Management courses that bring out the best in your leaders
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Adam Grant, Simon Sinek, Gretchen Rubin, and more
![Management courses with Adam Grant](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Adam-Grant-with-padding-jpg.jpg?w=1100&h=1100&crop=1)
The Art of Modern Management / How to lead high-performing teams
Setting the right tone for an entire team is a learned skill. This management course is designed to help learners balance the many demands that come with modern management, including leading remote employees.
![](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/the-art-of-modern-management.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Simon Sinek](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Simon-Sinek.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Management courses with Adam Grant](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Adam-Grant-02.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Management courses with Nilofer Merchant](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/nilofer-merchant.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
- Manage Yourself
- Manage Your Network
- Manage Your Team
- Manage Virtually
- Build trust and respect.
- Cultivate relationships with key players on other teams.
- Foster a culture of cooperation.
- Remain accountable and hold the team accountable.
- Manage remote teams as effectively as in-person teams.
Executive Presence / Look, speak, and act the part of a leader
Executive presence is a combination of qualities that the most successful managers exude. This course provides learners with practical strategies for building those qualities, such as confidence and decisiveness.
![](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/executive-presence.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Amy Cuddy](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Amy-Cuddy.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Management courses with Sylvia Ann Hewlett](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/sylvia-ann.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Management courses with Rob Roy](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/rob-roy.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
- Confidence and Decisiveness
- Emotional Intelligence
- Communication
- Appearance
- Getting Feedback
- Project gravitas by acting decisively in a crisis.
- Exercise emotional intelligence.
- Deliver information in a concise, compelling manner tailored to the audience.
- Cultivate a polished, healthy, resilient appearance.
- Solicit and interpret useful feedback.
Sales Management / An approach for the digital age
The complexities of selling in a digital age are compounded by the demands of leading a sales team to success. This course is designed to help sales managers coach their direct reports in the art of selling with insight.
![](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/sales-management.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Dan Pink](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/dan-pink.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Tim Sanders](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/tim-sanders.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
![Michelle Tillis Lederman](https://develop.bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/michelle-tillis.jpg?w=256&h=256&crop=1)
- Manage Your Team: Lead with Vision
- Selling with Insight: A Strategic Approach
- Collaborate to Overcome Sales Challenges
- Practice the Art of Persuasion
- Negotiate with Tactical Empathy
- Define the vision as a leader and align the entire team.
- Review the principles of insight selling and coach the team to integrate insight into the sales process.
- Coach the team in tactical moves that sharpen the clarity and actionability of their insight.
- Apply the process of dealstorming to overcome sales challenges and deepen insight.
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How management courses can elevate team leaders
The organization-wide benefits of management courses are convincing, from increased productivity and innovation to greater employee engagement and stronger organizational culture. But research has shown that the vast majority of new managers don’t receive training prior to becoming a manager.
Many new managers don’t feel supported in their roles, and that leads to feelings of ineffectiveness down the road. Even experienced managers admit to feeling uncomfortable doing basic managerial tasks, such as giving feedback to direct reports. Fortunately, these skills can be taught. With training content on the right areas, organizations can empower their managers and give everyone on the team a leg up.
Essential skills learned in management courses
The role of manager has multiple dimensions — from managing oneself and others, to managing projects and problems. Below, we’ll dive into these dimensions and the skill sets necessary to be effective at each. This list is by no means comprehensive, but serves as a starting point for setting a manager up for success.
Managing oneself
Managers are role models for the attitudes and behaviors they want to inculcate in their direct reports, such as trust and accountability. Therefore, they must be mindful of what their behaviors convey to their team about their character and competence. Influencing direct reports through demonstrated character and competence is far more effective than managing through formal authority.
In addition to an awareness of their behaviors, management courses can teach team leaders to develop an awareness of their thought patterns. Managers who know whether they’re analytic, procedural, relational, or innovative thinkers can seek support from peers who have different perspectives. This can remove blind spots that hinder effective management and result in a more-well rounded leadership style.
Managing your network
Managers need to be able to navigate the political dynamics that typify organizational life, which requires the ability to build relationships and share knowledge. Having a strong network of peers facilitates better problem-solving and collaboration. But building these relationships doesn’t come naturally to everyone.
In management courses, learners can develop their collaborative intelligence — their ability to work effectively with others who think differently. To build collaborative intelligence, managers must learn how to listen with an open mind, consider the ideas of others, and work with them to achieve common goals.
Managing a team
A lot goes into managing a team, but research has shown that employees have a strong desire to feel their work serves an important purpose and their contribution is valued. Managers should communicate the importance of the mission on a regular basis. Storytelling, a technique that can be learned in management courses, is one way to engage the entire team in working toward a common goal.
Managers must also learn the power of praise for motivating direct reports, and when things aren’t going so well — how to give constructive feedback in a positive way. Creating a culture of psychological safety, where direct reports believe their manager is an ally who wants them to be successful, can lay the foundation for the entire team to thrive.
Managing individuals
A common frustration experienced by many employees is being micromanaged by leaders who don’t trust them enough. Autonomy is a key motivator for employees, so it’s particularly important for managers to learn how to give them the space to exercise their own discretion and learn from their mistakes, while remaining accessible to provide guidance when needed.
Autonomy, purpose, appreciation, challenge, and competition are all factors that drive people to do their best. On the other hand, instilling a fear of negative consequences is not a good motivator — at best, it results in coerced compliance. In management courses, learners have the opportunity to assess their own unproductive patterns and replace them with healthier ones.
Managing projects
Managing projects requires the ability to run effective and collaborative meetings. Oftentimes new managers have never learned the appropriate etiquette for leading meetings, such as setting ground rules, enforcing time restrictions, facilitating discussion, and redirecting it, if necessary.
Managers must also learn to keep teams on track by setting aspirational and incremental goals. The SMART framework for goal-setting can be particularly helpful for new managers. It centers around creating specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound goals. In addition, managers can learn how to best support the planning and strategizing that goes into achieving those goals. Management courses can teach all of these skills, and more.
Managing problems
When performance issues arise, inexperienced managers jump to conclusions and let their emotions take over. These leaders must learn how to manage their stress and tap into their curiosity so that they can uncover the behaviors driving performance issues, and determine what is shaping those behaviors. For example, perhaps a team member didn’t have the necessary resources to reach a goal that was set too high.
Sometimes, problems arise because of unhealthy team dynamics, such as repetitive communication breakdowns or divergence, when people are entrenched in different positions and unwilling to learn from one another. Management courses can teach the skills necessary to identify and address these issues.
Getting started
A manager can make or break a team, so they shouldn’t be left to fly blind. The management courses at Big Think+ cover all of the above topics and more, for managers of all experience levels. They’re led by world-renowned experts on organizational management and offered in a microlearning format that’s ideal for busy employees. Request a demo today to learn more.