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Athlete

This is a life changing course intended for everyone. As you participate, you will experience wonderful changes inside yourself. When Athlete professional skills have been instilled in team members, they step up to the Super Professional level, work effectively with each other and spontaneously earning the trust and respect of the customer. They also become part of the organisation’s culture.

To be effective in the demanding environment of modern business you need to be agile, efficient and have plenty of stamina. Managing priorities, balancing objectives and satisfying stakeholders are daily challenges that the business Athlete must meet with ease. The objective of the course is to enable you to be more professional in everything you do – in all aspects of your life.

Course Outline - Athlete

Introduction

This is a life changing course intended for everyone. As you participate, you will experience wonderful changes inside yourself.  When Athlete professional skills have been instilled in team members, they step up to the Super Professional level, work effectively with each other and spontaneously earn the trust and respect of the customer.  They also become part of the organisation’s culture.   To be effective in the demanding environment of modern business you need to be agile, efficient and have plenty of stamina. Managing priorities, balancing objectives and satisfying stakeholders are daily challenges that the business Athlete must meet with ease.  The objective of the course is to enable you to be more professional in everything you do – in all aspects of your life.

Outcomes

  • You will become a more rounded professional and reach your full potential
  • You will understand how best you can contribute to your organization’s objectives
  • You will be a well organised individual who is a pleasure to interact with
  • Become admired for the effective way you perform every interaction
  • Improve your business ethics and be more reliable
  • Be more trusted by your colleagues and customers
  • Manage time and attention – the truth about time
  • Lead change – with grace and ease
  • Listen to understand
  • Get your email inbox down to 0 and keep it there
  • Take control of all areas of your life
  • Be pro-active

Who should attend?

Everyone wishing to be more professional and effective

The standard package inclusions

Delegates will receive the three reference books on which this course is based, a course workbook (with copies of all slides used and notes for the essential topics to be discussed), the PSP Athlete syllabus, sample exams and the examination rationale (explanation of answers to questions).  The cost for the examination is included.  Refreshments and a light luncheon are also included.

Duration and Delivery

The course takes place over four weeks using one day a week in which the group get together.  The 40 minute exam takes place on the morning after the fourth group meeting.

Evening work and exam preparation

Delegates should plan to spend time during each week (between group sessions) reading and highlighting the reference books – to gain the most from the course.

Your greatest value that you will receive, will be determined by your willingness to implant new habits into your working and private lives and persevere with them for the rest of your life.

Pre-course work

Where possible you will receive one reference book and a questionnaire before the course starts.  You will be asked to fill in the questionnaire and bring it with you on the first day of the course.  You will also be asked to read the first few chapters of the reference book.

Prerequisites

Some basic understanding of business principles

Examination

PSP Athlete Foundation is a forty minute examination performed after the fourth group meeting.  It is made up of 50 multiple choice questions.  The exam is closed book.  The pass mark is 50%.

Renowned reference books used                            

Athletes Course Reference Books

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Brief Description - PSP Athlete Module

Introduction

The foundations of being an Athlete are about being professional in how you come across and in everything you do, how well you plan and prepare, your time management and the way you build relationships which will affect your ability to influence people

The prime focus for professional services has always been the ability for an individual to be technically strong. The challenge is that the way you come across and the quality of what you do is equally important; so blending both skills is a real differentiator. People are hiring people that have the right attitude and fit in well, sometimes over ability, but the two together make for a well-rounded individual

The following sections from the reference books are discussed in detail during the course:

How to win friends and influence people

  • Essentials of engagement:
  • Six ways to make a lasting impression:
  • Ways to merit and maintain others’ trust:
  • Ways to Lead Change Without Resistance or Resentment

 

Seven habits of highly effective people

Introductory subjects on habits

 

  • Difference between Character and Personality Ethics
  • Impact of a paradigm on attitude and behaviour
  • Difference between principles, practices and values
  • Interaction of knowledge, skill and desire that creates habits
  • Maturity Continuum, from dependence to independence to interdependence, and how the habits move a person along the continuum

 

Specific subjects on the seven habits:

 

  • Purpose of Habit 1, Be Proactive, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
  • Purpose of Habit 2, Begin with the end in mind, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
  • Purpose of Habit 3, Put first things first, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
    • Six major deposits within the Emotional Bank Account:
  • Purpose of Habit 4, Think win/win, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
  • Purpose of Habit 5, Seek first to understand - then be understood, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
  • Purpose of Habit 6, Synergize, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:
  • Purpose of Habit 7, Sharpen the saw, within the Seven Habits Paradigm:

 

Productivity Ninja

  • Key characteristics of a Productivity Ninja:
  • Symptoms of stress, stress triggers, and how to overcome them
  • Finite currency of ‘attention’, the three different types, and its impact on productivity:
  • Four ways to manage attention:
    Schedule work based on level of attention, Protect your attention from distractions, Improve your attention by increasing brain performance, Create new ‘pockets of attention’
  • Four stages of getting your email inbox to zero
  • Four key habits that make up the CORD productivity model: Capture and Collect, Organize, Review, Do
  • Four stages of competence required to develop and change productivity habits
  • Impact of
    # Pareto’s law
    # Parkinson’s law
    # Hofstadter’s law                     on productivity
  • Five-milestones model of projects
  • Attention tension between listening and doing
  • 40-20-40 continuum for meeting success
  • Positive momentum habits
  • Impact of perfection on positive momentum

 

Key Habits of the CORD Productivity Model

 

 

 

 

 

Recommended Reading

           

 

                        

 

 

       
   
     
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   

 

 

 

                                                                                                           

Methods of presentation

For best and lasting impact, this course should be delivered in the classroom format because there are exercises and group dynamics that bring added value to the reference material.  The Workbook contains valuable insight into how best to interpret elements of the reference books.  Delegates also have the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers immediately.  Two standard methods of delivery are offered:

  1. For delegates with limited “prime time” availability

For this delivery method, the course syllabus will be split up into say 4-hour weekly time slots

  1. For delegates who can afford to be away from office for a full day

A course launch will require a 3-hour workshop to set the ground rules and make self-reading suggestions.

The following programme will then be followed:

 

Workshop

Break

Day 1

Break

Days 2

Break

Day 3

Break

Exam

3-hour launch

 

First key area

 

Second key area

 

Third key area

 

1-hour
 

 

  1. Delivery arrangements can be made for specific customer circumstances

Important observation

The three reference books used during the Athlete Foundation course are well known books and could possibly have been read casually by delegates considering attending this course.  Those considering the course could think that they should pass this course by because they have “heard” about the books.  This will be most unwise.

The reference books have become classics because of their positive change they bring to many people’s lives.  To achieve this positive change, the reference books need to be understood, digested and the positive changes in behaviour allowed to become OUTCOMES as the changes are put into practice.  The purpose of the one hour exam at the end of the course is to confirm that the delegates DO understand the key benefits that can be derived.  Ideally, there should be follow-up workshops where the content of this course is refreshed and higher levels of application planned and achieved.  The Athlete Practitioner course is the follow on course for this foundation course and should serve as a step-up course for the professional striving for an even higher level of excellence.

A third Athlete Professional course will bring the delegate into an even higher level of professionalism.

Benefits of Athlete

Athlete – benefits to be achieved

Each of the reference books used during this course will provide benefits that will increase people effectiveness:

  1. How to win friends and influence people
    1. Make friends quickly and easily
    2. Win people over to your way of thinking
    3. Improve your conversation skills and become more entertaining
    4. Acquire new clients and customers
    5. This book has the potential to turn around your relationships and improve your dealings with all the people in your life.
  2. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
    1. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principles-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems.
    2. He reveals a step-by-step framework for living and working based on fundamental principles or natural laws, giving us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.
  3. Productivity Ninja
    1. In the age of information overload, traditional time management techniques simply don’t cut it when it comes to overflowing inboxes, ever-expanding to-do lists and endless, pointless meetings.  Thankfully there is a better way.
    2. Using techniques including Ruthlessness, Mindfulness, Zen-like Calm and Stealth & Camouflage you will get your in-box down to zero, make the most of your attention, beat procrastination and learn to work smarter, not harder.
    3. Graham makes these benefits accessible and practical while staying cool, calm and collected, getting more done, and learning to love your work again.

Benefits of Athlete

Course schedule