Power Skills
We’ve traced the moments that matter most for work performance to unlock soft power as a competitive advantage. In this SkillStack you will learn power skills to improve you personal performance through unlocking the power of goal setting, prioritisation and resilience.
You will learn from world leaders, TED speakers, award-winning authors, the worlds of elite sports and academia to understand the latest thinking on decision making.
You’ll learn principles, methods and toolkits to negotiate and influence more effectively to ultimately improve your work performance.
Learning Objectives
All decision making takes place in the midst of uncertainty and risk. So what are the processes and procedures that help people make legitimate decisions?
In this SkillStack, you will learn the 5 Questions to ask when making decisions, to assess the kind of decision that must be made, who needs to contribute to it, and how to judge whether the hypothesis behind your choice is just.
In this lesson Sarah shares the universal principles of impactful influencing and shows you how to apply them to influence stakeholders more effectively.
It aims to give you the tools to communicate with clarity and confidence, explain the significance of key recommendations to various stakeholders and have a plan to influence and persuade key decision-makers.
In this former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern share stories, strategies and lessons learned from negotiating the Peace Process in Northern Ireland.
He’ll share insights from key moments in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, tactics he used to nudge sides closer during one of the most intense periods of the conflict in Northern Ireland. You will learn the four key principles to collaborative negotiation.
You will learn that direction is more important than speed and why it is good for your mental health. In this SkillStack, you will learn how to set goals that are future proof, that stand the test of time. You will hear about the link between process and outcome and when to do which.
This SkillStack will enable you to add your own perspectives, evaluate sources of information when making data driven decisions. Valerie will share some simple thinking techniques to enhance your thought process.
These techniques will equip you to differentiate logic from truth, fact from fiction and emotion from passion, for clearer thinking when solving problems.
It is important to plan your work, and work your plan. After all, prior planning prevents poor performance.
This session will teach you practical steps to understand how to prioritise tasks and to be more productive with your time to improve performance.
One of the best measurements of peak physical and mental performance is the ‘recovery rate’ after performing. During this SkillStack you will hear that resilience can be practiced before there is a setback thus ensuring that the setback is not so damaging.
You will be given practical ways to ‘practice resilience’ today for greater recovery tomorrow.
Good Decision Making Skills with award-winning Author & TED Speaker, Margaret Heffernan
What to Expect:
In this SkillStack, you will learn from award-winning author, TED Speaker and world renowned entrepreneur, Margaret Heffernan on how to approach decision making.
It is the bread-and-butter of management but also its most difficult part. Managers feel pressure to make popular decisions but yielding to that is not always the right thing to do. The business ethos today often prioritises speed and confidence, but doubt and delay can be very helpful.
Every decision is really a hypothesis about the future: if we do X, then we expect Y as a result. That means all decisions address uncertainty with imperfect information. Each choice is made in a specific context, so what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow.
What this means is that all decision making takes place in the midst of uncertainty and risk. So what are the processes and procedures that help managers make sound decisions?
Learning Objectives:
In this SkillStack, you will learn the 5 Questions to ask in how to approach decision making, to assess the kind of decision that must be made, who needs to contribute to it, and how to judge whether the hypothesis behind your choice is sound.
Key Takeaways:
1. Definition: What is a good decision?
2. Agendas & Stakeholders
3. Exploring the options
4. Pre & Post-mortems
5. Cooling off periods
Persuasiveness & Influencing Skills with Communications Expert, Sarah Geraghty
What to Expect:
In this SkillStack you’ll hear leading Communications & Leadership Consultant Sarah Geraghty – share stories, techniques and lessons learned from the world of business & research.
Sarah is the lead trainer on The Communication Clinic’s flagship leadership programmes and provides executive coaching to leadership teams internationally. Sarah will share stories and techniques, she has taught throughout her time coaching 1000’s of professionals on how to become more effective communicators in order to influence others.
Learning Objectives:
Persuading and influencing is part of our day-to-day experience, whether it’s with colleagues or family and friends. In this video Sarah shares the universal principles of impactful influencing and shows you how to apply them to your own circumstances.
It aims to give people the ability to communicate with clarity and confidence, explain the significance of key recommendations to various stakeholders and have a plan to influence and persuade key decision-makers.
Key Takeaways:
1. How to conduct an audience audit.
2. How to craft an influential pitch/ point.
3. How to master the art of handling questions and challenges.
4. Understand the trust equation.
5. What to action and how.
Negotiation Skills with former Taoiseach (Prime Minister of Ireland), Bertie Ahern
What to Expect:
In this lesson you’ll hear former Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern share stories, strategies and lessons learned from negotiating the Peace Process in Northern Ireland.
He’ll share stories of taking personal and political risks in meeting with paramilitary groups in secret, navigating contentious issues such as prisoner release programmes, lessons learned from former US President Bill Clinton and what it took to change decades long rhetoric of “Ulster says No” to “Ulster says Yes”.
He’ll share insights from key moments in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement, tactics he used to nudge sides closer during one of the most intense periods of the conflict in Northern Ireland and how it achieved enduring peace for the people across the island of Ireland.
Learning Objectives:
Life is a negotiation and we do it in all aspects of our life, every day often without realising it. Negotiation should always be seen as a collaboration, never a zero sum game and always seek a win win. In this skill stack you will learn tactical approaches, practices, strategies and techniques for collaborative negotiation and how to navigate the four C’s: Common interests, Conflicting interests, Compromise and Criteria.
Key Takeaways:
1. Listen first, act second
2. Manage expectations of all stakeholders
3. Invest in building trust
4. Create legitimacy in decision making
5. Collaborative Negotiation techniques: Language, mirroring and open communication
6. Negotiation is a process and not an agreement
Goal Setting
with Author & Performance Coach, Neil O‘Brien
What to Expect:
In this session you will learn why it is important to have goals, how to set them, and how to achieve them.
After almost 30 years of coaching individuals and teams Neil (Author & HP Coach) believes that having a sense of direction is a vital component of greater achievement and success. Indeed this is evident in the worlds of mental health and wellbeing too.
As you are about to learn though a sense of direction and goal setting can take different forms and approaches. Also, in turbulent times it is likely that the orthodox way of goal setting is not as effective in unorthodox times.
Learning Objectives:
You will learn that direction is more important than speed and why it is good for your mental health. You will learn how to set goals that are future proof: that stand the test of time and are unaffected by global recessions and pandemics. You will hear about the flaws in goal setting and how to avoid them. You will hear about the link between process and outcome and when to do which. You will also learn if there is a role for luck and happy coincidence
Key Takeaways:
1. Where are you going?
2. Be Smart: Best method to achieve your goals.
3. Be Careful: 5 fatal flaws of orthodox goal setting
4. Be your own coach: Focus on process not outcome
5. Be lucky: get coincidence and serendipity to work for you
Critical Thinking Skills
with Professor & Author, Valerie Pierce
What to Expect:
AI can analyse and synthesize information, but it cannot replicate the depth of human cognition – interpret and make judgements. Critical thinking enables you to add your own perspectives, evaluate sources, and navigate the ethical considerations and biases that are inherent in AI technology.
In this SkillStack, Valerie Pierce (Author, Professor and Founder) will share some simple thinking techniques to enhance your thought process. These techniques will equip you to make sense of AI generated data, distilling fact from fiction and in turn make ethical decisions.
Learning Objectives:
1. Success in the workplace is knowing how to drive high performance behaviours with:
- Clear focus
- By asking the right questions
- Changing negative thinking into positive action
2. This SkillStack will help you understand what differentiates:
- Truth from logic
- Fact from fiction
- Emotion from passion
Key Takeaways:
1. How to think with passion, not emotion
2. Lead with good questions to achieve best results
3. Be innovative through the power of negative thinking
Prioritisation & Time Management Skills
with Author, Jo Weech
What to Expect:
In this SkillStack you will hear Jo Weech share stories, strategies and lessons learned from a variety of industries around the globe. You have heard it said that, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit your mark.” It is important to plan your work, and work your plan. After all, prior planning prevents poor performance.
Learning Objectives:
This session will teach you practical steps to understand how to prioritise and to be more productive with your time. What is the end goal? Start with what you want to accomplish and work your way back. The steps you incorporate can be fluid as you go along, but they will be part of a well thought out process.
Key Takeaways:
This lesson will cover the five pillars of time management to help you prioritise your work load.
- Identify your what and when before you plan your how.
- Set SMART goals– Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
- Every task requires a plan.
- Tyranny of the Urgent.
- It takes a village.
Resilience Skills
with Author & Performance Coach, Neil O’Brien
What to Expect:
In this session, you will hear Neil O’Brien (Author & HP Coach) talk about resilience, mental toughness and grit. Neil will share stories, examples and strategies from his 30 years of coaching business leaders, elite sports people and others in the area of recovery from setbacks and being strong enough to keep on going. He will also share some of his own setbacks in business and life, the impact they had, and what he did to recover and move forward.
Learning Objectives:
One of the best measurements of peak physical performance is the ‘recovery rate’ after performing. It’s likely, therefore, that the recovery rate is also a great measurement of mental performance. During this SkillStack, you will learn that there are different types of resilience. You will learn that effortless, easy resilience is available for everyone. You will hear that resilience can be practised before there is a setback, thus ensuring that the setback is not so damaging. After viewing this lesson, you will be given practical ways to ‘practice resilience’.
Key Takeaways:
1. Survival Resilience – coping, but don’t settle for coping thinking it’s a strategy
2. Strategic Resilience – how to build resilience muscle for when needed
3. Outstanding Resilience – move from resilience to outstanding performance
4. Your Resilience – know where it comes from and how to practice i
