Course catalogue

There is no “one-size-fits-all” leadership style or approach for today’s managers. Each day brings new situations and challenges to be navigated. Depending upon the circumstances, effective leaders modify how they lead others and how they manage outcomes. They build collaborative partnerships with their team members. They develop and apply multiple leadership styles. As they know that change is inevitable, they plan for the future—for themselves and their team members. Let’s take a look at the skills situational leaders need to succeed.

• Identify the core situational leadership skills

• Evaluate your leadership approaches

• Create individual development plans

A business is a living organism that depends on the strategic coordination of systems, activities, and information to build customer-satisfying products and services and ensure profitability and future growth. A company’s success is determined by the ability of each core function to effectively perform its specific purposes and responsibilities and, at the same time, proactively cooperate and communicate with the other departments. It is this combination of business-unit excellence and cross-functional collaboration that acts as a key to organizational success.

• Review talent recruitment and development    

• Review finance and information technology   

• Assess operations and strategic management

Good leaders are predominantly facilitators, these leaders teach their people how to work effectively and solve problems. The result is more empowered and capable teams. Directing is said to be a process in which the managers instruct, guide, and oversee the performance of the employees to achieve predetermined goals. 

• Differentiate between a leader and a director 

• Define an enabler 

• Describe how a good leader facilitates an employee's problem solving ability

"You build a great network by first offering your services to others, and by so doing, winning their interest. This is the foundation of building trust and creating a platform for them to invest in you in a reciprocal manner, such that it becomes a win-win situation.

-Oscar Bimpong 

Organizations deal with both major and minor conflicts day-in and day-out. The important thing is one cannot ignore these conflicts as they can have a far-reaching negative effect on the teams involved. This may inevitably affect their day-to-day work and eventually the performance of the company. This course helps you reach consensus amongst employees by resolving workforce conflicts. It introduces strategies to create a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. It is important to gauge how the stakeholders feel before and after settling the conflict. You will learn about the four win-win conflict solution techniques that will help you maintain harmony in the work place.

• Communicate effectively to handle a conflict 

• Establish boundaries to reduce workplace conflicts 

• Use emotional intelligence to achieve better team performance 

• Institute behavioral consequences for uncooperative employees

Today’s marketplace is fast-paced and ultra-competitive. Operations departments should be the same. They can’t afford to be wasteful, slow, or out of touch with their customers’ needs if they hope to compete and thrive. In order to achieve and maintain a competitive edge in the global economy and maximize corporate profits, successful operations management systems need to be engineered to quickly respond to customer’s requests, promptly adapt to new processes and product requirements, and rapidly embrace new technologies. No wonder Forbes magazine reports that 75% of CEOs come from an operations background. Having a comprehensive understanding of how an organization works is a leadership advantage. 

• Define operations management 

• Make operational decisions 

• Improve operations continuously

"Today’s business environment is global, generationally diverse, collaborative, cross-functional, and constantly changing. Leaders who believe that they can achieve organizational goals using just one leadership style will not succeed. The most effective leaders learn how to flexibly adapt multiple leadership styles to guide their employees, achieve their goals, and build strong teams.

A popular management theory called Situational Leadership, first developed in 1969 by Dr. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard, remains especially relevant in today’s business environment. This theory is based on the premise that because organizations are not made up of workers who are equally skilled and motivated, leaders should manage team members according to their individual abilities and developmental readiness. We’ll review their method, and then suggest some ways you can use it to manage today’s business challenges."

• Name the four leadership styles

• List the four maturity levels

• Apply the situational leadership model

Conflict management is a major hurdle in any organizational growth and has to be resolved on priority to reduce the negative effect it may cause. The role of the facilitator is complex. A leader’s job is to guide conflicting individuals through a process without using their influence to determine the outcome of the negotiations. They must model calmness, respect, and open-mindedness in situations that can be emotionally charged. They must encourage full participation of all group members from defining the cause of the conflict to agreeing on a resolution.      

In task-based situations, facilitators need to push team members strongly but respectfully question, challenge, and argue decisions, suggestions, and processes recommended by other team members.      

Leaders who know how to anticipate conflict and address it proactively with the right tools, techniques, and a well-managed process create healthy work environments that use differences to grow and move forward positively. In this course, you will explore the various tools available to the facilitator to manage conflicts.

• Identify the basics of facilitation   

• Apply the three-step mediation process     

• Decide when to encourage opposing dialogue

Why do we often say that it is important to effectively network and build strong business partnerships? It is because your success as a businessperson will be greatly affected by the professional relationships you cultivate. Whether leading employees, working on a cross-functional team, or meeting with colleagues at an industry conference, your ability to successfully network and build productive and authentic business relationships is important. Strong business relationships drive productivity and business success. Smart leaders spend time developing their interpersonal skills in order to build solid bonds with their employees, work productively and positively with peers and superiors, and generate business relationships that can contribute to personal and organizational success.

• Describe interpersonal skills    

• Identify ways to build business partnerships    

• Enlist key strategies to successful networking

A project is a sequence of tasks completed in a specific order with the goal of achieving a certain outcome. Projects are overseen by managers but are executed by project teams according to detailed plans, budgets, and timelines. The investment of an organization’s time, labor, materials, equipment, and capital require that each detail be monitored and managed carefully to ensure that the scope of the project doesn’t spiral out of control and that the project’s profitability is maximized rather than jeopardized. Effective project managers demonstrate well-developed technical and interpersonal skills, attention-to-detail, business acumen, and exceptional follow-through.

• Explain the four components of project management  

• State the project management lifecycle

We know how important it is for us all to do what we can to ensure an effective transition for ourselves and our teams back to work. The landscape of the workplace has and will inevitably continue to change and today’s ‘new normal’ may not be tomorrow!

Constructive feedback has the ability to help your employees do their jobs better. It helps strengthen your team and improve the overall performance. Many managers are unable to give constructive feedback; hence, they do not get the expected results and sometimes have an adverse effect on their relationship with their employees. To avoid this, many managers are reluctant to provide feedback.  

Constructive feedback is an opportunity to coach your team members on how to grow into more productive and independent contributors. When giving and receiving positive and negative feedback becomes a routine part of everyone’s workday, you and your team will be on your way to personal and organizational success.

• Follow the rules of providing feedback 

• Implement effective methods to share feedback

Your day-to-day ability to genuinely connect and work well with others is the key to long-term career success. Especially in today’s work environment, where cross-unit, cross-functional, and even cross-organizational teams abound, those with strong interpersonal skills have a decided advantage. And you don’t have to be the stereotypical extroverted salesperson to possess these kinds of skills. Anyone can learn and practice how to interact with others in positive and productive ways. Whether you are collaborating with colleagues, attending a conference of industry peers, or chatting with a team member one-on-one, well-developed people skills give you the opportunity to build stronger relationships, foster goodwill, and cultivate influence with others.

• Manage business relationships   

• Work collaboratively with your team    

• Manage disagreement with colleagues

If you want to unleash the power of your diverse team, you must also foster inclusivity. Your team members are more likely to contribute their unique perspectives and experiences when they feel welcomed and respected within the group. Inclusion is a team-wide endeavor, and you must be the leader. Helping team members find common ground and at the same time learning about and respecting each other’s differences is the key to creating an inclusive work environment that will leverage both talents and abilities of your diverse team.

• Identify the importance of managing diversity

• Enlist tips for building a strong team

• Explore the strategies of managing diversity

The simplest definition of diversity is “a range or variety of different things”. In the context of D&I, diversity refers to “the traits and characteristics that make people unique” which include (but are not limited to) race, ethnicity, age, gender, socio-economic class, ability, sexual orientation, and nationality. The summation of these variables combine to create life experiences which shape how a person solves problems, creates, and assesses risk. These are examples of “diversity of thinking” which yields direct and indirect benefits that are foundational to the business case for investments in D&I initiatives.

An inclusive environment is one in which “all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, feel welcome, have equal access to opportunities and resources, and can contribute fully to the organization’s success.”

• What are strategies to improve D&I initiatives?

• What is the business case for D&I?

• What are the gaps in the business case for D&I?

Teams are the backbone of contemporary business life. Executive teams, work teams, cross-functional teams, high-performance teams, and project teams serve a variety of purposes, but they all have the same goal: to solidify the organization’s competitive advantage in the marketplace. 

Cross-functional team leaders draw individuals from departments across the organization to address a particular problem. They might select development engineers, marketing professionals, sales people, legal experts, customer service managers, accountants, and HR executives to apply their various talents to accomplish the goal. The concept is powerful. But this mix of diverse skill sets, professional experience, and personalities also comes with challenges—and you need to manage the team carefully in order to maximize its potential for success.

• State the challenges of handling a diverse team 

• List the ways to manage these challenges 

• Apply the strategies to leverage the power of your team

The journey of a successful leader begins with both personal and professional development. Leaders stay on top of their industry and economy. They are future-focused, positive, and strong communicators. Leaders spend time in self-reflection and education, learning how to maximize their strengths and improve their weaknesses. They study best practices for working with others and know how to get the most out of their employees. They combine these knowledges to guide their organization. Leaders pursue goals persistently. They are open-minded and flexible in their approaches, encourage team members to embrace innovative thinking, and cultivate an environment of positive work culture. They develop team members through coaching, delegating, and mentoring. They also model and inculcate behaviors they want their employees to have, such as integrity, strong communication skills, innovation, emotional intelligence, strategic decision-making, confidence, and vision. Above all, a successful leader provides clarity of purpose, direction, and support, so that everyone succeeds as they work to achieve common goals.

• Demonstrate excellence in business strategy

• Apply essential personality characteristics

• Build critical people skills required to achieve goals

Conflict always creates uneasiness in the minds of employees and organizations. Conflict can involve sore emotions and impend relationships. Leaders experience the same emotional distress while handling a conflict situation. The most difficult situation a leader deals with is conflict management. It is observed that ill-managed conflict creates huge costs in the form of time expenditure, higher attrition, legal implications, etc. It also lowers productivity. When people are involved in conflict, they begin to recoil, stop sharing information, and take fewer risks. The result can be poor decision making. Low morale and strained working relationships can cause stress and drain employees’ energy to focus on being creative and productive. In this lesson, you will learn to deal with situational conflict.

• Identify the five stages of organizational conflict  

• Name the five styles of conflict management   

• Interpret when to use the different styles of conflict management

Your success as a businessperson will be greatly affected by the professional relationships you cultivate. Interpersonal skills are the cornerstone of developing these associations, so it is important to assess your abilities to communicate clearly and empathetically and to listen well. The most effective and satisfying relationships are based on a genuine and mutual desire to get to know and help others. When you focus on adding value to your business connections, you will build a network that is both personally satisfying and professionally beneficial.

• Identify foundational skills required to build a strong interpersonal relationship

• Develop methods of building business partnerships

• Enlist keys to networking

We know how important it is for us all to do what we can to ensure an effective transition for ourselves and our teams back to work. The landscape of the workplace has and will inevitably continue to change and today’s ‘new normal’ may not be tomorrow!

Making your hires successful requires a lot of work. There is a science to identify talent that matches the needs and culture of your organization. The process of interviewing candidates based on behavioral questions is a proven way of pinpointing the best-qualified applicants. In this course, we will review the whys and hows of using this popular interviewing practice so that you can make the most of its benefits.

• Determine what behavioral interview is   

• Enlist steps to prepare for the behavioral interview   

• Create questions using STAR model   

• Conduct behavioral interviews