader.

This highly interactive workshop focuses on building stronger teams by appreciating the unique strengths each personality brings. Participants will gain a deep understanding of the DISC model, explore individual styles, and develop the skills to read and adapt to different personality types. Throughout the workshop, participants will reflect on their detailed personality reports, examining their strengths, areas for development, and preferences in various work situations. They will also consider how their personality style typically interacts with others. The workshop includes team-building activities and discussions, allowing participants to experience their personalities “in action.” These exercises foster stronger team connections and enhance awareness of individual communication and problem-solving styles. Origins of DISC Both DISC Personality Profiles and Myers Briggs (MBTI) are based on the work of Carl Jung, the psychiatrist known for founding analytical psychology and for developing key personality concepts such as introversion and extroversion. DISC and Myers Briggs (MBTI) both measure our “hard wired” behavioural styles – as in, how we behave naturally in our “comfort zone”.

Your organization’s success depends on the professionalism of its customer service people. Do you know how to deal effectively with difficult or angry customers? Can you confidently turn a negative situation into a positive one? Do you always create a good first impression? Do you build rapport effortlessly with your customers? This workshop will help you become a model of professional behaviour and skill. You’ll develop a system for staying calm, motivated and enthusiastic regardless of pressures and problems. Learn techniques for dealing effectively with angry or difficult customers, and for being creative in dealing with challenges and the unexpected.

During our career, we are all required to work with others to reach a desired goal, and while being a part of a team can be rewarding, it can also offer challenges.  Research shows that building a more positive team in the workplace makes a significant difference in both an employee’s success and well-being. This can have a significant impact on the success of your team, and organization. This one-day workshop discusses the skills and behaviors that are necessary to develop a cohesive team that can work together to build success. This program explores what is currently working on your team, identifies team challenges, and will provide you with an opportunity to better understand yourself and your team. Discussions will focus on how creating an effective and results-focused team begins with improving communication.

Change offers huge opportunities for personal and professional growth. This workshop is designed to help you understand the new world of constant change. This one-day workshop explores the human response to change and will provide you with practical strategies to identify and exploit opportunities for increased job satisfaction, performance and personal success.

Values and ethics are part of our daily decisions and choices at work.  Yet, how often do we take the time to consider these in a meaningful way?  Studies show that a strong ethical workplace culture creates a high performing organization, where employees are motivated and engaged, and where leadership is clear and aligned.  With 67% of working Canadians not fully engaged in their work, this course aims to explore the connection between individual and organizational values, and employee engagement levels within the workplace. This 2-day course begins with a self-assessment into existing values, and how these might be demonstrated within the workplace.  Values will also be considered in the context of the organization as a whole, and how personal and organizational values can be aligned.  Real-life ethical dilemmas and solutions will be explored, key research results will be discussed, and tools and practical information will be provided as participants identify their own ethical boundaries, and practice how to navigate these in situations where there may be a conflict.

Being able to get along with co-workers and cooperate effectively towards the achievement of common goals is a highly valued key competency that can open the doors to increased responsibility and opportunities in your career. This workshop will give you the insight you need to better contribute to your team’s success. Using an 18 point personal assessment tool you’ll gain a better understanding of your individual team style and learn how to identify team strengths and trouble spots. You’ll learn valuable skills to transfer knowledge and information to other team members in an effective way to maximize productivity. You’ll also learn how to improve communication and build rapid rapport using the True Colors model. Personalized Team Insights Report After the course completion, a concise synthesis of key challenges, solutions, and top-voted priorities generated during the World Café exercise, along with facilitator observations that highlight emerging patterns and potential areas for focus will be provided. It will be delivered as a clear, structured summary leaders can use to guide next steps.