Communication is a key to engagement in the world of 2024 and beyond, and a lifeblood to any government initiatives, programs or campaigns. Audiences respond to targeted communication delivered in easy-to-understand language, highlighting the benefits to them. Explore the tools and strategies you can use to transform your online communications.

Effective communication in the 21st century requires a strong understanding of both your audience and the best practice tools for crafting engaging and persuasive content. Government communication takes time and energy to produce, and its biggest challenge can often be holding and then keeping that attention. Learn the written techniques for engaging your intended audience.

Effective communication in the 21st century requires a strong understanding of both your audience and the best practice tools for crafting engaging and persuasive content. This course will give you the tools to create strategies for your project or program communications that will have maximum engagement and impact.

Explore in-depth the tools and strategies you can use to transform your communications in government to have maximum engagement and impact. Whether you communicate internally, or externally this course will help save time and stress in producing content that will get you the greatest returns.

Managing the wellbeing of your team is an essential part of leadership. Gain an understanding of mental health and mental illness, as well as how to have conversations with staff about associated workplace behaviours. Through this course you will become familiar with your “mental health”, obligations as a manager and leader, and refine your practical skills in how to discuss mental health in a work context from a performance point of view. You will also explore the concepts of stress and resilience at the individual, team and organisational levels and formulate a practical plan to address these.

Explore a new lens on leadership psychology and examine the 5 key principles of the PERMA model of Positive Psychology, which is an area of psychological theory that focuses on strengths and resilience. You will look at how managers can implement the Positive Psychology approach and its principles personally, across your team and your wider organisation. You will also cover the concept of resilience and develop practical strategies for building team resilience, change readiness and increasing peformance.

Learn the facets of excellent communication skills and techniques (verbal and non-verbal) required by good leaders, including presentation skills, running effective meetings, the barriers to communication (individually, within teams and organisationally), gender differences in communication, assertiveness skills, and self-knowledge tools to understand the impact of personality on communication style.

Explore what managing ethically means in the SA Public Sector. Learn the terms “bullying and harassment” from both a legislative and behavioural perspective and understand what is and what is not bullying and harassment conduct and what is reasonable in terms of managerial action.

Examine the Public Sector Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics and the attributes of an ethical organisation and leader and explore a framework and process for promoting integrity and civility in the workplace.

Learn the techniques for managing different personality traits and behaviours as well as individual emotional reactions to challenging behaviours. You will be given the skills to deal with challenging employee behaviours that meet legal, ethical and professional obligations. You will also explore best-practice performance management and the Dark Triad of personality tendencies (psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism).