Class Details
Interpersonal Skills and Effective Communication Course
Course summary
Effective communication and strong interpersonal skills are essential for leadership, teamwork, and career growth in today’s workplace. This practical, evidence-based communication skills course helps professionals build confidence, influence others, and manage challenging workplace conversations more effectively.
Through interactive activities and real-world case studies, you will discover your personal communication style, learn how to recognise and adapt to different communication styles, choose the right communication channel for any audience, and apply active listening and non-verbal communication techniques to build trust and collaboration.
You will also strengthen your assertiveness, gain tools to handle difficult conversations, and practise giving and receiving feedback in ways that promote psychological safety and stronger workplace relationships. With practical strategies and AI-powered tools to act as your personal communication coach, you will finish with a tailored action plan to boost your communication effectiveness at work.
This course is ideal for professionals, team leaders, managers, and anyone looking to improve their influence and impact in a hybrid, fast-changing workplace. For deeper development, we recommend pairing this course with our Emotional Intelligence Course, or our Team Managers and Leaders Course: Essential Skills.
Aims
This course aims to provide participants with practical strategies to communicate more clearly and confidently at work. The course focuses on everyday interactions and equips learners to adapt their approach, supporting their long-term professional growth. It also highlights why interpersonal skills and effective communication matter and provides a safe environment to practise core techniques that translate directly to their job.
The course covers key communication strategies that apply to face-to-face, virtual and written communication.
Through guided practice and feedback, participants will be ready to navigate common barriers and apply communication tools to create better outcomes in real workplace situations.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- build interpersonal skills and effective communication fundamentals
- choose an appropriate communication mode and channel for the purpose and audience
- identify your personal communication style
- recognise others’ communication styles and adapt your approach to influence others
- use active listening and effective non-verbal communication
- build assertiveness and navigate difficult conversations in workplace interactions.
Content
Topic 1: Building interpersonal skills and effective communication
- Why interpersonal skills and effective communication are important
- What is effective communication
- Modes and channels of communication
Topic 2: Understanding and adapting communication styles
- What influences behaviour and communication styles
- Understanding your own communication style
- Identifying others’ communication styles
- Adapting to different communication styles for rapport and influence
Topic 3: Active listening and non-verbal communication
- Listening for content, emotion, and intent
- Questioning and summarising to check understanding
- Aligning body language, facial expressions, and tone
Topic 4: Courageous conversations
- Why we avoid difficult conversations
- Giving and receiving feedback effectively
- Building assertiveness
Topic 5: Application
- AI as your communication coach
- Personal action plan
Who this course is for
This course is designed for professionals at all levels who want to improve their communication skills and strengthen workplace relationships. It’s particularly valuable for:
- Team leaders, managers, and supervisors seeking to influence, motivate, and engage their teams
- Professionals looking to enhance their collaboration and impact in cross-functional or hybrid environments
- Individuals who want to build confidence when giving feedback, handling difficult conversations, or presenting ideas
- Anyone seeking to better understand their own communication style and adapt to others for improved workplace outcomes.
Prerequisites
None
Delivery style
This course is highly interactive and practical. Participants will engage in:
- real-world scenarios and workplace-relevant case studies
- interactive activities to identify and apply personal communication styles
- group discussions and role-plays
- personalised reflection exercises to build self-awareness and action plans.
Delivery modes
- Face-to-face, presenter-taught training
- Online training via the platform Zoom
Materials
Course materials are distributed electronically.
Recommended reading
Edmondson, A.C. (2018) The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Available at: https://www.amazon.com.au/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247/
Extended DISC (2023) “Introduction to Extended DISC”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shEDJmy8i-A
Frazier, M. L., Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., & Vracheva, V. (2017). “Psychological safety: A meta‐analytic review and extension”. Personnel Psychology. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217291252.pdf
Scott, K. (2019) “How to Lead with Radical Candor”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmxHUiiHgNk
Shao, Y., Zope, H., Jiang, Y., Pei, J., Nguyen, D., Brynjolfsson, E. and Yang, D. (2025) ‘Future of Work with AI Agents: Stanford University. Available at: https://cs191w.stanford.edu/projects/Spring2025/Humishka___Zope_.pdf
Van Edwards, V. (2017) “Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People”. Available at: https://www.amazon.com.au/Captivate-Succeeding-Vanessa-Van-Edwards/dp/024130993X/
Sessions
Location
Face-to-face (CCE Building, Sydney)
Public transport
As bus and train timetables regularly change, we suggest you visit the Transport for NSW trip planner before you set out.
The nearest train stations are Newtown Station and Macdonaldtown Station. Macdonaldtown Station is closer by distance than Newtown Station, however trains do not stop as frequently as at Newtown Station.
Other information
Parking
Nearby parking is available at Wilson Parking - RPA Medical Centre Car Park (entry via Elizabeth Street off Carillon Avenue).
A Flexi Saver Rate is available but must be booked in advance online and includes the booking fee. Bookings can be made via the Wilson website or by downloading the Wilson Parking App. Otherwise, hourly parking rates will apply, as advertised on the Wilson Parking website.
Meet the facilitators
Wendy Jocum
Wendy Jocum has been involved in human resources, learning and development, organisational psychology, facilitation, and coaching since 1989. Her workshops are practical, informative, engaging, and experiential, providing positive learning opportunities for participants and clients. Wendy is passionate about people development and inspires individuals to achieve their potential while enhancing individual, team, and organisational performance.
Wendy is experienced in training, coaching, and consulting, specialising in emotional intelligence, resilience, positive psychology, and stress management.
Wendy provides workshop facilitation, individual coaching, teambuilding, conference presentations, assessment, and online learning delivery. She has experience in a wide range of organisations and industries in South Africa and Australia. She works in corporate, government, and academic sectors. Wendy has numerous qualifications in Commerce, Business, Government, Leadership, Management, HR, Training/Assessment, and Coaching.
Wendy holds various qualifications, including the Genos Emotional Intelligence Tool, Myer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, DiSC behaviour styles practitioner, Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory, Group Styles Inventory, Strengths Profile and Team Strengths, Team Management Systems, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Strength Deployment Inventory.
