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Overview: Good leaders walk the talk, but they also “write right”. They know how to say in a few words what needs to be said in crisp, clear language. The road to bad communication is paved with good intentions but poor construction. Readers know when subjects and verbs don’t agree when punctuation misses the point when words don’t fit, and content is confusing. In this session, learn how a few basic rules on grammar, punctuation, and usage can improve business written communications with clearer, more succinct content. Business writing is best when it is spare and clear, precise, and concise. This session is designed to give practical and useful advice and tips on how to tighten up the language and organize the content into a logical, convincing read. Attendees don’t have to be English majors or literature students. The aim is to improve the readability of your written words.

Why should you Attend:
Good writing takes practice, and many schools have reduced the time spent on formal writing, especially practical grammar, proficient spelling, appropriate punctuation, logical development, etc. This course can’t fill that kind of educational vacuum, but it can help participants improve the skills they do have.

So this is a webinar useful to many areas of your organization - not just lenders and credit approvers, not just credit analysts and loan reviewers, but also auditors, loan administrators, marketing, retail, operations - anyone who has to explain or convince others that what they are saying makes sense.

Participants will learn how to:
  • Eliminate puffy and ambiguous words and phrases and replace them with sharper, clearer alternatives
  • Understand how to use punctuation to tighten writing into more readable and understandable documentation
  • Build stronger, easy-to-understand explanations and recommendations with more focus on sequential, logical constructions - less is usually more
  • Support these objectives with appropriate before-and-after examples

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • Techniques for writing clearly and concisely
    • Clear writing
      • Specific words vs. generalilties
      • Active vs. passive voice
    • Unnecessary words & phrases
      • Doublets & redundancies
      • Wordy habit phrases
      • Wordy dependent clauses
      • Unneeded connecting words
      • Wordy "due to" explanations
  • Techniques for writing well-organized, logical arguments
    • Introductions & summaries to integrated argument
    • Avoiding elevator analysis
    • Bringing order to facts, interpretations & evaluations
    • Making words count right
    • Some extra readability writing tips - rounding numbers, acronyms, "of" and parenthesis eradication

Who Will Benefit:
  • Credit Analysts
  • Credit Managers
  • Loan review officers
  • Work-out officers
  • Commercial lenders
  • Credit Risk Managers
  • Chief Credit Officers
  • Senior Lenders
  • Senior Lending Officer
  • Bank Director
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • President
  • Board Chairman
Dev Strischek A frequent speaker, instructor, advisor, and writer on credit risk and commercial banking topics and issues, Dev is principal of Devon Risk Advisory Group and engages in consulting, speaking and training on a wide range of risk, credit, and lending topics. As former SVP and senior credit policy officer at SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, he was responsible for developing, implementing, and administering credit policies for SunTrust's wholesale lines of business--commercial, commercial real estate, corporate investment banking, capital markets, business banking, and private wealth management. He also spent three years as managing director and credit approver in SunTrust's Florida commercial lending and corporate investment banking areas, respectively. Prior to SunTrust, Dev was chief credit officer for Barnett Bank's Palm Beach market. Besides stints at other banks in Florida, Kansas City, and Ohio, Dev's experiences outside of banking include CFO of a Honolulu construction company, combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army, and college economics instructor in Hawaii, Missouri, and Florida. A graduate of Ohio State University and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking, he earned his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii.

Dev serves as an instructor in the ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking, the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, the Pacific Coast Banking School, and the American Bankers Association's (ABA) Commercial Lending. His school, conference, and workshop audiences have included participants drawn from the ABA, RMA, OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, FFIEC, SBA, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the AICPA.

Dev has written about credit risk management, financial analysis and related subjects for the ABA's Commercial Insights, the Risk Management Association's RMA Journal, and other business professional journals. He is the author of Analyzing Construction Contractors and its related RMA workshop. A past national chair of RMA and former Florida Chapter president, Dev serves as a member of the RMA Journal's advisory board, and an ex-officio board member of the Florida and Atlanta RMA chapters. He also serves on the advisory board of the Atlanta Chapter of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA), and he has consulted on credit risk issues with banks in Morocco, Egypt, and Angola through the US State Department's Financial Service Volunteer Corps (FSVC)

Overview: Emails are a core business communication tool. The speed and volume of email have dramatically changed business communication. The not-so-old standards for professional correspondence have changed and will continue to do so. Employees need to know the best strategies to communicate effectively. An effective business email is easily understood, but it is not so easily written. We have all received poorly written emails. These emails are unclear, and ambiguous, and often get ignored. They can cause confusion. They can also be detrimental to the business if projects are impeded or if clients misinterpret information. Fortunately, this communication skill can be improved with training, and the payoff is that these clearer emails improve business communication and productivity.

This course will teach you how to write clearer emails to receive better responses. Well-written emails save time because they allow the recipient to clearly understand the task at hand and respond appropriately. Effective emails reduce confusion and increase productivity. And they are much faster to write than snail mail. This course will teach you the basics of an effective email.

Why should you Attend:
In this course you will learn:
  • How to write more focused, professional emails
  • How to improve response rates
  • How to write more concise and succinct emails
This email course is especially valuable if you work on a team that uses email as a major communication tool, you are managing a group or division that communicates via email, or your staff sends emails that are too vague, too dense, or too many, or you have a difficult time getting responses to the emails you send.

Areas Covered in the Session:
Participants will learn how to employ these key aspects of email to improve clarity and response rates:
  • Addressing
  • Subject line
  • Message text
  • Signature line
  • Attachments
  • Style
  • Confidentiality and security
  • Managing e-mail volume
  • When and when not to use email
At the end of the course, participants will be able to:
  • Write consistent, professional, well-formatted emails
  • Increase response rates with clearer, more focused email
  • Use email clarity to increase productivity

Who Will Benefit:
  • Anyone who communicates by email internally with coworkers or externally with clients, vendors, borrowers, or other entities
Dev Strischek A frequent speaker, instructor, advisor, and writer on credit risk and commercial banking topics and issues, Dev is principal of Devon Risk Advisory Group and engages in consulting, speaking and training on a wide range of risk, credit, and lending topics. As former SVP and senior credit policy officer at SunTrust Bank, Atlanta, he was responsible for developing, implementing, and administering credit policies for SunTrust's wholesale lines of business--commercial, commercial real estate, corporate investment banking, capital markets, business banking, and private wealth management. He also spent three years as managing director and credit approver in SunTrust's Florida commercial lending and corporate investment banking areas, respectively. Prior to SunTrust, Dev was chief credit officer for Barnett Bank's Palm Beach market. Besides stints at other banks in Florida, Kansas City, and Ohio, Dev's experiences outside of banking include CFO of a Honolulu construction company, combat engineer officer in the U.S. Army, and college economics instructor in Hawaii, Missouri, and Florida. A graduate of Ohio State University and the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking, he earned his M.B.A. from the University of Hawaii.

Dev serves as an instructor in the ABA’s Stonier Graduate School of Banking, the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, the Pacific Coast Banking School, and the American Bankers Association's (ABA) Commercial Lending. His school, conference, and workshop audiences have included participants drawn from the ABA, RMA, OCC, Federal Reserve, FDIC, FFIEC, SBA, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and the AICPA.

Dev has written about credit risk management, financial analysis and related subjects for the ABA's Commercial Insights, the Risk Management Association's RMA Journal, and other business professional journals. He is the author of Analyzing Construction Contractors and its related RMA workshop. A past national chair of RMA and former Florida Chapter president, Dev serves as a member of the RMA Journal's advisory board, and an ex-officio board member of the Florida and Atlanta RMA chapters. He also serves on the advisory board of the Atlanta Chapter of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA), and he has consulted on credit risk issues with banks in Morocco, Egypt, and Angola through the US State Department's Financial Service Volunteer Corps (FSVC)

Overview: Her career in public speaking began on a stage in front of 700 college freshmen. Talk about a tough audience! Today Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley has moved from the campus podium to the corporate classroom, traveling throughout North America inspiring business professionals to overcome organizational obstacles and deliver powerful written and oral presentations. She has parlayed her early experiences into the opportunity to train others to be better persuasive communicators.

She's a summa cum laude graduate with concentrations in English, communication, and management and is the award-winning business author of The No-Panic Plan for Presenters: An A-to-Z Checklist for Speaking Confidently and Compellingly Anywhere, Anytime. It was named a Finalist in the Career category at the Independent Book Publisher Awards in New York.

Why you should Attend: Whether in an informal setting or a more formal presentation, we all want to bring our "A Game" any time we speak up in a meeting or express our ideas to our boss. So, what in the world is holding us back?

Plan to join us if:
  • Quite frankly, you hate public speaking
  • You've been embarrassed because you get "shaky hands" when you stand up to speak
  • You don't want people in the audience counting every time you say "um" or "and uh"
  • You've been so nervous that you've broken out in bright red splotches when presenting to an audience
  • You just don't want to be boring when it's your time to shine
  • You're afraid someone might stump you with a hard question
  • You truly desire fresh approaches to presenting ideas to your team and other audiences
  • You simply want to gain a couple of new tips you can incorporate immediately to be the best presenter you can be each and every time

Everyone from the anxious beginner to the confident professional will grow from expert advice such as:
  • Making the most of your first three minutes
  • Reinforcing sticking points throughout your presentation
  • Fine-tuning your eye contact, gestures, and overall delivery

Areas Covered in the Session: Be ready and more prepared than ever before. Here's what you'll gain from our crash course that will revolutionize your approach to presenting on the job.

Preparing Your Presentation
Good openings are sure-fire crowd-pleasers
Don't bore them at the beginning!
  • Make the most out of your "Three-Minute First Impression"
  • Reinforce your sticking points throughout your message
  • Figure out what everyone else is doing-then DON'T do it
  • Submerse yourself in the three "must-dos" for any presentation opening and intentionally hook your audience

Delivering Your Presentation
  • Don't be guilty of fizzling out at the end: Close with a big bang
  • Completely overhaul your slides
  • Fine tune your nonverbal know-how
  • Identify and eliminate any nervous habits or jitters
  • Handle unexpected questions effortlessly
  • Learn some surprise presentation tips from the pros

BEST PRACTICE of ALL
Banish the "ums" and "uhs."

Yes, people will sit and listen to you and count the number of times you say "and uh." It's ridiculous. I'll share the only secret I know to eradicate vocal fillers from all of your presentations for good. This technique alone is worth your time investment.

Who Will Benefit:
  • Human Resources Professionals
  • Engineers
  • Knowledge Professionals
  • SMEs
  • Administrative Professionals
  • Employees Being asked to do more writing on the job than Expected
  • Training Specialists
  • Learning and Development Specialists
Mandi Stanley With more than 16 years of experience on the seminar circuit, Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works primarily with business leaders who want to boost their professional image and with people who want to be better speakers and writers.
In 2003, Mandi was designated a CSP, Certified Speaking Professional. Fewer than 9 percent of all worldwide speakers have earned this designation, and Mandi is the first Mississippian in history to receive this honor through the National Speakers Association.

She's a summa cum laude graduate with concentrations in English, communication, and management, and served as a faculty member of the American Management Association for five years. Mandi is the author of The No-Panic Plan for Presenters, which was named a Finalist in the Career category at the Independent Book Publishers Awards in New York. Audiences appreciate her platform enthusiasm, interactive style, and content-rich messages.

Overview: This is the ideal webinar for anyone responsible for overseeing outgoing correspondence, paperwork, project proposals, and email throughout the course of the workday. You'll walk away with two tangible proofreading tools designed to make your job easier. Why should you Attend: Any document, media kit, or email bearing your organization's insignia or name must be absolutely error-free. Even a careless mistake in an email can damage a leader's reputation and can make an entire organization look bad. It's all about our attention to detail.

Proofreading is a skill anyone can learn and improve. Very few business professionals actually have ever been TAUGHT how to proofread. So join us if:
  • You have ever forgotten to attach a document to an email
  • You've had to resend that email two minutes later with an "Oops, here it is" message
  • You've sent out mass correspondence with a big typo and didn't realize it until it was too late
  • You've ever accidentally omitted the "l" when typing the word "public" and not caught it in time (happens more often than you would think)
  • You've accidentally typed "form" instead of "from"
  • Or "you" instead of "your"
  • You've been guilty of taking texting short cuts in your business emails - or you know someone who does
  • You have a whopper of a proofreading blooper story of your own to tell
  • You're starting to miss errors of omission and other hard-to-catch mistakes

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • How to make sure documents leave your office error free
  • The "Newspaper Proof": A fail-safe three-step approach to proofreading
  • The "Proofreader's Power Pack": Which tools and resources are indispensable to a proofreader
  • How to proofread in a distracting office environment
  • How to spot errors of omission
  • Why you never should proofread directly from your computer screen
  • How to catch the bloopers before the bloopers catch you!

Who Will Benefit:
  • Chief Human Resource Officers
  • Senior Management Team
  • HR Managers, Directors, and Administrators
  • Employment Managers
  • Training Directors
  • Supervisors
Mandi Stanley With more than 16 years of experience on the seminar circuit, Certified Speaking Professional Mandi Stanley works primarily with business leaders who want to boost their professional image and with people who want to be better speakers and writers.
In 2003, Mandi was designated a CSP, Certified Speaking Professional. Fewer than 9 percent of all worldwide speakers have earned this designation, and Mandi is the first Mississippian in history to receive this honor through the National Speakers Association.

She's a summa cum laude graduate with concentrations in English, communication, and management, and served as a faculty member of the American Management Association for five years. Mandi is the author of The No-Panic Plan for Presenters, which was named a Finalist in the Career category at the Independent Book Publishers Awards in New York. Audiences appreciate her platform enthusiasm, interactive style, and content-rich messages.

Overview: In this webinar we will learn the reasons onboarding is important today. We will learn that the terms orientation and onboarding are not interchangeable. We will learn that orientation is in reality just one step in the onboarding process. We will learn that the onboarding process begins before the hire is made. Why should you Attend: Statistics show that half of all hourly employees leave the job within four months of hire and half of all salaried employees leave their jobs within 18 months. This turnover is expensive. Much of this turnover can be prevented by a proper onboarding process. The Orientation, the process of making someone an employee, is no longer sufficient. When so much of a company's success is dependent on the intellectual property that employees produce it is critical to make sure that the employee is fitting in and succeeding.

This is what a successful onboarding process accomplishes. Those companies that do not do this successfully suffer lower productivity, potential loss of customers, and of course the eventual loss of the employee and the resultant replacement costs.

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • The Cost of Turnover
  • The Steps Involved in Onboarding
  • Before the Hire
  • During the Hire
  • The First Day
  • The First Week
  • The Ongoing Process
  • What Potential Activities are Included

Who Will Benefit:
  • HR Managers
  • Office Managers
  • Supervisors
  • Managers
  • Company Owners
Michael D. Haberman is a consultant, speaker, writer and teacher. He is President of Omega HR Consulting, a consulting and services company offering complete human resources solutions. Mike brings 35+ years of experience in dealing with the challenges of Human Resources in the 21st century. He has a Master's in HR and is certified as a Senior HR professional.

He has over 18 years’ experience in the class room teaching human resources fundamentals and certification preparation. Mike is the author of the Human Resources blog found at OmegaHRConsulting.com , which has been recognized as a top human resources related blogs. He has also been named a top Digital Influencer in Human Resources.

Mike has gained a reputation as a compliance expert and as an HR futurist. He speaks on a variety of subjects to business associations, human resource associations and business based civic clubs. He has presented numerous webinars on various HR related issues.

Overview: Transition from Peer to Supervisor can be very difficult for most newly promoted supervisor.Many are not equip with the tools to successfully transition.This session will equip newly promoted supervisor with tools and techniques to communicate more effectively, gain trust,set boundaries, provide constructive feedback and motivate employees for results. Today's workforce is experiencing high turnover and disengaged employees.It is a known fact that employees quit managers-to avoid turnover it is critical to have the appropriate skills to retain employees.

Why should you Attend: If you are a newly promoted supervisor that have the responsibility of supervising previous coworkers or peers this course is for you. Do you find it difficult setting boundaries, communicating effectively, building trust and respect and providing feedback to peers and coworkers? These are some of the challenges newly promoted supervisor face with their new positon. This session will provide participants with tips on how to overcome the pitfall most newly promoted supervisors face.

It is a known fact supervising others is difficult especially if they are previous coworkers and peers. Participant in this session will learn how to effectively manage coworkers and peers, how to motivate to achieve result and mostly importantly how to respect your new role as a supervisor.

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • How to Communicate more Effectively as a Supervisor
  • When to be Flexible and when to Stand Firm
  • Steps to Build Trust and Gain Respect
  • How to Develop your Own Personal Management Style
  • How to Set Boundaries with Coworkers/Peers
  • How to Deal with Uncomfortable Situations
  • How to Motivate Others to Achieve Results

Who Will Benefit:
  • Managers
  • Supervisors
  • Leaders
  • Human Resource Professional
  • Shift Leaders or Team
Tonia Morris, your Generational Connector, and Founder of Simply HR, LLC a Consultant and Management Firm along with a speaking and training company, Tonia Morris Speaks, provides leaders with training solutions that cultivate a generationally-inclusive work place.

Before starting her business in 2010, Tonia was Executive Director of Human Resources for one of the largest state pension agencies in the Southeast; she has also worked in an HR leadership capacity in other industries, including government, retail, information technology and education.

Tonia's passion for understanding the different dynamics of people led her on a quest to solve generational issues within organizations. Tonia noticed that the workforce was aging and changing, so she provided training solutions on engaging and managing a multi-generational workforce to be productive. With more than 20+ years of progressive HR experience, Tonia provides keynote speeches, lunch-and-learns, and workshops for organizations and associations across the Southeast.

She has partnered with organizations such as Chick-fil-A, Oracle, Spelman and Kennesaw University to name a few, to bring training solutions for engaging Millennials in the workplace, working with leaders to transform their cultures by attracting, developing and retaining a workforce that is generationally inclusive.

Tonia holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of South Florida. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Millennial Chamber of Commerce, where she also serves as the organization's HR Director, and volunteers for the Women's Entrepreneurial Opportunity Project.

She resides in Grayson, GA, with her husband of 24 years, and two sons. In her free time, Tonia loves collecting and making jewelry, and is known in the community as "the jewelry lady."

Overview: New managers have large impacts on employee commitment and productivity, along with internal and external customer satisfaction. Yet it is hard for them to ask for help when they need it. Join us for an exploration of how to arm new and prospective managers with the tools they need to succeed. Help vital new members of the management team become effective quickly! Why you should Attend: No transition is more crucial to the individual employee and to the organization than the transition from individual contributor to manager. Yet a full year after promotion, nearly two thirds of new managers are still struggling with their role. Join us to learn how to address this issue and prepare your managers for their role.

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • The business case and ROI for investing in support for new managers
  • Assessing potential new managers
  • A model for the transition-to-manager process, including training
  • Key tools and support tactics
  • Buddies and Mentors: Setting up a system that works
  • Warning signs of quietly failing new managers
  • Metrics
  • Implementation strategies to integrate new manager support with overall leadership development

Who Will Benefit:
  • Leadership Professional
  • HR Professionals
Dr. B. Lynn Ware, Ph.D. , President and CEO As CEO of Integral Talent Systems, Inc. (ITS) based in Silicon Valley, California, Dr. Ware is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist who has practiced for over 25 years in the talent management field with a strong focus on how to increase employee productivity for the benefit of achieving business goals.

Dr. Ware has created a process to build, measure, and improve an organization’s employee engagement program. This process has helped to increase engagement, productivity, and organizational commitment.

Dr. Ware has consulted on the creation of employee engagement surveys for several of the top Fortune 500 corporations. She has frequently been quoted on trends in talent management strategies in numerous publications such as the Associated Press, Computer World magazine, Network World and the San Francisco Chronicle, and has been featured several times on CNN as a national talent management expert.

Overview: In this webinar we will build a pay structure using hypothetical pay survey data. Why should you Attend: Learn how to build a pay structure with regression analysis. Pay lines are created using this technique that form the basis for the establishment of pay range midpoints in the pay structure. These pay lines can be manipulated in consideration of the importance of various job classifications in your organization. Using this method will enable you to explain what you have done, and what it means to your employees.

Areas Covered in the Session: In the process you will learn:
  • What data to use from pay surveys you possess
  • The importance of benchmark jobs and their associated data
  • How much survey data to use for building the pay structure
  • What a "weighted average" is and why it is important
  • What to use as a measure of the pay range midpoint: "weighted averages" or "medians"?
  • The difference between "regression analysis" and "correlation analysis?"
  • How wide pay ranges should be in percentage terms
  • The ideal range spread for "midpoint to midpoint spreads"
  • What the "seed data" should be for the development of pay ranges
  • How to test and integrate your employee pay rates into the new pay structure
  • How often to update your pay structures

Who Will Benefit:
  • Human Resource Managers
  • Compensation Analysts
  • Compensation Managers
  • Financial Managers of HR Departments
David J. Wudyka, MBA, is the Managing Principal of Westminster Associates of Wrentham, MA (www.westminsterassociates.net). He has over thirty years experience as a Human Resource Consultant with a specialty in Compensation Consulting. David has taught extensively in colleges and universities such as UMass Boston, Bryant University, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. David is especially interested in how the HR Dept. can strengthen its role as a Strategic Partner in businesses today. He is writing extensively about how to improve pay transparency and to reduce the gender pay gap in ways that make sense for businesses of all sizes.

Overview: Let's face it - we are all managing projects every day! They may be simple or more complex, but undoubtedly you are managing projects within your role. You don't need to be a project manager to learn how to manage your projects effectively and efficiently. This interactive presentation will provide the basics of managing projects - regardless of their size or complexity. Webinar attendees will be provided a variety of tools, techniques, and best practices to enable them to manage the projects they are assigned and the projects they want to undertake, including how to socialize initiatives to get buy-in from others. This webinar will provide a simple step-by-step process for managing your projects. Attendees will learn how to use a variety of documents - scope statements, communication plans, risk management plans, risk registers, and change management plans - in order to better manage their initiatives. Additionally, the importance of socializing initiatives as well as managing stakeholders to ensure commitment to initiatives and support needed to achieve goals will be discussed.

Challenges in managing projects will be covered as well as how to best address those challenges to keep your project moving forward. Other topics covered in this webinar to enable increased effectiveness in managing projects and meeting project goals include: developing the project business case, effective project planning with the team, five stages of team development, driving decision-making from stakeholders, and facilitating effective team meetings.

Leave this webinar with a better understanding of how project management can assist you in performing your role in your organization.

Why you should Attend: By attending, you will understand how to do even more effectively:
  • Scale Project Scope Statements
  • Develop the business case for your own projects
  • Identifying and managing stakeholders
  • Develop your Project Plan
  • Itemize your Work Breakdown Structure and activity list
  • Enhance your Communications Plan
  • Identify, plan and manage project risks
  • Manage changes to the project
  • Report on status
  • Drive decisions from the team and from key stakeholders
Would you like to get more (or all!) of the projects you manage on time and on a budget?

Are you concerned about people on your project teams not knowing enough about how to effectively manage a project? What about you?

Would you like some help managing your projects more?

Would you like to manage others' expectations?

If you answered 'yes" to any of these questions, you should join us!

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • Project Scope Statements
  • Developing the business case for your own projects
  • Identifying and managing stakeholders
  • Developing your Project Plan
  • Itemizing your Work Breakdown Structure and activity list
  • Enhancing your Communications Plan
  • Identifying, planning, and managing project risks
  • Managing changes to the project
  • Reporting on status
  • Driving decisions from the team and from key stakeholders

Who Will Benefit:
  • CEO
  • Senior Vice President
  • Vice President
  • Executive Director
  • Managing Director
  • Regional Vice President
  • Area Supervisor
  • Manager
Chris DeVany is the founder and president of Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide, a firm which focuses on management and organization development. Pinnacle's clients include global organizations such as Visa International, Cadence Design Systems, Coca Cola, Sprint, Microsoft, Aviva Insurance, Schlumberger and over 500 other organizations in 22 countries. He also has consulted to government agencies from the United States, the Royal Government of Saudi Arabia, Canada, Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom.

He has published numerous articles in the fields of surviving mergers and acquisitions, surviving change, project management, management, sales, team-building, leadership, ethics, customer service, diversity and work-life balance, in publications ranging from ASTD/Performance In Practice to Customer Service Management. His book, "90 Days to a High-Performance Team", published by McGraw Hill and often accompanied by in-person, facilitated instruction, has helped and continues to help thousands of executives, managers and team leaders improve performance.

He has appeared hundreds of times on radio and television interview programs to discuss mergers and acquisitions (how to manage and survive them), project management, sales, customer service, effective workplace communication, management, handling rapid personal and organizational change and other topical business issues.

He has served or is currently serving as a board member of the International Association of Facilitators, Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Management Association, American Society of Training and Development, Institute of Management Consultants, American Society of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International and National Speakers Association. Chris is an award-winning Toastmaster's International Competition speaker. He recently participated in the Fortune 500 Annual Management Forum as a speaker, panelist and seminar leader.

Chris has distinguished himself professionally by serving multiple corporations as manager and trainer of sales, operations, project management, IT, customer service and marketing professionals. Included among those business leaders are Prudential Insurance, Sprint, BayBank (now part of Bank of America), US Health Care and Marriott Corporation.

He has assisted these organizations in mergers and acquisitions, facilitating post-merger and acquisition integration, developing project management, sales, customer service and marketing strategies, organizing inbound and outbound call center programs, training and development of management and new hires, and fostering corporate growth through creative change and innovation initiatives.

Chris holds degrees in management studies and organizational behavior from Boston University. He has traveled to 22 countries and 47 states in the course of his career.

Overview: One of the most critical areas of employee relationships and one of the biggest challenges management faces today is conducting effective performance appraisals and determining appropriate merit increases. Learn to give performance appraisals that help motivate employees to achieve goals and increase their value to the organization.

Since both managers and employees often view performance appraisals with anxiety, attention is given to preparing for and conducting performance discussions that are objective, complete and defensible. You'll also share experiences and participate in various exercises with other participants to better understand how to obtain the best possible performance from employees.

Why you should Attend: By attending, you will understand how to even more effectively:
  • How to conduct motivational and directional performance appraisal reviews
  • Planning the review
  • Managing the review process
  • Subtle ways to keep sensitive employees from having their feelings hurt
  • How to suggest improvement to an employee's performance in a way that boosts an employee's spirits
  • Why employees sometimes fear reviews
  • Ways to increase standards of performance

Would you like to conduct more effective performance reviews? Would you like to know how to give people "bad news" in a way which will not hurt but in fact improve your working relationships? Would you like to be able to suggest improvement in a way which encourages rather than discourages?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then come laugh, listen and learn as Chris DeVany leads us all through those important topics, key questions and answers we all need to be able to address effectively to improve our team members’ and team’s performance!

Areas Covered in the Session:
  • State of the Art Practices in Performance Reviews
    • Why annual reviews are not adequate
    • Staff involvement and ownership through self-appraisal and dialogue
  • Traps to Avoid in the Performance Appraisal Process
  • Developing Performance Measures
    • Using behavioral terms
    • Defining levels of performance
  • Collecting Information About Performance
    • Establishing a record-keeping system
    • Making observations
    • Encouraging staff to monitor themselves
  • Communicating the Appraisal
    • Setting the tone for a two-way discussion
    • Evaluating and maximizing strengths
    • Communicating about problem areas without creating defensiveness
    • Setting mutual goals for maintaining and improving performance
    • Using the review as an opportunity for career planning
    • Handling resistance
    • What to do if you reach a stalemate
  • Following Up on the Review
    • Monitoring performance
  • Making informal appraisal an ongoing occurrence

Who Will Benefit:
  • CEO
  • Senior Vice President
  • Vice President
  • Executive Director
  • Managing Director
  • Regional Vice President
  • Area Supervisor
  • Manager
Chris DeVany is the founder and president of Pinnacle Performance Improvement Worldwide, a firm which focuses on management and organization development. Pinnacle's clients include global organizations such as Visa International, Cadence Design Systems, Coca Cola, Sprint, Microsoft, Aviva Insurance, Schlumberger and over 500 other organizations in 22 countries. He also has consulted to government agencies from the United States, the Royal Government of Saudi Arabia, Canada, Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom.

He has published numerous articles in the fields of surviving mergers and acquisitions, surviving change, project management, management, sales, team-building, leadership, ethics, customer service, diversity and work-life balance, in publications ranging from ASTD/Performance In Practice to Customer Service Management. His book, "90 Days to a High-Performance Team", published by McGraw Hill and often accompanied by in-person, facilitated instruction, has helped and continues to help thousands of executives, managers and team leaders improve performance.

He has appeared hundreds of times on radio and television interview programs to discuss mergers and acquisitions (how to manage and survive them), project management, sales, customer service, effective workplace communication, management, handling rapid personal and organizational change and other topical business issues.

He has served or is currently serving as a board member of the International Association of Facilitators, Sales and Marketing Executives International, American Management Association, American Society of Training and Development, Institute of Management Consultants, American Society of Association Executives, Meeting Professionals International and National Speakers Association. Chris is an award-winning Toastmaster's International Competition speaker. He recently participated in the Fortune 500 Annual Management Forum as a speaker, panelist and seminar leader.

Chris has distinguished himself professionally by serving multiple corporations as manager and trainer of sales, operations, project management, IT, customer service and marketing professionals. Included among those business leaders are Prudential Insurance, Sprint, BayBank (now part of Bank of America), US Health Care and Marriott Corporation.

He has assisted these organizations in mergers and acquisitions, facilitating post-merger and acquisition integration, developing project management, sales, customer service and marketing strategies, organizing inbound and outbound call center programs, training and development of management and new hires, and fostering corporate growth through creative change and innovation initiatives.

Chris holds degrees in management studies and organizational behavior from Boston University. He has traveled to 22 countries and 47 states in the course of his career.