Professional Skills
This is the space for otters to engage more fully in their current roles and connect with learning opportunities that prepare them for new responsibilities, future roles, and enrich their career growth potential.
Bundle
Adapting to Change
Organizations need to change to remain competitive and vibrant. Discover how to embrace change in your organization. Everyone in business knows that change is inevitable, and that change occurs quickly. Professionals who know how to embrace perpetual change know that this change provides them with limitless opportunities. Learning how to push for, and embrace, change within the workplace is an important skill for leaders who want to remain at the forefront of their industry.
Return To The Workplace
These resources provide employees and managers with information and best practices to use as we gradually return to the workplace.
Course
Organizations Change So Get Ready
Change can be disruptive, but adapting to change can also open new possibilities. A changing work situation can create a period of uncertainty while you adapt. A clear understanding of what organizational change is can help build your resilience and flexibility. In this course, you'll find out what can trigger organizational change. You'll explore common responses to change and the stages of reacting to change that people go through when dealing with organizational change. You'll learn why it's important to be resilient when adapting to change, and how to prepare yourself to get the most out of change.
- Total Duration: 21 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Video
How Adaptability Will Help You Deal With Change
Faced with accelerating change around us, how do we improve our ability to adapt? Seasoned transformation consultant and executive-level coach Jennifer Jones introduces us to the Adaptability Equation; a formula for high performance through change. Through this framework, she will help you explore ways to keep your organization ahead of the game, and enable you and your teams to make better decisions and perform to the best of your ability in an ever-changing world.
- Total Duration: 13 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): n/a
Bundle
Resilience & Perseverance
It’s imperative to forge ahead when faced with challenges. Develop a mindset and conviction to be persistent and resilient. While resilience and perseverance are not the same, they do have a lot of similarities. Learn skills like problem-solving, self-regulation, and self-efficacy to weather any challenge.
Course
Forging Ahead with Perseverance and Resilience
Business today is a complex undertaking. Accomplishing tasks and staying focused on achieving your goals requires grit and persistence. An adaptive mindset helps you focus through distractions, information overload, demanding pace, and the accompanying stresses that can often pull you off task. In this course, you'll learn to develop personal resiliency, adaptability, and perseverance. You'll explore the resources and people it takes to sustain perseverance, and you'll discover actions to help you build a work-life balance, sharpen your focus, and foster the resilience and perseverance to face and overcome setbacks.
- Duration: 21 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: PDU (PMI): 0.50
Audiobook
Career Advantage: Real World Applications from Great Work, Great Career
This audio edition teaches you how to create your ultimate job and make an extraordinary contribution by helping you create an effective resume, hone your interview skills, and become the solution - not the problem - for an organization. Read by authors
- Duration: 1 hour(s) 41 Minute(s)
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Book
Manage Your Career: How To Develop Your Career In The Right Direction
The world of work moves so quickly these days that to get the best from your career, you need to actively manage it and seek out new opportunities. Manage Your Career will help you make the most of your talents and potential, and enable your dreams to become a reality. Packed with invaluable advice and practical help, it will help you plan the right move, whether you want to climb to the top of the career ladder or reinvent your working life completely.
- Estimated Read Time: 56 minutes
- Training Credit(s):n/a
Bundle
Career Planning
Take control of your career planning, and leverage these tools and techniques to create a path for your professional growth. Professional growth and career advancement offer some obvious benefits. You can earn a higher salary, work on more exciting projects, and find new roles. Learn professional growth strategies to help you improve your skills, take on more responsibility at work, and advance in your career.
Ted Talks - Counterintuitive Career Advice
You know how to write a resume and ask for a promotion. These talks go beyond the basics, offering insightful advice on how to think about our work lives.
- Total Duration: 163 minutes (2 hours 45 minutes) - average talk ~15 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): n/a
Course
Building Your Professional Network
When you're serious about advancing your career, you need to build strong professional relationships and maintain an effective network of contacts. Whether it's for executive networking or general business networking, this course covers the essential communication and professional networking skills needed to establish a solid network. It includes strategies for building rapport with new contacts during networking opportunities and covers best practices for maintaining your network so that business contacts can help you achieve your career goals.
- Total Duration: 15 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Cultivating Relationships With Your Peers
Developing and maintaining relationships with your peers at work can lead to success for both you as an individual, and within your organization. Networking skills and building supportive peer relationships can provide you with a wide variety of experiences, expertise, and institutional knowledge. Whether you're exploring executive networking, professional networking, or just general business networking, this course explains how to identify the people in your organization who are important in helping you reach your goals. You'll learn the skills that maintain solid, mutually beneficial relationships so you can advance your career.
- Total Duration: 15 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): PDU (PMI): 0.25
Uncovering and Utilizing Your Talents and Skills
We all have individual talents and skills that make us unique in some way, but you may not be aware of your own skills or how to use them to achieve your personal and career goals. Central to reaching these goals is the ability to use continuous learning for self-development. In this course, you'll learn what is meant by talent, skill, and personal development, why it's important to understand what talents you possess, and how to harness those talents through continuous learning. This course also covers techniques for identifying your unique capabilities and outlines self-development tips you can use to fully utilize your key talents and skills.
- Total Duration: 16 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): PDU (PMI): 0.25
Video
2 Questions To Uncover Your Passion -- And Turn It Into A Career
What's your passion? Social entrepreneur Noeline Kirabo reflects on her work helping out-of-school young people in Uganda turn their passions into profitable businesses -- and shares the two questions you can ask yourself to begin doing the same.
- Total Duration: 11 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): n/a
Don't find a job, find a mission
Celeste Headlee sees finding a career which will truly inspire you is much like dating - it takes time and lots of experiments. And the ideal job is no more realistic than the dream man or woman. Celeste hosts "On Second Thought" on NPR from Atlanta and is a professional opera singer.
- Total Duration: 16 minutes
- Total Training Credit(s): n/a
Bundle
Collaboration
Strong collaboration is vital to creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Foster collaboration among your teams for growth and innovation. Today, collaboration is a big theme in business because it works. Here, you’ll learn how to leverage your staff's individual talents and create a more cohesive work environment.
Virtual Collaboration
Collaborating virtually requires behaviors, practices, and tools that facilitate efficient and effective collaboration among dispersed collaborators. As team members become more geographically dispersed, it is important to address the need for collaboration. Learn how to leverage your team's individual talents by creating a more cohesive work environment, no matter where your employees are.
Video
How To Turn A Group Of Strangers Into A Team
Business school professor Amy Edmondson studies "teaming," where people come together quickly (and often temporarily) to solve new, urgent or unusual problems. Recalling stories of teamwork on the fly, such as the incredible rescue of 33 miners trapped half a mile underground in Chile in 2010, Edmondson shares the elements needed to turn a group of strangers into a quick-thinking team that can nimbly respond to challenges.
- Estimated Duration: 22 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Course
Acting with Diplomacy and Tact
People who communicate with diplomacy and tact are able to inspire confidence. Communicating a difficult message can be very challenging, so preparation is key to a successful outcome. In this course, you'll learn about developing a diplomatic approach to difficult conversations. You'll learn how to avoid meltdowns, apologize, develop empathy, and remove personal biases.
- Total Duration: 25 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: CPE (NASBA): 0.50
Navigating Challenging Situations with Diplomacy and Tact
You'll likely face unpleasant situations or tasks at some point in your career. Communicating with diplomacy and tact in these situations can inspire confidence. In this course, you'll learn to navigate difficult conversations and situations. You'll also learn how to communicate a difficult message effectively, write diplomatic and tactful e-mails, and handle angry and manipulative coworkers.
- Total Duration: 20 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: CPE (NASBA): 0.50
Webcast
Crucial Conversations
“Crucial Conversations”, presented by Justin Hale, VitalSmarts Master Trainer
Justin has presented to audiences across a variety of industries and organizations, helping them learn and apply practical skills. He addresses audiences on bridging generational gaps using Crucial Conversation skills. Above all, he believes learning should be fun and practical. One of the key subject matter experts on the VitalSmarts development team and VitalSmarts virtual training guru, Justin has led the effort in virtual development and instruction. Seventy percent of attendees rate his virtual courses as equally engaging as or more engaging than face-to-face training they’ve attended.
With Crucial Conversations, learn how to speak and be heard, open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional or risky topics. You’ll begin to surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment.
- Total Duration: 60 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Bundle
Communication Skills Best Practices
A blended playlist of Skillsoft eLearnings and a CSU’s Got Talent Webcast. Included in this playlist are: Choosing the Right Interpersonal Communication Method to Make Your Point, Communicating Your Message for Maximum Impact, and The Art and Science of Communication.
- Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes
- Total Training Credits: 1.0 CPE (NASBA): 1.0 | PDU (PMI): 1.0
Listening Skills
A curated list of courses will provide you with the information needed to become a better listener at work. The playlist includes Active Listening in Workplace Situations and Become a Great Listener.
- Total Duration: 40 minutes
- Total Training Credits: CPE (NASBA): 1.0 | PDU (PMI): 1.0
Writing Skills
CSU’s Got Talent curated playlist to level up your grammar and business writing skills. Included in this playlist are Business Writing Bootcamp and Great Grammar in 60 Minutes.
- Total Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Training Credits: n/a
Course
Making An Impact With Non-Verbal Communication
There are many parts of the brain that have not changed much since the time of our earliest ancestors. We are still wired to respond automatically when we're afraid, threatened, disgusted, surprised, or happy. But we've come a long way in our development and understanding of non-verbal communication mechanisms. In this course, you'll learn how our attitude and tone, as well as body language such as posture, gestures, and facial expressions, can have a significant impact on the way we communicate. You'll explore techniques to help you project a positive attitude and presence. You'll also discover how to read other people's body language.
- Total Duration: 19 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Video
How To Have Constructive Conversations
"We need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress," says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in curiosity and purpose. The end result? Constructive conversations that sharpen your argument and strengthen your relationships.
- Total Duration: 11 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Course
Confronting Workplace Conflict
Any time two or more people are gathered in one place, conflict will inevitably follow. The workplace is no exception. It’s how you manage workplace conflict. There are many valid approaches to managing conflict, but ignoring it is the one guaranteed not to work. Resolving conflict is an important interpersonal skill that, with practice, can diffuse difficult situations at work.
In this course, you’ll learn some of the major sources of workplace conflict. You’ll learn how to recognize your own conflict style and how to work toward conflict resolution. You'll also learn strategies and approaches to conflict management and working with difficult people.
- Duration: 24 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Handling Team Conflict
Successful teams are characterized by having a clear direction, trust among team members, effective communication, and a clear process for managing team conflict. The survival of a team depends on a leader who can quickly recognize team conflict, diagnose its cause, and implement conflict resolution strategies. In this course, you'll learn about what causes conflict on a team and the important role of healthy communication in handling conflict. You'll discover best practice approaches to dealing with conflict. You'll also explore the tenets of principled negotiation in managing conflict. Finally, you'll learn guidelines for resolving conflict that address one specific type of conflict: lack of trust.
- Duration: 24 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Resolving Workplace Conflict
A conflict-free life is the stuff of dreams. But the world doesn’t work that way, and for all of us, workplace conflict is sadly an inevitability. Personality and organizational conflicts arise from myriad different sources and take many different forms. As a result, resolving conflict is a necessary skill, and business professionals need a plan for addressing it and managing conflict situations.
In this course, you'll learn to recognize the sources and signs of conflict. You'll also learn conflict management strategies and processes for conflict resolution. Additionally, you’ll explore methods for handling difficult people and keeping the process of conflict management on track when difficulties arise.
- Duration: 24 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Webcast
Changing The Conversation: Principles Of Conflict Resolution
Dana Caspersen is a conflict engagement specialist, award-winning performing arts innovator and author of Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution. She empowers individuals to affect positive change in destructive systems. Caspersen teaches, coaches and mediates in situations of conflict. Her work using choreographic thinking to create large-scale international public dialogue projects, on topics ranging from immigration to violence, has brought together thousands of people from diverse communities across the world.
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Conflict Resolution vs. Conflict Transformation: When Each is Appropriate
Conflict at work is normal and often healthy. When managed properly, it can lead to greater innovation, improved efficiency, and deeper workplace relationships. Proper conflict management means choosing the right approach for each situation. In this session, discover the difference between conflict resolution and conflict transformation and when they should each be employed. You will also learn some practical techniques for using each approach at work.
- Duration: 56 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Working With Difficult People: Handling Types Of Problem People Without Losing Your Mind
Your workday is filled with them--people who frustrate, impede, maneuver, undermine, plot, connive, and whine. In this session, Amy Cooper Hakim details specific techniques for handling them, with easy-to-follow scenarios for different situations. She will discuss modern issues including technology, generation gaps, and language barriers. Learn the kinds of culprits, from tyrants and bullies (regular & cyber) to the pushy and presumptuous; and helpful strategies and phrases for diffusing workplace tensions and effectively resolving conflicts.
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Book
Critical Thinking
Offering a highly usable framework that can be utilized in many different circumstances, this book provides useful insights into critical thinking and helps readers put some of the best prevailing ideas into practice.
- Estimated Read Time: 18 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Bundle
Critical Thinking
The ability to think critically is more important than ever. Learn tips and strategies to develop this skill. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. Discover how to understand the logical connection between your ideas.
Problem-Solving And Decision Making
Strategic Thinking: Understands market, industry and environmental trends; addresses issues to create or sustain a competitive advantage; uncovers new opportunities to create value and leverage the organization’s strengths; anticipates change and develops long-range plans.
- Total Duration: ~90 minutes
- Training Credit(s): varied
Video
5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking
Every day, a sea of decisions stretches before us, and it's impossible to make a perfect choice every time. But there are many ways to improve our chances — and one particularly effective technique is critical thinking. Samantha Agoos describes a 5-step process that may help you with any number of problems.
- Total Duration: 4 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
This Tool Will Help Improve Your Critical Thinking
Socrates, one of the founding fathers of Western philosophical thought, was on trial. Many believed he was an enemy of the state, accusing the philosopher of corrupting the youth and refusing to recognize their gods. But Socrates wasn't feared for claiming to have all the answers, but rather, for asking too many questions. Erick Wilberding digs into the technique known as the Socratic Method.
- Total Duration: 5 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Book
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence refers to the personal-management and social skills that allow us to succeed in our interactions with other people. EQ, as it is commonly called, draws on two simple concepts: applying knowledge appropriately and applying feelings appropriately. Being intellectually and emotionally tuned in to a particular situation (analysis and intuition) and adjusting our behavior according to what is best for the situation are considered to be extremely important determinants of professional and personal success.
- Estimated Read Time: 10 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Emotional Intelligence for Rookies
In today’s complex and demanding work environment, it takes more than brains and hard work to get ahead. Those who succeed have another quality in common: emotional intelligence. In this readable and savvy introduction, the authors explain how to up your emotional intelligence quotient and to use it to get positive outcomes at work. The book shows you how to get to know, and control, your own emotions, to become self-directed, resilient and success-oriented. Developing high emotional intelligence also enables you to influence and persuade other people, to understand what makes them tick, and to get along and get the best out of a range of people at work.
- Estimated Read Time: 2 hours 16 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Bundle
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions. Discover strategies for becoming more self-aware. Good leaders are self-aware, and here you’ll learn how to lead with a sense of purpose, authenticity, openness, and trust.
Course
Gaining a Positive Perspective on Feedback
Though it's invaluable, getting feedback can sometimes be a difficult process. Adopting a positive mindset can make all the difference. This course will teach you how receiving feedback differs from getting simple praise or criticism. You'll discover how listening to constructive feedback with a positive mindset can help you to manage your reactions and responses. You'll also learn how applying feedback can help your professional growth and self-development.
- Total Duration: 20 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Polishing Your Feedback Skills
The ability to give genuinely constructive feedback is vital in the workplace. If you're a manager and are responsible for developing others, you'll likely have to inform employees if their performance doesn't meet the standard required. This is a delicate situation, and one that requires tact and preparation. But, if done effectively, providing feedback can not only improve performance, but also motivate people and strengthen relationships. In this course, you'll learn how to plan a feedback session and how to give feedback in a positive manner. You'll also learn techniques for handling bad reactions to feedback and your own nervousness, as well as how to give feedback to people at different organizational levels.
- Total Duration: 23 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.50
Video
What if getting feedback wasn't a source of fear, but joy? In this personal talk, speaker/author Joe Hirsch makes a passionate case for sharing "feedforward," a new view of human potential. When feedback draws others closer to their future selves, they experience the joy of self-discovery that leads to positive and lasting change.
- Total Duration: 9 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
The Secret to Giving Great Feedback
Humans have been coming up with ways to give constructive criticism for centuries, but somehow we're still pretty terrible at it. Cognitive psychologist LeeAnn Renninger shares a scientifically proven method for giving effective feedback.
- Total Duration: 5 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a
Personal Productivity
Increase performance and productivity! Gain ideas for better organizing your physical and digital workspaces. Learn how a happier workforce can increase its productivity and help your business grow. Here, you’ll find out how just a few changes can make a big difference.
Time Management
Take back control over your time. Learn to apply basic concepts for setting goals, staying focused and organized. To accomplish your goals, you must first learn how to set them. Learn the steps that will allow you to formulate goals that you can accomplish.
Too much to do, but too little time? Leaders know they should prioritize, “eat their frog first”, say no to unreasonable requests, delegate, and allocate their time optimally. However, something often stops them from implementing best practices. Over-achievers may spend too much time on projects, seeking perfection, and refusing to delegate because they need control. People who value relationships highly may find it difficult to say no to anyone and take on too much work. New leaders who haven’t developed enough self-confidence may procrastinate on intimidating tasks for fear of failure. Discover what beliefs and habits keep you overworked and overwhelmed. Find freedom and personal empowerment by rethinking how to get more work done in less time.
Course
Managing Your Time So It Doesn't Manage You
No one can add an extra hour to the day to get more done. But anyone can make better use of the 24 hours you do have by becoming more effective at time management. All it takes is deciding to seize control of your own time, and then taking small steps in the right direction. In this course, you'll consider how you're spending your time now and what techniques you can use to spend it more wisely and productively. You'll learn to block the time stealers that interfere with your productivity, use to-do lists and schedules to organize your time and tasks, and develop a regular habit of checking in with your plans to make sure you're getting them done.
- Duration: 19 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50
Procrastination: Admitting it is the First Step
Procrastinating can be a big obstacle to efficient time management. The good news is that there are ways to overcome a tendency to procrastinate. The trick is to figure out what your own personal reason is for putting off what you know you need to do. In this course, you'll discover what may be behind your tendency to procrastinate by learning the indicators. Then you'll explore many helpful techniques and strategies for dealing with procrastination and improving efficiency. There are four key areas covered in this course: improving focus, increasing self-motivation, taking action, and improving your ability to organize.
- Total Duration: 17 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: PDU (PMI): 0.25
Webcast
Time Management: What Gets in the Way and How to Take Control of Your Schedule
In this webcast, Audrey Reille, MBA, Ed.D., Executive Coach and Speaker will present “Time Management: What Gets in the Way & How to Reclaim Control Over Your Schedule.”
Too much to do, but too little time? Leaders know they should prioritize, “eat their frog first”, say no to unreasonable requests, delegate, and allocate their time optimally. However, something often stops them from implementing best practices. Over-achievers may spend too much time on projects, seeking perfection, and refusing to delegate because they need control. People who value relationships highly may find it difficult to say no to anyone and take on too much work. New leaders who haven’t developed enough self-confidence may procrastinate on intimidating tasks for fear of failure. Discover what beliefs and habits keep you overworked and overwhelmed. Find freedom and personal empowerment by rethinking how to get more work done in less time.
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Training Credit Hours: n/a
Bundle
No one wants to attend a dull, unproductive meeting. Here's how to make your meetings productive and successful. Most employees cite meetings as one of the most unproductive and frustrating parts of their jobs. However, there are some simple things you can do to make your meetings more productive, interesting, and fun.
Tasked with leading a project? Learn core skills to bring your projects across the finish line on budget, on time, and within scope. Explore tips that will help ensure your project stays on its desired trajectory, and finishes on time and on budget.
Course
Taking Effective and Professional Notes
Skilled note taking can make you more productive in business situations. Writing notes and engaging in written communication also provide an effective record to review when necessary. In this course, you'll learn tools, techniques, and grammar strategies for effective note taking in interviews and meetings. You'll also learn ways to write notes that help you learn and recall information, to make it easier to communicate to others.
- Total Duration: 60 minutes
- Training Credit(s): CPE (NASBA): 0.50 | PDU (PMI): 0.25
Video
How To Have A Hybrid Meeting That Works For Everyone
As workplaces take tentative steps toward a new normal, social psychologist Heidi Grant shares best practices for interacting when some are in the office and some are remote.
- Total Duration: 6 minutes
- Training Credit(s): n/a