Course catalogue

"Faced with the increasing pace and pressures of today’s business environment, organizations are constantly seeking ways to be more efficient and effective. Because companies are often asked to do more with less—including time—they must use their resources wisely to stay ahead of the competition. A talented and skilled workforce is the key to achieving the required results. When you align your workforce with your company’s goals, your organization’s energies will be appropriately focused. And if you set reasonable, measurable, and attainable goals, you will be able to link performance to rewards and motivate your employees to do even more. 

Most organizations don’t understand the power of incorporating the correct timing and frequency of goals into their plan. For example: goals that are set at the beginning of the year and audited 12 months later are not going to motivate your people. It’s difficult to stay committed a business goal over such a long time. When you learn how to set strong, timely, and measurable goals, your team will clearly understand their purpose, see their importance, and know how they will be measured. In this course, you will learn the usage of stretch goals to motivate your team.

• Align stretch goals to performance goals 

• Decide whether to stretch the goals

Mentoring is a process that follows coaching. Coaching makes a person equipped with the skills required for a job whereas mentoring is on-the-job process. It helps a person practice the skills learned, enhance the skills, and learn new skills to be future ready. Hence, coaching is a short-term relationship whereas mentoring is a long-term. Coaching is always task oriented whereas mentoring is relationship oriented. It is all about reaching a stage where the mentor can easily share the real issues influencing the trainee. On the other hand, coaching can be implemented immediately on any particular topic. This course will help you acknowledge the difference between coaching and mentoring and make you learn when to use them.

• List the differences between coaching and mentoring 

• Identify the requirements that are suitable for coaching and mentoring

These days, organizations are making the most of available tools to locate, screen, and attract the most qualified candidates available. The recruiting process has been enhanced, streamlined, and accelerated by technology, behavioral science, pre-employment assessments, and social media. The key is to know how to position your business to attract the best talent pool using social recruiting. Using social media to present your organization dynamically, positively, and effectively to your audiences of active or potential applicants is also vital. It is important to recognize the candidates who have the right competencies and cultural fit to your organization is another skill worth developing. We’ll look at ways that you can establish your company as an employer of choice, use social media to locate and draw the right applicants for recruitment, and assess cultural fit to guarantee the best possible talent choices.

• Become an employer of choice   

• Maximizing your company’s social media reach   

• Evaluate if a candidate is a cultural fit for your organization

In the previous lessons, you have learned the four skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management to increase your EQ and strengthen your ability to manage yourself and influence others. Boosting your emotional intelligence will leverage your existing skills, IQ, personality, education, and experience even more. This should align with the benefits of increasing your EQ as a leader in terms of how they deal with their people and increase their leadership skills. Consider that you may have the best plan and strategy, but it will not matter unless you communicate this strategy to your team, persuade them to work on it, listen to their inputs, and guide them through the hurdles. You will be able to do this through an exhibition of strong EQ. In this lesson, we will outline some strategies, exercises, and ideas you can use to become an emotionally intelligent leader. You need people skills to execute and succeed in your plan. Developing your EQ will supercharge your leadership arsenal.

• Apply strategies that will help you become self-aware 

• Practice self-management techniques 

• List the methods to execute social awareness 

• State the techniques to exhibit relationship management

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

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

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

Studies have shown that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. In a survey of customer retention, 44% of companies said that they focus their efforts on acquiring new customers, but only 18% surveyed focus on retaining existing customers. Another survey revealed that companies who increase their customer retention rates by 5%, increase their profits by at least 25% and often more. 

These statistics make it clear that loyal customers help drive a company’s growth and profitability. The key to keeping your customers satisfied and loyal to your organization is excellent customer service.   

In this lesson, you will learn how to build relationships of trust and appreciation.

• Recognize the value of customer service 

• Serve external customers 

• Serve internal customers

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

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?