Did you know that you can use SkillSoft e-Learning to find short interactive videos that provide solutions to frequently encountered business problems?  These 5-10 minute videos, called Business Impact Series, can be found within the course catalog under the folder ‘Business Exploration Series.’ During these short videos, you will receive background information on the business scenario, watch it being enacted through a dramatization, and receive a specific course of action that you can apply to your own situation.   With over 170+ videos to choose from on topics such as Management, Leadership, Human Resources, Sales, Finance and Accounting, and Professional Foundations, you are bound to find a topic that suits your individual and/or your departmental needs.

For more information about SkillSoft and the Business Exploration Series courseware, click here.

Visit the UMBC SkillSoft website for a Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and the link to log in to SkillPort.

To schedule a department presentation about using SkillSoft for professional development, call ext. 5-6262 or hrtraining@umbc.edu.

Highly successful teams have members who exhibit certain key characteristics, most notably trust in others and a sense of commitment to the team. In the early stages of team development, leaders must set up structures and processes that support the development of these team characteristics. This one-hour course offers strategies used to build trust based on encouraging honest, accountable, fair, and positive behavior. The course also provides leaders with strategies that help increase team member commitment, such as being supportive, making members feel secure, providing interesting work, and acknowledging contributions and achievements. By using these strategies, team leaders can develop a cohesive team that works together to reach its goals.

This is course number:  team_03_a04_bs_enus

Visit the UMBC SkillSoft website for a Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and the link to log in to SkillPort.

For more information about the Business Exploration Series courseware, click here.

To schedule a department presentation about using SkillSoft for professional development, call ext. 5-6262 or hrtraining@umbc.edu.

"Much of the fun in life is getting stuck in things -- parties, dating, working out, work itself, shopping, brunch, online research, social media... the list is endless. Sometimes these things are extremely useful, valuable and satisfying. Our spirit knows when this is the case, as we feel refreshed, content and rewarded. It makes us happy -- like the time we have coffee with the friend we have a soul connection with, the barre class we take where we love the music and really stretch ourselves, or the day we take a staycation somewhere new and find a fantastic book store or restaurant.

Then there's the rest of the crap we do. This "stuff" often isn't useful or valuable, and instead of feeling satisfied, we're left feeling neutral, indifferent, even hollow.

Picture an awesome day you had in your life. I bet it included people you love, an activity you love, or both. Sometimes, in the day-to-day of doing "stuff," we lose sight of the valuable and confuse it with the non-valuable. We say yes to things that don't necessarily serve us, connect with people who take our energy rather than energize us, and spend hours of our precious time doing things out of habit or to please others."

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With the hectic pace of contemporary life, time management skills are essential to optimal productivity and stress-reduction. This series of one-hour courses helps you analyze your current use of time, clarify your goals, prioritize your workload, and outline ways to better manage time in accordance with your personality type and energy cycle. You will learn how to prepare useful to-do lists, properly sequence tasks, and estimate time frames so you can meet your deadlines. Additionally, you will learn delegation skills, such as effective task-based communication, techniques to address skills-based delegation problems with employees, and effective practices for dealing with employees who lack confidence and motivation when presented with new tasks.

• Time Management: Analyzing Your Use of Time: pd_11_a01_bs_enus
• Time Management: Planning and Prioritizing Your Time: pd_11_a02_bs_enus
• Delegation Essentials: Overcoming Delegation Problems: mgmt_27_a03_bs_enus

Visit the UMBC SkillSoft website for a Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and the link to log in to SkillPort.

For more information about the Business Exploration Series courseware, click here.

To schedule a department presentation about using SkillSoft for professional development, call ext. 5-6262 or hrtraining@umbc.edu.

“GPS Guides are our way of showing you what has relieved others' stress in the hopes that you will be able to identify solutions that work for you. We all have de-stressing "secret weapons" that we pull out in times of tension or anxiety, whether they be photos that relax us or make us smile, songs that bring us back to our heart, quotes or poems that create a feeling of harmony, or meditative exercises that help us find a sense of silence and calm. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and tranquility.

Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? We all have those days -- but even if it seems like nothing is going right, you still have a chance to uncover a few moments of happiness. No matter what kind of day you're having, here's proof that joy can be found in even just a few seconds.”

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New managers often have misconceptions about what managing entails, and they may be surprised to learn that the skills and methods required for success as an individual contributor and those needed for success as a manager are very different. This series of courses clarifies the myths and truths about management and describes strategies for dealing with common mistakes. These courses also provide methods for establishing credibility, managing former colleagues effectively, meeting organizational expectations, and balancing conflicting expectations of peers, direct reports, and management.

• First Time Manager: Understanding a Manager's Role: mgmt_16_a01_bs_enus
• First Time Manager: Challenges: mgmt_16_a02_bs_enus
• First Time Manager: Meeting Expectations: mgmt_16_a03_bs_enus

Visit the UMBC SkillSoft website for a Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and the link to log in to SkillPort.

For more information about the Business Exploration Series courseware, click here.

To schedule a department presentation about using SkillSoft for professional development, call ext. 5-6262 or hrtraining@umbc.edu.

Every moment you have the opportunity to heal your body, radiate total health and expand your capacity to lead a vibrant, fully expressed life. Led by pioneers in integral health, wellness and mind-body-spirit medicine, you will learn:

• Leading-edge, proven modalities that dramatically decrease stress.
• Processes that reduce or event dissolve chronic pain.
• The leading edge of brain science and meditation techniques to tap the limitless power of the mind.
• Tools to minimize the “monkey mind” and take control of your thoughts.
• Holistic approaches to creating well-being in your family and your community.

This is a completely free Telesummit with top experts in the field. January 27 - March 28, 2014: Four sessions per week focus on wellness for the Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul. Listen to the calls via phone or computer. For more information and to register visit: www.winterofwellness.com.