Essential Skills for First-Time Managers & Supervisors

The first-time manager often doesn't realize how much their new role differs from that of an individual contributor. They may have misconceptions about what being a new boss entails, and be surprised to learn that the skills and methods required for success as an individual contributor and those needed for success as a new manager are very different. This course describes some of the myths about managing people and their corresponding truths in order to clarify what a new leader really does. It also points to the typical demands and constraints of a manager's job. Finally, it describes strategies for dealing with common mistakes when managing for the first time.

Do you know if your team's goals are consistently being met or if employees are always performing at their peak? Do you dread difficult conversations when there's a performance problem that needs to be addressed? Effectively managing performance can help avoid termination of employees and boost productivity at all levels of your organization. Challenging and engaging top performers is key, as these high achievers are very valuable to the company and may terminate their contracts to seek challenges elsewhere. In this course, you'll learn about the factors involved in successful performance management. You'll explore the phases of the performance management process, critical success factors, and key performance indicators. Finally, you'll learn about identifying key job requirements when creating a role profile.

By achieving operational excellence, a company can not only drastically improve the quality and efficiency of its internal processes, but it can also gain a competitive advantage. But to attain operational excellence, you’ll need to understand how your organization’s existing processes work and create a plan to fundamentally enhance them. In this course, you’ll learn about Lean tools you can use to improve operations management in your organization. You’ll also explore strategies that can help make your organizational operations more efficient and sustainable over the long term.

Understanding the essential responsibilities you have when directing and delegating to others, and the practices you should employ in order to meet those responsibilities, will lead to you fulfilling your duties and realizing the potential of your entire team. This course provides information on the key proficiencies of managing people, such as setting direction and establishing clear objectives and goals for your direct reports. It discusses the importance of organizing, as well as communicating for clarity and direction. It also covers the best practices for planning delegation and the techniques you need to carry through with delegation. Finally, the course details the importance of monitoring delegated tasks to ensure employees are on the right track.

Developing emotional intelligence is a key to successful leadership. Leaders with a strong mixture of emotional awareness, self-management, and social skills are able to relate better to those around them. Emotionally intelligent leaders navigate relationships more effectively and are more likely to be successful in their personal and professional lives. This course provides an understanding of why emotionally intelligent leadership is important. It also provides practical, positive techniques for promoting and improving emotional intelligence as a leader within your business environment.

Many influences have shaped the lives and work experiences of various generations, namely the Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial (or Gen Y), and Gen Z generations. Because each generation has its own distinct attitudes, priorities, needs, and work habits, managers can get the best from a multigenerational workforce by using strategies that recognize the differences. In this course, you'll learn about the best practices and successful techniques for managing these multigenerational employees in the workplace. You’ll also explore methods for overcoming multigeneration challenges such as ageism and stereotypes to ensure that all employees feel respected and can make a positive contribution to your organization.

Working on a team with employees from different departments can be a huge challenge. These types of teams often consist of people with different talents, goals, and communication styles. This is why effective cross-functional management is so important. This involves managing teams in a way that bridges the functional silos that constrain your organization. Managing for cross-functionality also means using team leadership skills to support collaboration and teamwork between different departments. This course defines organizational cross-functionality and its benefits. It helps you develop techniques to support a cross-functional strategy throughout your organization. And it shows you how different types of knowledge management systems can play a role in implementing that strategy.

Employee engagement is the personal and professional commitment that employees have to the organization and its goals. For HR professionals, it's a planned effort to link the shared interests of employees and the organization for their mutual benefit. More specifically, it's an employee relations strategy that enhances employees' personal investment, resulting in increased employee satisfaction and organizational productivity. In this course, you'll learn about key concepts and practices associated with employee engagement. You'll also learn how to assess engagement levels and look at measures to overcome behavioral and organizational issues to encourage employee engagement. The content in this course is based on the Body of Competency and Knowledge (BoCK), 2015 of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). While the course helps learners to prepare for the SHRM-CP/SCP certification exams, it is equally useful for HR professionals who want to develop capabilities for improving their effectiveness in the workplace and advancing their careers.

Understanding the essential responsibilities you have when directing and delegating to others, and the practices you should employ in order to meet those responsibilities, will lead to you fulfilling your duties and realizing the potential of your entire team. This course provides information on the key proficiencies of managing people, such as setting direction and establishing clear objectives and goals for your direct reports. It discusses the importance of organizing, as well as communicating for clarity and direction. It also covers the best practices for planning delegation and the techniques you need to carry through with delegation. Finally, the course details the importance of monitoring delegated tasks to ensure employees are on the right track.

Managers rely heavily on experts for the in-depth knowledge needed on the job. These experts have unique needs in the workplace. This course explores the characteristics of the experts on your staff; outlines what they want from you, their manager; and covers techniques and strategies to help you meet their needs.

For managers, difficult conversations can be immensely stressful. Handled the wrong way, this kind of conversation can also damage your work relationships and leave you feeling unsure of your abilities. However, with the right preparation and mindset, you can make sure that you communicate difficult news with tact and diplomacy. In this course, you'll learn some basic guidelines about when and where to initiate difficult conversations, and useful steps for managing the associated stress. You'll learn how to prepare for a difficult conversation using a four-step process, so that you're confident and can make the conversation as constructive and diplomatic as possible. Finally, you'll learn how to demonstrate that you have the right mindset when communicating bad news to an employee.

In this course, you will learn techniques for developing a team of “creative gurus” – team members who excel at generating innovative ideas. You will learn ways to assemble your team, generate creative ideas, overcome barriers to team creativity, and foster a creative workplace.

As a manager, you will wear many different hats as you deal with a variety of people. Because you will encounter many personalities, emotions, and practices, it's important to learn how to be fair and caring when managing others. In this course, you will explore the many facets of treating others with fairness, including how to apply standards fairly. You'll also learn how to demonstrate fairness in your communication, decision making, and personal skills such as listening, sharing, and showing concern to your direct reports.

Most companies will eventually face tough times, and it's during these times that your role as a manager is vital. The employees you manage will depend on your leadership to help see them through, and shying away from tough conversations may only make the situation worse. In this course, you'll learn specific strategies for weathering difficult times, including ways to reduce costs, how to hold difficult conversations with employees and secure their support, and what alternatives to consider before laying off staff. For when there's no other choice, you'll learn how best to plan and implement staff reductions, and how to deliver the difficult message. You'll also learn about opportunities you can use to strengthen your organization during difficult times.

Some of the core responsibilities for a HR manager are recruiting, hiring, developing, and retaining talent that will drive an organization's performance. For many prospective recruits, their ideal company is one that values and develops employees. To meet these goals and desires, you’ll need an effective talent management plan. In this course, you’ll learn why acquiring talent and effectively managing it is so important to an organization’s success. You’ll discover how to create a strategy that not only develops talent in your company, but that also retains it in the long term. You’ll also learn about the key activities associated with talent management and the roles played by managers in implementing a talent management strategy.

High expectations are often placed on a new manager. Along with these expectations comes the pressure to prove you are capable of being the boss and managing people effectively. When managing for the first time, establishing credibility early and building new working relationships can go a long way in helping you succeed in adjusting to your new responsibilities. This course describes ways to manage former colleagues effectively and establish credibility as a first-time manager. You'll also learn how to balance conflicting expectations as a new leader.

Smart companies have learned that supporting continuous learning and self-development among employees reaps dividends in productivity and employee retention rates. As a manager, you're responsible for developing people, which includes developing talent in your direct reports. In this course, you'll learn about the benefits of developing employees and assessing how their development needs can be addressed through organizational learning. You'll then learn how to prepare for and conduct a development meeting that includes the necessary development plan characteristics and support for your employees.

Business acumen is a difficult to define combination of forethought, creativity, and agility that is a key factor in setting successful business professionals apart from their less accomplished peers. But it doesn't just come from experience. It has to be cultivated and nurtured. In this course, you'll learn how developing professional acumen enhances your leadership, communication, and decision-making skills. And further, you'll learn that influences your company's competitive advantage and explore methods for developing an operational perspective to uncover opportunities for change or innovation.

Continuous development of an organization's human resources is linked to several benefits. The learning and development (L&D) function of HR management comprises a systematic set of activities to help provide employees with key skills and competencies required on the job. The goals of the L&D function in organizations include aligning employees' skillsets with the organization's objectives, closing skill gaps, and enhancing overall capability of people and the organization. In this course, you'll explore theoretical and practical aspects of adult learning, training development and delivery, measurement of training effectiveness, and employee development programs in organizations. You will also learn about career development and career management. The content is based on the Body of Competency and Knowledge (BoCK), 2015 of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). While the course helps learners to prepare for the SHRM-CP/SCP certification exams, it is equally useful for HR professionals who want to develop capabilities for improving their effectiveness in the workplace and advancing their careers.

A key challenge for managers is motivating and engaging employees during times of organizational change. To survive and grow in volatile markets, organizations have to embrace change; they have to innovate and adapt. However, because change involves uncertainty, it's stressful, and it can impact employee motivation and productivity – just at a time when an organization needs everyone to pull together and give their best efforts. In this course, you'll learn change management techniques to help you recognize and manage employee stress, as well as your own stress, during periods of change. You'll also learn about common reactions to change, and strategies for managing change to enable you to engage, motivate, and support employees.