You are in daily contact with both internal and external ‘clients’ and are expected to meet their requests and expectations. But sometimes the person you’re speaking to isn’t quite sure what they actually need, or has conflicting or even unrealistic expectations. Perhaps they need things done very, very quickly, or they haven’t quite found the right person to speak to. If these scenarios sound familiar, then you know from experience that conversations can sometimes be quite exhausting and often end without a result. To reach a mutually satisfactory solution in such and similar situations, professional conversation skills and a solution-oriented approach are required. And that is precisely what our seminar “Steering Conversations Towards a Goal” is all about. Building on the fundamentals of successful communication and conversation management, you will develop individual strategies for your (consulting) conversations and your typical “clients” through practical exercises. We will also address particularly “difficult” cases to expand your repertoire of solutions.

Content

“The traffic light is green” – The basics of successful communication

• How communication actually works 
  • Sending and receiving 
  • Schulz von Thun’s message square and its practical application
  • The interplay between verbal and non-verbal communication and how we can apply this in everyday counselling
• Why communication so often fails
  • A refresher on the iceberg model
  • Internal and external influencing factors
  • Personality types and their linguistic preferences
  • The neurobiological perspective
     
• “He who asks, leads” – steering conversations towards a goal
  • Types of conversations and their specific characteristics (e.g. the counselling conversation)
  • Filling the communication toolbox: types of questions, ‘I’ messages and listening
  • Success factors for effective conversation management
  • Process and conversation management through question
  • Methods for developing alternative solutions
  • Crafting a positive conclusion
• “Get out of the defensive” – Dealing with difficult situations in conversations 
  • Confidently handling counter-arguments and objections
  • Dealing with unrealistic expectations 
  • Managing strong emotions
  • Steering ad hoc conversations in a targeted manner

Benefits:

• Understand the fundamentals of effective communication and common pitfalls
• Develop general communication skills for constructive dialogue
• Learn to apply techniques and methods for structured dialogue
• Recognise and reflect on one’s own role in counselling sessions
• Develop an understanding of the interplay between attitude and methodological skills
• Develop individual strategies to better handle difficult conversational situations and influence them positively

Language: German

Target group: All employees of Goethe-University Frankfurt and RMU partner universities

Please note: A mandatory part of the programme is an online follow-up seminar on 20 November 2026 (10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.). This provides an opportunity to reflect on your initial practical experiences from the seminar, practise communication techniques further and explore selected topics from the seminar in greater depth.

Registration deadline: 4 August 2026

For employees of Goethe University: Click here

For employees of TU Darmstadt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, please email: training.peoe@uni-frankfurt.de