Essential Skills of Leadership™ helps experienced managers, new managers and aspiring managers refocus on the basics: the skills necessary to manage individuals while also leading the team.

To encourage, inspire and motivate team members, managers must have good relationships with employees. Part of this comes knowing how to deal with employees in a positive way that maintains and enhances their self-esteem. Managers must also create a team atmosphere by empowering team members, allowing them to participate in setting goals, solving problems and making decisions when possible. Managers who achieve this retain their team members, and their teams are more productive.

Essential Skills of Leadership teaches managers contemporary techniques for effective leadership, thereby improving their performance and increasing the productivity of both the team and the organization. Throughout the seminar, managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. They leave with valuable implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

The Delegating program provides team leaders and managers with the tools necessary to develop messages that communicate the “what” and the “why” of every delegated task. Managers must focus on ensuring that an individual understands what is required for the project, which helps facilitate a successful result: The work is done correctly, and the individual gains a new experience that increases his/her confidence and responsibility.

Because of the pressures that accompany senior management, employees must use meeting time wisely, focusing on providing information that will help the senior manager effectively solve problems and make critical decisions for the department and the company. Moreover, the ability of first-line managers to effectively communicate up the line affects team member retention, overall productivity and even profitability.

A manager must represent the team’s efforts and challenges appropriately, so issues and problems can be addressed while corrective action can still be taken. An important part of this type of communication is mutual agreement about what must be done, why it’s important and when it will be accomplished. The Communicating Up program helps managers achieve that fundamental agreement.

Managing complaints well requires a proven process that builds on listening and problem-solving skills. Most employees don’t enjoy complaining to their managers, so supervisors, team leaders and managers must keep in mind that there’s a good chance the complaint is legitimate and requires resolution or intervention.

The Vital Learning Managing Complaints™ program provides supervisors, team leaders and managers with a proven process and individual skills to effectively deal with employee complaints in a way that supports employee and team goals. This course makes clear that leaders need to listen to employee complaints and remain nonjudgmental, which is critical because what appears to be a minor issue to the team leader may be a major problem to the employee.

The Vital Learning Resolving Conflicts™ program equips supervisors, team leaders and managers with the tools to recognize conflict and handle it quickly and effectively. By understanding the signs of conflict and finding the root cause, managers can eliminate the issues and minimize the negative effects. Facing conflicts directly allows leaders to preserve the integrity of their teams and demonstrate a commitment to individual performance and growth.

Many organizations neither equip leaders to coach and develop their team members nor require them to do so. Thus, the time, money and resources invested in training and developing employees often results in little or no behavioral change or performance improvement.

The Vital Learning Developing and Coaching Others™ program teaches leaders to effectively and successfully develop and coach their team members to become better and more consistent performers. The program helps leaders learn the specifics of how they can effectively influence the learning process and hold “coaching moments” with team members to change undesired behavior and improve productivity and performance.

Inspiring employees to perform their best requires a different approach for each employee. Some employees are self-motivated, while others require quite a bit of motivation from their supervisors, team leaders or managers. Good leaders know how to identify what motivates each team member and how much motivation each team member needs.

The Vital Learning Motivating Team Members™ program teaches leaders what motivation is and how it works to inspire employees to do their best. It provides insight into how motivation is different for each team member and helps leaders understand what they can do to create a work environment that will motivate team members.