Sorin Dumitrascu

Perseverance and Resilience: A Practical Guide 10/07/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

$28.28

Few people achieve lasting success in life without overcoming a few obstacles first. Consider the example of Walt Disney. As a young man, Disney was fired from his job at a newspaper because his boss thought he wasn't creative enough. His first film studio failed, leaving him bankrupt. And he struggled to release many of his now-classic films. But Disney persevered through all the setbacks he encountered and went on to build a billion-dollar entertainment corporation.
The qualities of perseverance and resilience demonstrated by Walt Disney are the same qualities you can use to be successful in the workplace. Perseverance and resilience help you cope with challenges such as losing your job, not getting the promotion you feel you deserve, losing a key customer, or missing an important deadline. By being perseverant and resilient, you're more likely to overcome such setbacks, rather than panic or give up.
This course outlines strategies for dealing with workplace setbacks. These strategies can help you rebound quickly from them, refocus on your goals, and ultimately succeed. This course also describes how you can learn to be perseverant and resilient, yourself. And it provides strategies you can use to enhance and develop your levels of perseverance and resilience. Adopting these strategies should boost your ability to cope with crises when they occur.
After taking this course, you should be in a better position to manage setbacks, challenges, and adversity at work using the techniques of perseverance and resilience you have learned.

Setting a challenging goal for yourself can be an extremely rewarding experience. It forces you to grow personally, and helps you to reap benefits that you may previously have thought unlikely. But few things are as frustrating as watching your best-laid plans come apart as a result of an unforeseen obstacle. That's why you need to persevere and overcome any setbacks in order to achieve your goal.
To achieve your targets and objectives, you need to set an inspiring goal that will help you to stay motivated. Remember that no matter how determined you may be, you should also be prepared for possible setbacks along the way. And bear in mind that the ultimate test of your perseverance and resilience will be your ability to deal effectively with, and overcome, any obstacles you encounter.
In this course, you'll learn how to set inspiring goals that will give you a sense of direction by making them measurable, achievable, purposeful, and specific. You're more likely to succeed in your goal if it's energizing and well planned. You'll then discover how to anticipate setbacks by listing potential obstacles, categorizing and prioritizing them, and then identifying the key obstacle.
Finally, you'll examine how to overcome obstacles by recognizing where your plan went wrong and by reaffirming your abilities. This process also involves refocusing on your goal, and resuming with a new plan of action.
By following the guidelines in this course, you'll be better able to proactively anticipate and plan for possible difficulties. And you'll have a greater chance of overcoming obstacles and achieving your goal by using perseverance and resilience.

When was the last time you experienced a setback or failure? In all walks of life, every person will meet with disappointment at some point. An even greater failure, however, is to leave these setbacks unassessed. Those who don't accurately dissect their errors are likely to make them again.
To persevere beyond a setback, you must analyze it to find its root causes. You'll benefit from dissecting what went wrong and why it went wrong. From there you can realize the changes needed to avoid the same fate again.
A setback can linger in people's minds such that they allow it to define them.

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Fundamentals of Cross Cultural Communication 08/04/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 1 )

$28.28

With so much business happening on a global scale, cross-cultural communication is more important than ever before. Communication is always a challenge, and when diverse cultures interact, good communication can be even more challenging.
For example, after a major U.S. corporation introduced a new breakfast cereal in Sweden, the company was horrified to discover that the cereal's name translates roughly as "burned peasant" in Swedish.
Imagine the embarrassment, not to mention the loss of revenues that probably ensued. And while this example seems amusing after the fact, cross-cultural miscommunications aren't always benign.
For instance, a large airline manufacturer developed its newest plane model to be flown by two pilots, with both pilots helping and correcting each other.
But what do you suppose happens when the pilots are from a culture in which a subordinate is inhibited by custom from correcting a superior? At least one airline company has had several close calls as a direct result of this "design flaw" – which is ultimately a communication lapse.
Now, you may not be involved in public safety or an industry in which communication errors can cause horrendous mishaps. But you'll likely soon be working with people from different cultures, if you aren't already. You need to learn how to handle cultural differences and maximize your communication opportunities.
And this book will help you do just that. You'll learn about important cultural differences that will help you adapt your communication style to be more effective. In the first topic, you'll learn about the importance of achieving a proper mind-set for cross-cultural communication. In the second topic, you'll study aspects of cultures that affect how people communicate across cultural boundaries. In the third topic, you'll learn about a model of cultural dimensions that will help you enhance your communication abilities.
First topic - In this topic, you'll learn about why cross-cultural communication is so important. You'll also learn why it's beneficial for you to learn how to improve your ability to communicate across cultural boundaries. Then you'll learn about some guidelines for achieving the mind-set that's essential for effective communication.
Second topic - In the second topic, you'll learn about a pioneer who studied and classified important cultural differences. Edward T. Hall was an anthropologist who made early discoveries of factors that differ among cultures. He is known for having identified what he called low-context and high-context factors.
Hall determined that people from low-context cultures communicate explicitly, with words. People from high-context cultures use contextual elements such as shared assumptions, knowledge, and body language to understand each other and communicate.
Third topic - In the third topic, you'll learn about some dimensions common to every culture that affect how people communicate. The cultural model created by Geert Hofstede identifies dimensions of culture – power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. These dimensions influence how groups, societies, and cultures think about the world and respond to events.
At its conclusion, this topic also presents some important guidelines for communicating effectively based on Hofstede's dimensions.
After you've finished this book, you'll be much more aware of the differences among cultures. And you'll have a good sense of how you need to approach others from different cultures in order to maximize your communication opportunities with them.
But before you begin the book, there is one important disclaimer you should be aware of.

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Achieving Productivity: A Practical Guide 17/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 11 )

$28.44

Getting your physical and digital workspaces organized is a great way to be more productive. In this book, you'll learn the rewards of a more organized workspace. You'll find out what a productive workspace looks like and how to declutter your workspace to match.
You'll learn how to manage your digital workspace and how to tame the e-mail monster. And finally, you'll find out how to make your new clutter-free life last by making organization a habit.

Procrastination makes you a less effective employee, and causes you stress at the same time. In this book, you'll learn about the reasons people procrastinate, fear of giving up control, lack of self- discipline, being overwhelmed, lack of interest, and fear of failing are some of the reasons behind procrastination and the rewards you'll reap when you overcome procrastination.
You'll learn how to build self-discipline and fight time wasters. And finally, you'll find out how to set priorities and focus on achieving them, and how to say no when you need to.

While your time is limited, it's possible to do more with your time by being more productive – producing more value in the time you have. In this book, you'll learn about managing tasks in a way that maximizes your productivity.
You'll discover the benefits of assessing the time and value of your tasks, identifying your priorities, chunking your time, building a schedule, creating an effective to-do list, and making effective use of your to-do list.

It's difficult to stay on top of a busy work schedule and at the same time balance family responsibilities, personal goals, and trips away. Achieving productivity in your personal life will help you keep a sensible balance between home and work.
In this book, you’ll learn how to prepare for trips, plan personal and household tasks, and become more organized as a parent. You’ll also explore tips for getting out the door in the morning and for maintaining your well-being.

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Constructive Feedback and Criticism: A Practical Guide 06/01/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 1 )

$27.91

Feedback lets employees know how well they're doing at meeting goals and expectations. Used well, it creates a supportive environment, motivates people, helps to maintain or improve performance, and provides people with insight into how others see them and their work.
You use positive feedback to reinforce, support, or encourage positive behavior. You use corrective feedback to help employees improve. To give this feedback, specify what's wrong, keep it relevant, and be supportive.
To give effective feedback, directly observe the person's behavior, without hovering or making judgments until you're certain of the facts, and determine whether positive or corrective feedback is required.
Aim to give feedback in private or to tailor it for a group so that no one will be embarrassed. Also give feedback as soon as possible after the behavior.
When providing feedback, be specific about the behavior, explain its impact, and state what the person should do next to maintain, improve, or change behavior. When giving corrective feedback, start with a positive, then specify what's wrong that needs correcting, and end on a positive note with an eye to the future.
Constructive criticism is considerate of recipients' feelings and contributes to their development by pointing out errors or inefficiencies. It can open lines of communication and foster a cooperative culture in the workplace, resulting in better problem solving.
Conversely, destructive criticism can adversely affect workplace performance and communication, causing low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy in recipients.
To provide criticism that's constructive, you should follow three steps. First observe the individual's behavior directly and record examples. Then review any assumptions you've made to ensure you're being objective and prepare what you plan to say. Finally, meet the individual in private and give the criticism constructively. To do this, start with a positive, be specific about the behavior that needs to change, remain calm and respect the recipient's feelings, and end with a positive.

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Critical Thinking Essentials: A Practical Guide 07/01/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 52 )

$28.44

Critical thinking is essentially a method of thinking that encourages individuals to think for themselves in the pursuit of the reasoned and logical truth about any subject.
Elements of critical thinking guide the reasoning process. They include the purpose of your thinking, the information gathered, any predispositions you might have, relevant framing concepts, and the inferences and implications of what's learned.
Learning to think critically at work will help you be a better problem solver and judge of information, and a more dynamic contributor and effective communicator.
The elements of critical thinking guide your reasoning through the problems or issues you face at work.
The elements are identifying your purpose, defining the question you need to answer, challenging your predispositions, applying framing concepts, checking inferences, and considering implications.
Applying four strategies can help you continuously improve the quality of your thinking.
Be alert to vague thinking by clarifying the meaning of both your own thinking and the thinking of others. Make sure your thinking is focused on what's relevant – the question you're trying to answer. Formulate effective questions by making sure all your questions are designed to improve your understanding of the main question or issue. Be willing to explore alternative views, and be open to the possibility that you may learn something worth changing your mind for, because it improves your thinking.

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360 Degree Relationships: A Practical Guide 17/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 8 )

$28.44

There's no such thing as a workplace without social interactions – it's natural for people and departments to achieve their work goals by forging professional bonds with others.
In this book, you'll learn about the dynamics of office politics as well as approaches to dealing with a political work climate. You'll also learn how to recognize key peers and how to build and maintain strategic professional relationships with your peers.
If you're serious about advancing your career, you need a professional network of people to help you get there. Building and maintaining a solid network of contacts requires active participation.
To succeed, you'll need to hone your communication skills, have the right attitude, and practice the right habits. In this course, you'll learn about the benefits of a business network, how to create networking opportunities and build rapport with new contacts, and how to maintain your business contacts.
The relationship between you and your boss is a key factor in your work career. A good relationship with your boss will make your job more enjoyable. You'll find that to work more effectively with your boss, you need to develop a rapport.
In this book, you'll learn the importance of a healthy employee-boss relationship, ways to build a great relationship with your boss by recognizing their agenda and management style, as well as how to communicate and give feedback.

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Business Etiquette: A Practical Guide 19/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 8 )

$28.44

Professionalism refers to more than just doing your job well in isolation. It involves focusing on providing others with high-quality work and service, and on meeting or exceeding their expectations.
To do this, you have to be conscious of your surroundings and of how your actions impact others. You also have to consider the standards of professional behavior that apply in a given context, and respect these – not only through your actions, but in terms of the image you convey.
Although soemone might be highly skilled and efficient in the work he produces, his clothing choice is unprofessional because it doesn't meet his company's standards.
This book introduces you to the basics of business etiquette. It explains how to present yourself in the work environment by dressing professionally and maintaining a professional workspace. And it describes ways of protecting your professional reputation outside the office. This has become especially important in the era of the Internet and social media.
After completing this book, you'll be better equipped to practice good business etiquette. In turn, this can help you strengthen your professional reputation and build a successful career.

Have you ever worked in an organization where some people remained indifferent to their work commitments? Where they've failed to admit to their own work failures, content to let the blame fall on others? Or where they've boasted ungraciously about their successes? Professionalism, good business etiquette, and personal accountability are the attributes of high achievers. Employees who readily take responsibility for their actions and show courtesy to their colleagues inspire confidence in others and tend to be more successful.
Reliable and dedicated employees accept personal accountability for their actions and their work. This involves taking the power to succeed into their own hands, acting on their goals, and increasing their personal productivity.
In this book, you'll learn about professionalism, business etiquette, and making yourself accountable by following the four steps of the personal accountability framework:
1. focusing your efforts by setting SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-framed
2. developing an action plan for each SMART goal by being clear on what you want to achieve, removing obstacles and limitations, and identifying subgoals
3. managing your energies and priorities so you can focus on achieving what's important and complete everything you need to, and
4. staying focused and re-energized, so you can avoid being distracted and tackle your goals with commitment and enthusiasm.

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Anger Management Essentials: A Practical Guide 18/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 15 )

$28.44

How do you manage the anger you may sometimes feel at work? Depending on how you express it, anger can have a negative or positive impact on your work. If negatively expressed, it could diminish your productivity and effectiveness, which can also impact your coworkers and the organization. But you can learn to manage anger in ways that will minimize its negative effects and take advantage of anger's potential to provide beneficial outcomes instead.
Factors that are typically part of normal work environments have the potential to cause anger. Common causes of anger include dissatisfaction with the system, unequal treatment, hindered goals, dissimilar values, and hierarchical relationships.
These potential causes of anger coexist in the workplace and are constant. With everyone in your workplace vulnerable to these highly personal, potential sources of anger, anger management can be particularly challenging.
This course will help you understand anger in the workplace by examining how people express anger, pinpointing some common causes of anger, and discussing how to use anger positively in the workplace. After learning about these aspects of anger, you'll be better prepared to manage your anger when you feel it, and then use that anger to bring about positive outcomes whenever possible.

People have been considering and debating the right way to handle anger for millennia. As long ago as 350 BC, the philosopher Aristotle stated "Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools, and so are those who are not angry in the right way, at the right time, or with the right persons."
Virtually everyone experiences anger. But it's important to realize that anger in itself is not a good or bad thing. It's simply a set of physical responses, emotions, and behaviors triggered by a perceived threat or frustration. How people cope with their own anger, and anger in others, makes the difference between anger as a destructive emotion and a constructive emotion.
In this course, you'll discover that anger can be expressed appropriately and dealt with productively. You'll learn about managing and controlling your own anger. You'll also learn how to appropriately and effectively deal with other people's anger, including how to evaluate the issue and provide constructive feedback.

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Customer Service Fundamentals: A Practical Guide 09/01/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

$28.44

Keeping customers satisfied and ensuring they return to your company requires that you're focused on your customers. To focus on your customers, you need to pay them your full, undivided attention and minimize interruptions to your interactions with them.
To focus on customers, you also need to connect with them. Finding commonalities helps establish connections, which are created and nurtured through communication and relationship building.
Finally, a positive and friendly attitude is helpful. By having a good attitude, you reduce stress in yourself and in others. You also need to offer positive solutions to customers' problems. In each case, either come up with a practical solution or validate and recognize the personal nature of the customer's problem.
Empathy enables you to connect with customers and build good relationships with them. Empathy involves listening to, understanding, and validating customers' feelings. Three techniques you can use to demonstrate empathy are to relate your own experience, reflect people's emotions, and to normalize their responses.
Relating your own experiences is a way of reassuring customers that you have some understanding of their situations, and places you on equal footing with them. To be effective, keep your stories brief and relevant.
Reflecting customers' emotions and problems back to them can be a very effective way to convey understanding and shows a desire to be helpful. As such, it is a good way to set distressed customers at ease and address their problems effectively.

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Building Trust: A Practical Guide 18/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 10 )

$28.44

Your success at work is often tied to the contributions of your coworkers. And given the collaborative nature of most work, it stands to reason that the better your relationships are with your coworkers, the more productive and successful you'll be.
At work, just like at home, trust is the foundation of successful relationships. Coworkers need to feel confident that they'll be supported by each other when collaborative efforts are required to produce successful results.
But what is meant by "trust?" A general definition is that trust involves letting the things you value be vulnerable to the actions of others, and believing that what you value will be supported, or at least not harmed.
People value many things – for example, their reputations, ideas, creations, and relationships.
Trust is important because it impacts all workplace relationships. The level of trust between coworkers affects how they choose to interact with one another.
When coworkers trust each other, they're more likely to work cooperatively, sharing ideas and knowledge without the fear of risking what they value. Coworkers with trusting relationships can engage in healthy debate and resolve conflict, and aren't afraid to ask for help or make mistakes. This type of dynamic relationship can result in increased productivity.
Contrast this with coworkers who don't trust each other. They'll have a hard time working together, often acting defensively instead of focusing on work. Without trust, coworkers may withhold ideas and input, avoid commitment, and become engaged in conflict, politicking, and infighting – none of which are productive.
This course explores the impact of trust in the workplace. To help you make the most of your workplace relationships, you'll learn how you can build and sustain trusting relationships with your coworkers by being competent, dependable, honest, and considerate.
Betrayal seems like a strong word. And it is. When trust is breached, either intentionally or unintentionally, strong emotions and serious consequences follow. Trust is vital in the workplace. And yet, trust is so often broken.
People need to know they can trust their managers to guide them to success.
They need to be able to trust their coworkers to perform well so that their own performance can be effective.
And they need to trust others enough to ask difficult questions as well as give or receive difficult feedback.
The cost of betrayal is high. On a personal level, it can cost you friends and make working with other people difficult. A betrayed person may have trouble trusting again. Betrayers may have difficulty accomplishing anything once others become aware of their actions. With lack of trust, team cohesion often breaks down, morale slips, and productivity plummets.
Healing from betrayal requires effort from both the betrayer and the betrayed. Over time, a degree of trust can often be re-established if the right approach is used. Techniques for building and rebuilding trust arise from the same understanding of trust. Knowing how to repair relationships with these techniques is a valuable skill.
This course focuses on the techniques for rebuilding trust after a betrayal. You'll learn how you can take steps to recover from a betrayal and become a better person for the experience.
You'll also learn about breaches of trust from the point of view of the betrayer. In the event that you breach a trust, accidentally or on purpose, you'll know the steps to take to begin mending the relationship.
The techniques for rebuilding trust can also serve you if you need to help someone work through a betrayal. You'll have an opportunity to practice the techniques for healing a trust you've betrayed in a realistic scenario.

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Managing Workplace Conflicts: A Practical Guide 04/01/2017

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 16 )

$28.44

Some people argue that workplaces are conducive to rapid growth and development of conflict. What's your opinion?
A study by Watson and Hoffman revealed that 42 percent of a manager's time is spent on reaching agreement with others when conflicts occur in the workplace.
Conflict management is a demanding part of a manager's duties, and most managers no doubt think that they could spend this time more productively.
But this does not mean that conflict is always negative. In fact, there are several ways to view conflict in the workplace.
This course will show you how to encourage conflict in the workplace that will result in more creativity, more energy, and more ideas.
Once you have developed a good understanding of conflict, you can:
• encourage healthy differences between workers,
• recognize conflict in the workplace when it occurs.
This course will help you to identify the signs and symptoms of destructive conflict, so that you can more easily recognize when conflict will negatively impact upon employees.
You will also see the benefits that can be gained from encouraging healthy differences between people. You will discover how to manage conflict in the workplace in a way that fosters positive outcomes.

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Agile Software Testing: A Practical Guide 16/09/2020

by Sorin Dumitrascu

( 22 )

$27.91

The Agile Software Testing course covers the methodologies and testing approaches but also the techniques and tools used in software testing in agile projects.
The first section of this course is on Methodologies and Testing Approaches.
Agile software development lifecycles are comprised of short iterations with working software released at the end of each iteration.
In this section, you will have overview of agile development and cover some of the different approaches, including Extreme Programming, Scrum, and Kanban.
You will learn the key aspects of testing in an agile environment, as well as the skillset that an agile tester should have.
More specifically we are going to cover the following:
• Agile Software Development Fundamentals which includes Agile Software Development and the Agile Manifesto, The Twelve Principles of the Agile Manifesto, The Whole Team Approach, Early and Frequent Feedback;
• Aspects of Agile Approach which includes Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Kanban, Collaborative User Stories, Creation of User Stories, Retrospectives, Continuous Integration, Release and Iteration Planning;
• Testing in Agile Approaches which includes Agile Testing and Development Activities, Agile Project Work Products, Agile Test Levels, Agile Testing and Configuration Management, Agile and Independent Testing;
• Test Status in Agile Projects which includes Communicating Test Status and Product Quality, Managing Risk Regression;
• Role and Skills of an Agile Tester which includes Skills of an Agile Tester, Role of an Agile Tester.
The second section of this course is on Techniques and Tools.
Agile approaches include the complementary techniques of test-driven development, acceptance test- driven development, and behavior-driven development
In this section, we will explore the key features of agile testing and how techniques such as black box testing can be applied in agile projects.
We will also take a look at various tools that are available to agile testers, everything from task management and tracking tools, to communication and configuration tools.
More specifically we are going to cover the following:
• Agile Testing and Risk Assessment which includes Test-driven and Behavior-driven Development, Test Levels, A Scrum Tester, Quality Risks in Agile Projects;
• Techniques in Agile Projects which includes Estimation of Testing Effort, Test Basis in Agile Projects, Definition of Done, Acceptance Test-driven Development, Functional and Nonfunctional Black Box Test Design, Exploratory Testing;
• Tools for Testing in Agile Projects which includes Task Management and Tracking Tools, Communication and Information-sharing Tools, Test Development and Configuration Tools.

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