Business Leadership: Becoming Management Material

COURSE SUMMARY

This eLearning course is a tool for your leadership development. It is designed to help you create and accomplish your personal best, and to help you lead others to get extraordinary things done.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN

• Define your role as a manager and identify how that role differs from other roles you have had.
• Understand the management challenge and the new functions of management.
• Discover how you can prepare for and embrace the forces of change.
• Identify ways to get you and your workspace organised and get a jump on the next crisis.
• Identify your leadership profile and explore ways to use this knowledge to improve your success as a manager.
• Enhance your ability to communicate with others in meetings and through presentations.
• Create an action plan for managing your career success.

WHAT TOPICS ARE COVERED

• Learning organisations
• Peter Senge’s learning disciplines
• What leadership is and is not (including servant leadership)
• Kouzes and Posner’s five leadership practices
• Core skills like communication, body language, delegation, meetings, and time management
• Understanding the trust cycle and building trust
• Managing change
• SWOT analysis and problem solving
• Giving effective, constructive feedback
• Building good relationships

COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction and Course Overview

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

About the Learning Organisation

In the first session, participants will explore Peter Senge’s vision of a learning organisation. Is your company one where all employees are committed to lifelong learning? How can it encourage continual growth and development?

Achieving Personal Mastery

Next, participants will identify some strategies for understanding what our own strengths are, as well as where we want to go.

Analysing Our Mental Models

Often, we create our own realities without even realising that we do so. This session will give participants some ways to explore and change their own mental models.

Achieving a Shared Vision

This session will give participants some ideas for building commitment within a team using shared vision. Participants will also explore a model that will help them move their team to greater independence.

Team Learning

Next, participants will learn what a leader’s role is in a team, and how to lead them through a discussion to reach an agreement point.

Systems Thinking

To wrap up the morning, participants will look at some different cycles and what impact they may play in team efficiency.

Understanding Leadership

In this session, participants will study Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership II® model, which outlines four leadership profiles. Participants will also explore their own style; learn about servant leadership; and look at leadership in an organisation through practices like onboarding, orientation, and performance management.

Five Practices

Day One will conclude with information on five essential leadership practices that experts James Kouzes and Barry Posner have identified. Participants will explore these practices through two exercises and some group discussion.

Building Trust

Day Two of this workshop will begin by looking at how trust and performance are related, and how a leader can build trust in team members.

Managing Change

Next, participants will learn ways to successfully lead a group through change. Participants will have an opportunity to work through a personal change scenario and to apply learning points to a case study.

The Four Room Apartment

Psychologist Claes Janssen describes the process of change like moving from one room to another in a four-room apartment. This session will look at the key aspects of that theory.

Time Management Tips and Tricks

To wrap up the morning of Day Two, participants will learn some ways to organise their workspace, conquer e-mail, and manage their time more effectively.

Managers vs. Leaders

In this session, participants will explore the differences between management and leadership.

Types of Thinking

Next, participants will learn about directional vs. consequential thinking. A brief discussion on ethics is included.

Influence Strategies

At the very core of leadership is the ability to influence people. This session will give participants some ways to persuade individuals to change. Robert Cialdini’s influence strategies will also be covered.

Managing Relationships

Day Two will conclude with a detailed look at different aspects of relationships, including the relationship cycle, leading a team through conflict, and managing stress.

A Simple Problem Solving Process

Day Three will begin with an introduction to a simple, systematic problem solving process that participants can apply in any situation. Participants will also have an opportunity to apply the steps to a personal problem.

Strategic Planning

In this session, participants will learn about the SWOT technique, which helps to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of any person, organisation, product, service, or process.

Doing Delegation Right

This session will give participants an opportunity to practice delegation through a group exercise and a role play. Participants will also learn about the different levels of delegation.

Criteria for Useful Feedback

To wrap up the morning, participants will receive some tips for giving good feedback.

Feedback Techniques

Next, participants will delve deeper into the art of feedback and learn some specific techniques. Constructive criticism will also be discussed.

Mastering Your Body Language

We are always sending signals to others, whether we like it or not. Body language combined with vocal tone can override or even cancel the meaning of the words we say! In this session, participants will learn how to master the art of body language and subtle signals.

Meeting Management

Did you know that the average manager wastes seven to ten hours per week in meetings? In this session, participants will learn how to make the most of meetings.

Pumping Up a Presentation

Next, participants will learn seven steps to pump up a presentation.

Personal Development

To wrap up the workshop, participants will review their pre-assignment and identify next steps.

Workshop Wrap-Up

At the end of the workshop, students will have an opportunity to ask questions and fill out an action plan.