Being a Responsible Corporate Digital Citizen
Security risks are high online and businesses need flexibility to adapt to change if they are going to navigate online interactions safely. Staying current on digital innovation and security guidelines ensures your company’s resilience against threats to secure data management.
This course will explore some responsibilities when interacting in an online world so you can become a good corporate digital citizen and reduce your data security risk.
50 Minutes
- Identify the rules of etiquette you should follow to be a good corporate digital citizen
- Identify your rights and responsibilities as a corporate digital citizen
- Identify ways individuals can maintain company safety and security online
- Identify the tenets of consumer-managed data
- Identify the steps an organization can take to move toward contextual data privacy
- Knowledge Check: Contributing as a Digital Citizen
Personal Power and Credibility
Authority carries a certain type of power – typically position power. A person is granted the power and authority to meet goals and get results through a responsible job definition and accountability. The police officer that cites you for speeding. The financial manager that calls for an audit. The company manager that decides how to allocate the budget. People may comply, rebel, resist, or gripe about those in authority, but there is a reason and purpose for such positional power.
On the other hand, most of the results that get accomplished in organizations come from the use of personal power and not solely reliant on direct authority. This is especially true in our work environments today, where information sources and networking contacts are accessible to all as means to results. But ultimately it comes down to personal credibility, influence, and political savvy. This course focuses on the power that comes with being credible and trustworthy.
40 Minutes
- Recognize the traits associated with personal and positional power
- Choose whether to use personal power or positional power in a given situation
- Identify the factors that supports a claim of credibility
- Select actions that build credibility
- Identify actions that help to earn trust
- Recognize opportunities to build trust
- Demonstrate personal power by building credibility and trust
Building Personal Power through Influence
Along with being credible and trustworthy, you can get results without direct authority by using your influence. Effective influence skills are probably the biggest differentiator when getting results without authority. When you influence, you engage and enlist others in getting results – without necessarily having formal power.
Influence is not about forcing or exerting – it’s about getting people on your side for good reasons. Three ways to promote influence are through language/effective communication, reciprocity/exchanging ‘currencies’, and persevering through resistance.
50 Minutes
- Identify the characteristics of influence
- Recognize considerations when preparing to use influence in a situation
- Identify the communication skills to employ when using the law of reciprocity
- Influence others using reciprocity
- Select statements that reflect words that were chosen to influence
- Use effective language to influence others
- Recognize situations that may cause resistance
- Recognize examples of the steps for managing resistance
- Use methods to influence people and situations
Influence Others with Political Savvy
When dealing with power and influence you will inevitably have to navigate political waters. Most everyone knows that ‘politics’ are a reality in organizations and even if you dislike them, you cannot eliminate them. Just think about those who have position power – chances are they got there not just through their individual know-how, but because they know who’s who, how to appeal to them, and how to build coalitions of power and influence.
This course addresses what it takes to use political savvy as an aid to influencing without direct authority
40 Minutes
- Identify the skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed to be politically savvy
- Use strategic, operational, and financial knowledge to demonstrate business acumen
- Recognize the characteristics of someone with business acumen
- Select elements to include in an action plan
- Recognize the steps to take to put your action plan to work
- Use methods to develop political savvy and business acumen
Difficult People: Why They Act That Way and How to Deal with Them
Anything taken to an extreme can be a liability, including human behavior. While confident, cautious, or energetic people can be perfectly tolerable in small doses when working together, they can also be annoying or problematic when their behavior is over-the-top. Then there are people who are just plain negative – their glasses are always “half empty”. While occasional griping is acceptable when working on a team, the behavior of negative people can eventually wear you down. To ensure successful communication and collaboration in the workplace, it’s vital you develop the skills needed for managing difficult people.
In this course, you’ll learn about the four types of difficult people: dominant-controlling, analytical-obsessive, expressive-impulsive, and skeptical-negative. You’ll also discover techniques for dealing with difficult people, and for managing your own emotions.
50 Minutes
- Recognize the characteristics of difficult people “types”
- Describe the motivations of people who exhibit dominant-controlling behavior
- Respond effectively to a dominant-controlling person
- Recognize what motivates people who exhibit analytical-obsessive behavior
- Predict analytical or obsessive behavior based on typical root causes
- Identify motivations behind the behavior of expressive-impulsive people
- Identify appropriate strategies for dealing with expressive-compulsive people
- Recognize the traits exhibited by skeptical-negative people
- Use strategies to deal effectively with skeptical-negative people
- Respond effectively to difficult people by understanding the motivations underpinning their behavior
Difficult People: Can't Change Them, so Change Yourself
It would be easy to say that to deal with difficult people you should be tolerant and accept people’s differences. This sounds nice, and might work in the short term, but if you are working with people you find difficult and you expect to be working with them for some period of time – you are better off learning how to respond and relate to them. The approach you use depends on the person, the situation, and your willingness to build and blend skills as needed. Dealing with difficult people requires that you first learn how to manage yourself with them.
This means being self-aware and practicing self-management. It also means tuning into the feelings and emotions of others, however difficult it might be. When you know what triggers you and how you typically react, you can build skills to help make your interactions with others more productive. This is emotional intelligence, and if you build this capacity, you will be able to deal more effectively with many difficulties in life (including other people)!
50 Minutes
- Recognize how your own perspective can reshape your view of difficult people
- Identify actions to take to increase self-awareness
- Identify reactions that show self-awareness
- Recognize the signs that signal the need for self-management
- Choose reactions that reflect meditative techniques
- Choose reactions that reflect thinking techniques
- Identify your own behavior style and that of others
- Choose appropriate behavior to overcome negative conduct
- Use self-awareness and self-management techniques to enable more successful working relationships with difficult people
Difficult People: Strategies to Keep Everyone Working Together
While it’s best to get personally fit for dealing with difficult people – that is, managing your own emotions and using self-management techniques – there are also interpersonal strategies and skills you need when working on a team with difficult people.
In this course, you’ll learn strategies for managing difficult people that involve redirecting their behavior toward your work goals. You’ll discover ways of working together effectively with negative people by giving appropriate feedback when needed. You’ll also learn how to make your collaboration work with difficult people more productive by managing conflicts professionally.
50 Minutes
- Recognize interpersonal strategies that help you work with difficult people
- Choose ground rules that will help redirect the behavior styles of difficult people
- Direct difficult behavior toward desired goals
- Choose the appropriate time and conditions for giving effective feedback
- Identify appropriate strategies for delivering feedback
- Follow appropriate steps to manage conflict with a difficult person
- Use interpersonal skills and strategies when working with difficult people