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Professional Development / Leadership Presentations

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Below are my most requested programs. Please know that I am happy to customize a program to reflect your specific goals and outcomes, and change program titles to better suit your theme.

Call me at 774-230-5670 or e-mail via Contact Rita to discuss the best program option for your business or organization's needs.

Rita consistently provides very informative and interactive training sessions. The audience evaluations rate Rita's training style in very high regard. She presents the information clearly and relates it to the audience, thereby providing "take-aways" that participants can use in work and home life. Rita's training style combines the best of informative and interactive training, resulting in meeting corporate and employee training needs. It is a pleasure working with Rita Schiano." ~ Rena Hannaford, CEO, WorkTerrain

Professional Development / Leadership Presentations

Practices for a Positive Workplace

"You are responsible for the energy you bring into a room." This statement is a core component of this program, for as Seneca wrote more than two-thousand years ago, "A man is as miserable as he thinks he is." Understanding how our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes affect our relationships at work is the key to creating a more positive and flourishing work environment. Areas explored include:

  • Habitudes: Patterns of thought and behavior affecting our attitudes towards life.
  • Exploring the process of Habitudes and how they develop and affect the workplace (and our personal life)
    • Self-awareness
    • Self-management
  • Violations of expectations and the effect on employees
    • Relationship management
  • Tips and techniques for breaking the cycle of negativity
Program time frame options: 1.5 or 2-hours
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel; sales staff; case managers, clinical staff. (Frankly, we think everyone needs this program!)
"Rita . . .t was wonderful to have you here with us also. It was truly a pleasure and personally I am amazed how you managed to put all that together for this presentation. I did not know what to expect honestly, but you came through in a very special way and you hit the nail on the head!" ~ Andy Panayiotou, Director, Dudley Charlton Regional School District.

Be A Resilient Leader (Resilient Leadership)

A resilient leader is one who inspires us to test ourselves, take brave action, and stand up to challenges we would never have dared to try on our own. Rita outlines the characteristics of resilient leadership, including: integrity, effective communication, optimism, taking responsibility, and building a resilient culture, and you can easily integrate these factors into your daily life. In this program participants will be learn practical strategies that will enable them to be effective, resilient leaders. Areas cover may include:

  • Optimistic or Pessimistic? Defining the skills and attitudes that make up resiliency.
  • Breaking through old patterns of thinking
  • Identify the characteristics and factors of resilient people and resilient leaders
  • Techniques for adopting and developing resilient skills and attitudes
  • How to apply resilient leadership skills in your business
  • Build stronger relationships with coworkers and customers
  • Tackling fear of failure
  • Identify and understand effective communication styles
  • Set goals and manage priorities
Program time frame options: 2-hour; 3-hour
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel; sales staff; case managers, clinical staff. (Frankly, we think everyone needs this program!)

Building a Team That Really Works (Team Building/Employee Engagement)

Sometimes it is okay to go it alone, but most successful managers are only as successful as the team they lead. To build a successful team you don't need to break out the pom-poms. The right amount of support, guidance, encouragement, and good team spirit will take a team to the top. In this program managers will learn:

  • Boss, teacher, leader, friend?
  • Lead, facilitate, motivate
  • Building an effective team
  • Getting problem players back on the team
  • Helping exceptional players realize their full potential
  • Getting the most out of your team
Program timeframe options: 90-minute; 2-hour.
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management.
"Rita came to us at a time of great upheaval, when we needed a new approach in overcoming our stress. Rita spoke for 1 hour (we wish it had been all day!) and was powerful in her insights and advice. She made me laugh and she made me cry. Because she helped me to see my situation in a new way, I was able to clarify my thoughts and make the best decision for my future. I look forward to working with Rita individually and highly recommend her to others who need help or want to move forward in their careers or personal lives. Rita is a gem and a joy to be around" ~Janet M. Zafiris Executive Assistant, Office of Administration, New England Primate Research Center, Harvard Medical School

Put Away Those Combat Boots (Conflict Management/Conflict Resolution)

Whether you manage five employees or five hundred employees, all managers deal with some level of conflict on a daily basis. However, not all conflict is bad. Yet, without resolution, conflict often recycles old arguments and disagreements. With proper resolution tools, some conflict can be turned into opportunities. In this program, participants will learn practical strategies, usable, relevant and confidence building tools to help them handle difficulties more effectively.

  • What is conflict resolution
  • Stopping the downward spiral
  • Resolving conflict rationally and effectively
  • Bringing both sides together
  • Compromise without giving in
  • Resolving issues that conflict brings to the surface
  • Increasing understanding and increased cohesion
  • Brainstorming and negotiating the solution
Program time frame options: 2-hour; 3-hour.
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel; sales staff; case managers, clinical staff. (Frankly, we think everyone needs this program!)

Can't We All Just Get Along? (Communicating With Difficult People)

Does making everyone on your team happy sometimes seem like an impossible task? Not every person is always going to be pleased with your leadership. That's just how it is. Yet most people know they have to just roll with the punches.

But sometimes there is that one team member who is never happy. If you say yes, they says no; if you say store it up high, they says stash it down low. This person disagrees with everything, believing their way is the only way; they refuse to get on board with the rest of the team. It's amazing how one individual can make your life miserable. But before you bang your head against the wall again, there are some solutions!

In this program participants will learn practical strategies, tools and techniques they can put into action immediately. Topics include:

  • How to identify problem people
  • Acknowledging the challenge
  • Preparing for conflict
  • Identifying your buttons
  • Deflating the drama
  • Resolving conflict rationally and effectively
  • Understand the persons intentions
  • Finding common ground
  • Assessing the situation
  • Proposing positive alternatives
Program time frame options: 90-minute; 2-hour.
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel.

Did You Say What I Think I Heard? (Effective Interpersonal Communication)

It's bound to happen. Just like the game Telephone we played as kids, you tell the details of the presentation you need created to your assistant, who relays the message to the IT staff manager, who tells her staff what she was told needs to be developed into PowerPoint, and before you know it, the presentation you have to give to your nontech-savvy board looks like the newest wizard movie.

Oftentimes our words are more powerful than our actions, so it is important to ensure that what you have to say is heard the way you intended it to be heard, or who knows what could happen! In this program participants will be learn practical strategies and techniques to make them more effective interpersonal communicators. Topics include:

  • Exploring your interpersonal communication skills
  • Understanding contextual communication
  • 80% of communication is the unspoken word
    • Body language
  • Methods of effective communication
  • How good a listener are you?
  • Receiving and providing feedback
Program time frame options: 90-minute; 2-hour
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel; sales staff; case managers, clinical staff.

If Only There Were 25 Hours In A Day . . . (Time Management)

Right . . . As if having one more hour would make the difference.

Time management is a big concern. Our work life (and home life) is filled with more and more duties and obligations and less and less time to get it all done. And while we've all heard that old saying, "Time flies when you are having fun," truth be told, time flies even when you're not having fun. An effective time management strategy can help you stay on task, accomplish your work, reduce stress, and gain more time for yourself.

In this program participants will learn practical strategies, tools and techniques they can put into action immediately. Topics include:

  • Time Bandits
    • Identifying yours
  • Get out of the procrastination pit
  • Setting SMART goals
  • "The List" your new best friend
  • Prioritization power
  • Freeing yourself from the multi-tasking morass
  • Optimizing your time
  • Handling interruptions
  • The power of "Do Not Disturb"
  • Organizing and streamlining your work space
  • Delegate, Delegate
Program time frame options: 90-minute
Who should attend? Mid-level management; supervisory / operative level management; customer service personnel; sales staff; case managers, clinical staff. (Let's be frank. . . everyone needs this program!)

Embrace Your Muse (Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Skills)

Its easier to say, I am an open-minded person than it is to actually be open-minded. In order to be a successful critical and creative thinker, one must allow oneself to ponder and dream of possibilities while staying one step ahead of the competition, market or industry. In this program participants will be learn practical strategies, tools and techniques they can put into action immediately. Topics include:

  • Components of critical thinking
  • Critical thinking habits and skills
  • Phases of critical thinking
  • Enhancing your creative abilities
  • Open-ended problem solving
Program time frame options: 90-minute
Who should attend? Anyone who must think for a living.

How to Attend a Networking Event and Live to Tell About It

No other 10-letter word strikes fear into the hearts of business people than networking (except, perhaps, bankruptcy). If you would rather go bankrupt than attend a networking event, then you may be on your way, for as that cliché goes, “Your network is your net worth.” Presented by self-proclaimed introvert Rita Schiano (yes, that Rita, the public speaker who presents to hundreds of people) will offer practical tips and techniques on how to work through your networking fear, including:

  • Managing the stress
  • Networking preparation
  • Conversation starters Is your body language working for or against you?
  • Follow up tips

Remember, networking is not about handing out dozens of business cards. It’s about building relationships.

Program time frame options: 60-minute
Who should attend? Anyone who wants to survive in business.