Essential critical thinking, business leadership & communications skills training for career success.

 Receive Advanced Management Training In 10 Key Areas Including:

• Business Planning & Management Strategies
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Project Management Training
• Employee Leadership & Management Communications
• Personal Productivity & Stress Management Strategies
• Business Writing Skills
• Verbal Presentation Training
• Financial Analysis & Budgeting Skills

ABOUT THE PROGRAMEffective written and verbal communications skills, sound strategic thinking and project execution skills are just three core competencies for long-term management success. Our new 5-day Certificate in Business Skills for Managers curriculum provides essential training in 10 key management competency areas, to help you achieve excellence in your position as manager and change leader.

 

If you are a professional manager who wants to advance your career through sound learning and skills development, the Certificate in Business Skills is the ideal program for your career advancement to the most senior-level positions in your organization.

In just 10 days of study, hone your skills & competencies in:

• Business Management & Leadership
• Project Management
• Business Writing
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Presentation Skills
• Budgeting & Financial Reporting

PROGRAM TAKE-AWAYSYour 5-day Certificate program covers a wide-spectrum of the latest management strategies and leadership tools including:

 

1. How to Communicate persuasively in your business writing and verbal presentations
2. Critical thinking, innovation and problem solving techniques to tackle any business challenge
3. Using Project management frameworks for all of your assignments
4. Effective leadership and teambuilding strategies
5. Preparing budgets and financial analysis to support your business decisions
6. Productivity management and stress management techniques
7. Coaching, managing and motivating your staff
8. How to foster relationships with senior management, clients and cross-functionally
9. How to apply your course learnings to create your own long term management development plan
10. Management Communications

PROGRAM CONTENT
Business Management Strategies
Strategic Behaviours of Top Performing Managers

Module 1

• Solving complex problems
• Becoming an invaluable part of your organization’s operations
• Identifying and targeting growth opportunities
• Managing upwards, sideways and downwards

Moving Your Strategic Ideas and Projects Forward

• How to get your projects and ideas approved
• How to get the Clientship© relationship working for your business

How to Control Problems and Head Them Off

• The Manager’s role in anticipating problems
• How to structure process for metered success: The “Atom” of Work
• 6 ways you may be sabotaging your internal and external relationships

Module 2
Critical Thinking, Innovation & Problem Solving Skills
Managing High Performance Team Problem-Solving

• Structured problem-solving and critical decision making techniques
• Framing and Reframing a problem to create new solution possibilities
• Using questions to open-up new possibilities
• Individual and team problem-solving
• The PDSA cycle – Plan Do Study Act

Creating and Managing Innovation

• Why managers need to innovate to succeed
• Introduction to classic approaches to managing innovation

Module 3
Management Communications Skills
Which Communications Styles Improve Employee Performance?

• The best-kept secrets of successful communicators
• The four types of employees: which communications styles work best

Directing the Actions of Others

• When “telling” is appropriate
• When “selling” is appropriate
• When “mentoring” is appropriate
• When “entrusting” is appropriate

Communicating with Tact & Diplomacy

• Setting clear goals and expectations
• Providing performance feedback using the CLEAR technique

Module 4
Taking Control of Your Stress
Productivity Building by De-Stressing Your Workload

• “Productivity” management from six levels
• Understanding your stress ‘trigger points’
• Workload management tips
• Managing home and work demands
• Resisting perfectionism
• Delegating effectively

Relaxation Techniques and Personal Wellbeing Strategies

• Effective relaxation techniques that you can use every day
• Committing to a balanced physical and mental state – setting goals

Module 5:
Leadership & Teambuilding Skills in Action
Steps to Leading High-Performance, High-Functioning Departments

• Components of effective leadership?
• Understanding ‘Leadership’ vs. ‘Management’
• Assessing your current level of leadership skill
• Methods for improving leadership style

Coaching, Motivating & Energizing Your Business Teams

• Designing and implementing coaching strategies to help team members function effectively
• Creating trust, a shared vision, meaningful goals and objectives
• How to acknowledge effort and progress
• Preparing your team to manage change

Module 6:
Organizational Budgeting & Finance Skills
Key Steps in Budget Planning & Budget Preparation

• The major advantages of budgeting for an organization
• Types of Budgets and budget periods
• The role of a budgeting committee

Preparing Master Budgets, Capital Budgets Operating Budgets & Financial Budgets

• The principal steps required to prepare a Master budget
• Flexible budgets and standards costs for control
• Conducting Variance analysis
• Budgeting for revenue, cost and expenses

Budgeting To Support Business Cases

• How to use budgets and variance reports to support your business decisions

Module 7
Project Management Skills For Success

• Understanding project success
• Integrating business and project objectives
• Applying a consistent project management
• framework
• Scheduling methods-the right one for your project

8 Key Elements for Project Success

• Project planning-avoid the race to the finish line!
• How to involve the team in the project plan
• Techniques for estimating
• Risk management planning
• Essentials of project communication
• Dealing with change management
• Critical documentation
• Closing the project

Module 8
Effective Business Writing Skills
Excelling in 5 Unique Business Writing Styles

• Formal business correspondence
• Sales and marketing communications
• E-mail correspondence
• Internal staff memos and office communications
• Business presentations

Setting Clear Objectives in Your Writing

• Sizing up and guiding your audience
• Clarifying your objective(s)

Foundations for Better Business Writing

• Effective Grammar and logical writing practices
• Being Active, not Passive
• Being Concise, not Cumbersome
• Punctuation Punch-Up: how to use Commas,
• Colons, Semi-Colons and Dashes in your writing

Module 9
Verbal Presentation Skills Training
Presenting to Executives & Senior Managers

• How executives make decisions
• What executives expect from a presentation
• The added value you must provide

Your Presentation Strategy

• Achieving authority, intention, persuasiveness and control
• Why the successful presentation is not about you
• Defining target outcomes for each presentation
• How to organize your thoughts in half the time, and be twice as effective

Responding to Presentation Challenges

• How effective managers resolve disagreements
• Curiosity: your secret weapon
• How to use structured conversations
• The power of summarizing and probing

Module 10
Putting It All Together
Clarifying New Management Opportunities Ahead

• What new ideas have you gained?
• What new possibilities do you see for yourself and for your organization?

Creating a New Value Map

• What is most important for your business?
• Which must you implement right away?
• What can wait?
• What results do you need to see?

Putting Business Management in Action

• Identify supports and barriers to get to your goals
• Creating a personal action plan
• Outline a Critical Path to meet your objectives

TRAINING MODULES OVERVIEW Management Strategies
Professional managers today require a complete skill-set in critical thinking, business management, leadership & communications. This opening session sets the stage for developing new management skill-sets in these areas.

1. Business

2. Critical Thinking, Innovation & Problem Solving Skills
Managers must be able to examine problems and opportunities critically, and implement innovative solutions. This session explores processes for problem solving and driving breakthrough ideas.

3. Management Communications Skills
Openly communicating with staff to achieve desired results is an essential requirement for career mobility. This session examines new ways to coach, collaborate, influence, and discipline staff for results.

4. Taking Control of Your Stress
Managers must control competing priorities, meet performance goals and deal with constraints of time and resources. This session provides proven tools for controlling stress associated with busy workloads and life demands.

5. Leadership & Teambuilding Skills in Action
Leadership skills are consistently rated as the most important factor in career success. This session advances your knowledge in leadership, coaching and team dynamics.

6. Organizational Budgeting Skills
Managers are responsible for financial performance and must have a clear working knowledge of budget preparation. This session will increase your skills and confidence in developing Master Budgets and other key financial reports.

7. Project Management Skills
With increasing workloads, Project management has become an essential skill competency for leaders. This session develops your project management skills in 8 key areas of project management.

8. Effective Business Writing Skills
Professional management positions require above-average writing skills. This session provides guidelines to sharpen and refine your writing style, whether for internal briefings, client materials or even email correspondence.

9. Verbal Presentation Skills
Strong presentations skills are key in everyday situations. Great presenters are not born. This session explores the dynamics of effective presentations, with emphasis on presenting to senior managers and executive committees

10. Putting It All Together
The final session is an action-learning module, allowing each participant to set business-specific goals and personal action plans they will tackle upon return to the office.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The 10 Module Certificate in Business Skills curriculum is recommended to those Managers with a minimum of 2 years of direct employee management experience including:

• General Managers & Business Managers
• Division Managers
• Training, HR & Industrial Relations Specialists
• Business Directors
• Project Managers, Team Leaders and Supervisors
• Branch & Senior Managers
• Public Sector Managers
• Development Managers
• Regional, National & International Managers