Personal and Business Competencies / Management Skills

Managerial Competence Training — NVC, FUKO and Covey's Circle of Influence

A one-day managerial competence training built on THREE models at once — Nonviolent Communication, the FUKO feedback model and Covey's circle of influence — rather than one. The format is a training with simulations and exercises in pairs, not a lecture: seven modules lead from contracting the ground rules and mapping communication styles, through translating an aggressive message into an assertive one and declining a task outside one's remit, to a feedback laboratory and implementation commitments.

Three models in one day, because a conversation needs all three at once

A leader usually gets one tool at a time. A separate course on assertiveness, a separate one on feedback, a separate one on what is actually within their control. Then they go back to the team, where a single conversation calls for all three within five minutes: separate the fact from the assumption, say plainly what is expected, and do not take on something that was never theirs to carry.

This training is built the other way round. One day, seven modules, three models joined into a single path: Nonviolent Communication as the way a message is framed, FUKO as the structure of feedback, and the circle of influence as the frame for deciding what is worth taking on at all. The format is a training — exercises in pairs, subgroup work, role-play simulations.

Who this training is for

For people who hold conversations with their staff and want to hold them to a deliberate standard of their own. Particularly when:

you give feedback and sense it lands as a verdict rather than a conversation,
corrective conversations end in the other person defending themselves instead of an agreement,
you find it hard to decline a task that does not belong to your remit,
you take on matters you have no real influence over and lose energy to them,
you want to name in your team what changes from tomorrow — and have a structure for it.

How the day runs

We begin by contracting the ground rules and collecting the difficult situations participants bring from their own work — those become the practice material for the rest of the day. Then communication styles with the „a user manual for me” workshop. Next the four steps of Nonviolent Communication and the workshop on translating aggressive messages into assertive ones. After it, assertiveness without aggression — exercises in pairs and declining a task outside one’s remit.

The second half covers Covey’s circle of influence and widening that circle, and then the longest block: the feedback laboratory using the FUKO model, with role-play simulations and visual mapping of the agreements. The day closes with a round of implementation commitments.

What this training does not promise

We describe the scope narrowly, because only then does the description match the programme:

We name no diagnostic instrument. The modules on communication styles and on assertiveness include short self-assessment exercises, but the training issues no profile and no individual report.
The outcome of module six is the participant’s draft, not a signed team document. In a group drawn from different organisations a team code would have no addressee, so the card does not promise one.
Formal and legal aspects of workplace conduct are out of scope. This training works on how a conversation is conducted; that subject has its own course in the catalogue.

We deliver this training on site, because exercises in pairs, subgroup work and role-play simulations with the trainer all require one room. Get in touch to arrange the details of a delivery.

Benefits

Separate facts from interpretation and frame a message in the four steps of Nonviolent Communication
Translate an aggressive or toxic message into an assertive one, without submission and without aggression
Decline a task outside one's remit while maintaining respect for the other person
Recognise one's own and others' communication style and articulate one's own preferences in conversation
Distinguish what lies within one's influence from what lies outside it, and widen the former deliberately
Give feedback using the four-element model — facts, feelings, consequences and expectations

Who is this training for?

Team leaders and line managers holding day-to-day conversations with their people

People moving into a leadership role who want to build their own communication standard

Managers giving both corrective and appreciative feedback

Supervisors dealing with difficult conversations and tension within a team

Training program

The goal of the training: building new standards of leader behaviour
Contracting the rules that apply during the workshop
Workshop: collecting and discussing difficult situations in the leader's role

Dominant communication styles — how we send and how we receive messages
Why we misunderstand each other: the gap between the sender's intent and the reception
Workshop „a user manual for me”: how to talk to me so that I understand, what I cannot stand in communication, what irritates me in other people's behaviour
Sharing the manuals with the group in a safe format

The four steps of Nonviolent Communication: facts, feelings, needs, request
Separating fact from interpretation — where guesswork enters a conversation
Workshop „translate from aggressive into assertive”: the group receives a set of toxic or aggressive messages and rewrites them in subgroups into the language of Nonviolent Communication

The difference between submission, assertiveness and aggression
Exercises in pairs based on real situations from a leader's work
Declining a task outside one's remit while maintaining respect for the other person

What lies within my influence and where my influence ends
Freedom without responsibility as a risk to the leader's role
Workshop: how to widen your own circle of influence without crossing other people's boundaries

The FUKO model — facts, feelings, consequences, expectations — instead of criticism
Feedback laboratory: practising corrective as well as appreciative feedback, building the habit of praise
Role-play simulations with the trainer taking part
Practising communication grounded in facts rather than opinions
Visual mapping of agreements: what we do and say differently from today, how we respond when someone breaks the rules, how we voice dissatisfaction
Outcome: a draft of the participant's own communication code, prepared to be discussed back in their own team

Implementation commitments: what I take away today and what I will start applying tomorrow

Delivery Methods

On-site

Direct contact with trainer and group
Intensive hands-on workshops
Networking with other participants
Full focus on learning

Training Topics

Frequently asked questions

How long is this training?

The training lasts 1 day and covers seven modules — from contracting the ground rules and mapping communication styles, through Nonviolent Communication, assertiveness and the circle of influence, to the feedback laboratory and a closing round with implementation commitments.

How does this differ from an assertiveness course?

In scope and in format. An assertiveness course works with a single area — expressing opinions, needs and emotions. This training combines THREE models in one day: Nonviolent Communication, the FUKO feedback model and Covey's circle of influence, each with its own workshop block. The format is a training — exercises in pairs, subgroup work and role-play simulations rather than a lecture.

What does a participant take away from the feedback module?

A draft of their own communication agreements — what they do and say differently from today, how they respond when someone breaks an agreed rule, how they voice dissatisfaction. It is working material prepared by the participant to be discussed back in their own team, not a finished team document: in a group drawn from different organisations a shared document would have no addressee.

What happens in the feedback laboratory?

It is a practice block in which participants give feedback in two variants — corrective and appreciative — grounding the message in facts rather than opinions. A fixed element of the block is role-play simulations with the trainer taking part. The reference model is FUKO: facts, feelings, consequences, expectations.

Does the training also address difficult behaviour within a team?

Yes, as the context for working on communication. Module four covers responding to difficult behaviour without resorting to aggression or submission, and module six organises the team's agreements on how to respond when rules are broken. The training works on how a conversation is conducted — the formal and legal aspects of workplace conduct belong to the scope of other courses in our catalogue.