Every good team has an effective "coach." This session addresses how to become a coach to your employees and how to guide your staff through difficult situations. The technicians and office personnel can make the difference between profit and loss. With the proper coaching skills, you can have a productive team.

David Schmidt 3 credits, 6 credits, 12 credits; 1.5-hour, 3-hour course, 6-hour course Specialty:

Few management skills are as important as effective communication with employees. Winning ways of listening, making expectations clear, asking questions and being responsive can be developed and are guaranteed to turn a group of employees into a working team that produces total quality. In order to communicate effectively, managers must understand why they are sometimes misunderstood, as well as what to do about it.

David Schmidt 3 credits, 6 credits, 12 credits; 1.5-hour, 3-hour course, 6-hour course Specialty:

Every day brings new demands on the business operator. Running a successful auto repair business requires that you wear many hats, be able to balance sometimes conflicting priorities and be able to stay calm and effective in the middle of dealing with many frustrations. Plans help but it is resilience in the face of pressure that makes stress into a positive factor. This workshop shows you how to develop this resilience. It covers how pressure influences individual workplace behavior; understanding what stress is, is not and how it differs from normal expectations; assessing your personal stress contributors; developing approaches, attitudes and techniques for managing stress; the relationship of stress to longevity; the secrets of a long life; control, how to gain it and sustain it; developing natural stress resistance; utilizing planning, organizing and retrieving techniques; how to make a "Pressure Management Plan" and utilizing your resilience potential in the office and in the shop.

David Schmidt 6 credits; 3-hour course Specialty:

Automotive repair owners and managers who want to be the kind of business leader they were meant to be will explore both big picture and specific practical tactics and techniques in this session. You learn how to stimulate creative thinking within yourself and your employees, practice workplace values that will make your shop a place in which people will enjoy working, be more skillful in intervening with others, and better manage your handling of workplace pressures. Each person has the opportunity to formulate and implement action plans that will improve the workplace.

David Schmidt 8 credits; 4-hour course Specialty:

This course enables each participant to explore the objectives, strategies and action plans that allow the organization to focus on consensus activity. It is a bonding experience built around agreed upon dreams and goals. Participants learn how to make good use of their past efforts to be better organized, to utilize creative thinking to initiate the planning process, to practice writing a mission statement, and identify and solidify their values.

David Schmidt 3 credits, 6 credits, 12 credits; 1.5-hour, 3-hour course, 6-hour course Specialty:

The owner or manager of a small business can directly influence the performance and profitability of the employee-family by providing the leadership that makes them want to give their best to your business. The goals of team building are to maximize the talents and interests of all associates, and keep these efforts focused on the company's goals. Team building is the foundation for future profits. This course shows how to plan together, develop consensus, work with different personalities, understand requirements of leadership, negotiate successfully and build trust and confidence.

David Schmidt 3 credits, 6 credits, 12 credits; 1.5-hour, 3-hour course, 6-hour course Specialty: