COURSE OVERVIEW:
Welcome to the Building Positive Workplace Relationships course. This program will equip you with the skills and knowledge to communicate more effectively, handle difficult interactions with greater confidence, and contribute to a more collaborative and respectful working environment. Throughout this course, you will learn practical models, techniques, and strategies that help you manage everyday conversations, meetings, negotiations, and conflicts in ways that strengthen trust and professional relationships.
This course begins by developing your understanding of how effective interpersonal communication works and why it sometimes breaks down. It introduces key models of interpersonal communication, helps you identify the factors that influence organisational communication, and supports you to recognise the main barriers that get in the way of clear understanding. This section also explores six skills for improving your verbal communication so that you can express yourself more clearly, listen more effectively, and adapt your style to different people and situations.
Assertive behaviour and personal communication styles are then examined so you can respond more constructively under pressure. This section explains the characteristics of assertive, aggressive, and submissive behaviours and guides you to review how you behave in particular situations. This section also helps you identify the factors that hinder assertiveness and trigger aggressive or submissive responses, explore techniques for developing assertive behaviour in threatening or difficult situations, and plan how to behave more assertively in a real situation that matters to you.
Workplace meetings as a key relationship context are then explored so that your contributions become more focused and productive. This section explains the purpose of meetings and explores why meetings sometimes fail to achieve their goals. This section also helps you understand how to prepare effectively for a meeting, evaluate your skills as a meeting participant, consider the role of the chairperson, and identify the skills required to chair a meeting in a way that builds participation, clarity, and agreement rather than frustration and disengagement.
Attention then turns to negotiation as a structured way of resolving differences and creating mutually beneficial outcomes. This section identifies the purpose and possible outcomes of the negotiation process and explains the difference between two techniques used by skilled negotiators: positional bargaining and principled negotiation. This section also provides opportunities to explore and practise the skills and techniques you need to be a successful negotiator, so that you can advocate for your needs while preserving and even strengthening workplace relationships.
The course concludes by focusing on workplace conflict and how to respond before it becomes damaging. This section helps you identify common sources of conflict at work and enhance your ability to recognise conflicts and disagreements early, before they escalate. This section also examines the role of the manager in managing conflict so that it does not become harmful to the individuals or organisations involved, and invites you to reflect on the range of strategies you currently use to deal with conflict and consider how you can develop and extend these approaches in your own context.
By the end of this course, you will be able to use clear communication models to improve everyday interactions, choose more assertive and respectful responses in challenging situations, and participate in and chair meetings in ways that build understanding and agreement. You will understand how to approach negotiation using principled, relationship-focused techniques and how to recognise, address, and manage conflict in a calm and constructive manner. Most importantly, you will be equipped with practical tools and insight to build more positive, resilient workplace relationships that support both individual wellbeing and organisational performance.
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the models of effective interpersonal communication
- Identify the factors that influence organisational communication
- Recognise the main barriers to effective communication
- Discover six skills for improving your verbal communication
- Identify the characteristics of assertive, aggressive and submissive behaviours
- Review how you behave in particular situations
- Identify the factors that hinder assertiveness and trigger aggressive or submissive behaviour
- Explore techniques for developing assertive behaviour in threatening or difficult situations
- Plan to behave more assertively in a particular situation
- Identify the purpose of meetings
- Explore why meetings sometimes fail
- Understand how to prepare for a meeting
- Evaluate your skills as a meeting participant
- Consider the role of the chairperson
- Identify the skills required to chair a meeting
- Identify the purpose and possible outcomes of the negotiation process
- Consider the difference between two techniques used by skilled negotiators: positional bargaining and principled negotiation
- Explore and practise the skills and techniques you need to be a successful negotiator
- Identify sources of conflict at work
- Enhance your ability to recognise conflicts and disagreements at work
- Examine the role of the manager in managing conflict so that it does not become damaging to the individual or organisations involved
- Reflect on the range of strategies that you use to deal with conflict and consider how you can develop these further
COURSE DURATION:
The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.
ASSESSMENT:
A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.
CERTIFICATION:
Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.