How often have you been at a networking event or facilitating a meeting and forgotten somebody’s name? It’s not only embarrasing, but can harm your credibility, especially if you are a leader or manager.

Here are our top tips for making sure you remember people’s names in important situations. A host of other useful articles and tips are available in our new Leadership Skills resources section. For really comprehensive coverage of Leadership Skills we also offer a 2-day Leadership Skills training course.

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Posted by Andy Trainer in Management & Leadership, New Free Resources, Personal Development on October 19th, 2009| No Comments »

If you’ve got a big project on that you’re trying to get finished, there’s nothing worse than being constantly interrupted and feeling like you’re getting nowhere.

Our 1-day Time Management training course covers a range of strategies for making sure your most important jobs get finished on time, and you can read more on the subject in our free Time Management Resources section.

In the meantime, here are our 5 top tips on how on how to prevent interruptions:

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Posted by Andy Trainer in New Free Resources, Personal Development on October 16th, 2009| 1 Comment »

Question: What is the difference between knowing how to do something and getting something done?

Answer: Doing it!

It’s easy to decide on changing something or to think about doing it but most often than not we just get on with the things we already have to do and new ideas get added onto the things to do list and often just stay there. the longer they stay there the more they become a burden rather than an inspiration.

The key to starting is knowing where to start and realising how easy it is.

Just spend 5 minutes on the next exercise and you will have already begun.

1. Realise you can’t do everything you want. But you can do anything. You simply need to choose what to do.
2. Make a quick list of the things you would like to do.
3. Pick one. Decide which of the things stands out as the thing you would most like to do.
4. Decide on the first step needed to make it happen. Make it something you can make time to do today, make a phone call, book a training course, contact someone who can help you. If what you need to do seems too big to take on now, break it down into smaller steps and take the first one.
5. Do it Now.

There you are now on your way to achieving your goal, easy wasn’t it. Now all you need to do is decide the next action and commit to it. Good luck.

Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, Personal Development on October 14th, 2009| No Comments »

Getting stuck with Dreamweaver CS4? Then check out our brand new FREE Dreamweaver CS4 tutorial, which is now available in our ever expanding Free Training Resources section.

The step-by-step guide is designed so that you can follow it in its entirety, or you can dip in to the most relevant sections to brush up on anything you’re having problems with. Just use the drop-down menus in the side-bar navigation. Happy Dreamweaving!

For a really comprehensive guide to building professional websites with Dreamweaver CS4, we also offfer a great range of hands-on instructor led training courses, including Dreamweaver Training in Brighton, Sussex (2-days) and Advanced Dreamweaver (1-day). For a great introduction to Web Design using Adobe’s industry standard tools, there’s still no better place to start than our Web Design Week training package.

Posted by Andy Trainer in New Free Resources, Web Design on October 1st, 2009| 1 Comment »

Stop press! We’ve made another new addition to our Free Training Resources section – a complete beginners tutorial for Excel 2007.

This comprehensive step-by-step guide to everyone’s favourite spreadsheet application can be taken in it’s entirety, or you can dip in to the most relevant sections to re-cap on tools that you’ve forgotten (or never knew in the first place!)

If you like this, keep your eyes on the Free Training Resources section and this blog, as we’ve got more free content on the way, including a comprehensive Dreamweaver CS4 tutorial.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter to keep abreast of the latest updates!

We also offer comprehensive Beginners Excel Training,  Advanced Excel Courses in Brighton, Sussex, for those who prefer to do their learning hands-on and VBA for Excel Training for the really techie people.

Posted by Andy Trainer in New Free Resources, News on September 23rd, 2009| No Comments »

Silicon Beach Training offer a full range of  Management training courses in Brighton, Sussex. We also offer free management resources

Here are seven ways to become a better manager:

Practice good Leadership.

This is a fundamental aspects to becoming a better manager, the ability to inspire, initiate and organise . This area of management relies on a manager’s self confidence and the confidence they have to direct their team.

Always try to fix the problem, don’t blame others.

Take responsibility when things go wrong, landing the blame on someone else may create a bad working environment, or your employees moral and self esteem may be affected, making it harder to bring out the best in them. By all means discuss with your team how to avoid making the same mistakes again. Read the rest of "7 Ways To Become A Better Manager"

Posted by Heather Buckley in Management & Leadership, New Free Resources on September 18th, 2009| No Comments »

Got more work than you’ve got hours in the day? Our Time Management Training, in Brighton , Sussex, trainers have provided their top-ten tips for managing your time effectively.

Now all you’ve got to do is find 5 minutes to read them!

1: SPEND TIME PLANNING AND ORGANISING

Using time to plan is time well-spent. Spending 5 minuites to plan your day first thing in the morning rather than getting stuck straight in can save you much more time later on.

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Posted by Andy Trainer in New Free Resources on September 14th, 2009| No Comments »

Here’s 5 Top Tips for delivering a great presentation.

We’ve also just published a really comprehensive guide to presenting on our new Free Resources section. We also offer a Presentation Skills Training Course.

1) Tailor fit your presentation around your audience.

It is for the audience that you are giving your presentation, so make sure that your presentation is suited to the type of audience you are speaking to. For instance if the audience will be largely made up novices or people who will not know a lot about your chosen subject then it its up to you to inform them and make sure that it is easily understandable. Similarly you will want to skip the basics if your audience are already well accustomed with the information at hand.

Read the rest of "5 Top Tips for Great Presentations"

Posted by Andy Trainer in New Free Resources on September 9th, 2009| No Comments »