Communication Skills

Cluster

Leadership & Personal efficiency

Target group

Members of the Doctoral Schools

Level

All PhD students

Key words

Solutions focus, communication skills, assertiveness, communication styles, teamwork

Communication skills Basics course

In order to be successful in your PhD, you need to be able to “manage” your project, yourself and your environment. This course focuses on this last challenge: influencing your colleagues, supervisor, peers and other parties effectively.

At the end of this training, you will be able to:
•    identify those parties that you really need to influence
•    adapt your influencing style to different persons/parties
•    discuss problems and issues in a solutions focused way
•    choose deliberately how to act and respond to others, rather than reacting impulsively
•    bring assertive messages without being aggressive
•    give and receive feedback in a constructive way
•    say no to requests or expectations you can’t fulfill
•    reinforce the collaboration within the team by making use of the team building blocks

Contents

•    Solutions Focus as basic communication paradigm
•    Identifying interaction patterns and how you contribute to these patterns
•    Changing undesired interaction patterns
•    Active listening
•    Assertiveness
•    Feedback
•    Saying no
•    Delivering difficult messages
•    Situational Influencing
•    Effective teamwork

Teacher: True Colours

Dates 

Registration

If the course is fully booked, you can ask to be added to the waiting list by sending an e-mail to doctoralschools@ugent.be. Please mention your student ID nr.

Module 1: Negotiation Skills

In order to manage your PhD successfully, you need to be able to negotiate with different stakeholders in different circumstances, giving direction to different kinds of behaviour from people with different personalities. This course focuses on the interdependence of all parties involved and on how to increase the chance on getting to a real win-win situation.
At the end of this training, you will be able to:
•    see the difference between conflict styles and their impact on the negotiation
•    identify your negotiation partners and hence to strengthen your cooperation with your negotiation partners by focusing on what is needed
•    prepare a negotiation thoroughly and in a structured way
•    take the initiative to go through the negotiation in a structured way and to lead your negotiation partner through the different phases of a negotiation
•    choose deliberately how to act and respond to others, rather than reacting impulsively
•    deal with difficulties (manipulation, emotions, unclarity,…) in a solution focused way

Contents
•    Solutions Focus as basic communication paradigm
•    Identifying interaction patterns and how you contribute to these patterns
•    Changing undesired interaction patterns
•    Active listening
•    Assertiveness
•    Identifying negotiation partners and how to strengthen cooperation with them
•    Heading for a win-win: structure of a negotiation (phases)
•    Preparing a negotiation
•    Going through the different phases of a negotiation
•    Dealing with manipulation

Dates

If the course is fully booked, you can ask to be added to the waiting list by sending an e-mail to doctoralschools@ugent.be. Please mention your student ID nr.

Module 2: Conflict management

In managing your PhD, you will come across many conflict situations: different views, different priorities, unclear roles and mandates, conflicting expectations, unreal assumptions,… In this course we help you to constructively deal with conflicts in an assertive, non-aggressive way by building on common ground.
At the end of this training, you will be able to:
•    see the constructive impact of looking for and building on common ground in conflict situations
•    deal with different stages of conflict (irritation, resistance, discussion, ‘fight’ mode)
•    break through destructive patterns in communication and cooperation
•    attune to the personal communication style of communication partners in order to increase the chance that messages are understood as they are meant
•    bring and receive bad news
•    choose deliberately how to act and respond to others, rather than reacting impulsively
•    deal with conflicts in a solution focused way

Contents
•    Solutions Focus as basic communication paradigm
•    Identifying interaction patterns and how you contribute to these patterns
•    Changing undesired interaction patterns
•    Basic levers for creating common ground
•    Personal communication styles
•    Active listening
•    Assertiveness
•    Bringing and receiving bad news
•    Giving and receiving feedback
•    Unencumbered communication
•    Dealing with emotions (own emotions and those of the conversation partner)

Dates

Registration

Follow this link: https://eventmanager.ugent.be/ConflMan

Your registration will be confirmed by separate email from the Doctoral Schools.

If the course is fully booked, you can ask to be added to the waiting list by sending an e-mail to doctoralschools@ugent.be. Please mention your student ID nr.

Registration fee

Format

Interactive workshops. The communication training starts with the basic module. Afterwards you attend at least one other module (module 1 and/or 2).

From 2013-2014, the course (Authentic) Networking no longer belongs to the communication training. You can include this course in the cluster Career management, without attending the basic communication training first. PhD students who have attended the module networking prior to 2013-2014 can include this module in the cluster Communication skills.

Number of participants

12

Language

English

Evaluation methods and criteria (doctoral training programme)

Active participation