Vital Learning Leadership Essentials

View Upcoming Vital Learning Essentials Courses

As a manager and team leader, your success is measured by the success and productivity of your team members. Getting your team to perform at a high level is easy, as long as you have the right leadership development courses.

Your ability to inspire, empower and motivate your team members is critical to their development. Helping your team members reach their potential creates a culture of success and helps maintain a high level of productivity and morale. This is easily accomplished with leadership training.

The Vital Learning Essential Skills Of Leadership training course is the preliminary step in developing successful supervisors, team leaders and managers. Essential Skills Of Leadership™ training teaches managers and team leaders contemporary techniques for effective leadership, which improves their performance and increases the productivity of both the team and the organization.

Essential Skills of Leadership

The Essential Skills of Leadership will give you the four foundational skills for effective leadership: focusing on behaviors and facts (not attitudes or opinions), encouraging team member participation, maintaining team member self-esteem, and running effective meetings.

Skill Points:

Achieve specific leadership tasks by deploying a problem-solving discussion method to lead meetings and empower others.
Acknowledge contributions, results and accomplishments to enhance self-esteem.
Base discussions about performance and work habits on behavior rather than on personalities and attitudes.
Involve team members in goal setting, problem-solving and decision-making.
Deploy meeting management skills to meet the goals of the meeting in the available time.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Essential Skills of Communicating

In this course participants will learn to utilize an empowering and dynamic communication process to increase team members' motivation and commitment, construct and express clear and concise messages in both written and spoken communication, and deliver messages that address the interests of the listener. Essential Skills of Communicating also offers participants a chance to make verbal/nonverbal communication congruent to reinforce the intent of messages. Using Reflecting, Probing, Supporting, and Advising, participants will learn how to demonstrate active listening to others.

Skill Points

Craft clear and concise messages
Deliver messages designed for the team member
Manage nonverbal behaviors
Listen to communicate

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Coaching Job Skills

The team’s performance is crucial to the success of the department and of the organization, but a team can’t be successful if each member hasn’t been coached and developed as a contributing part of the team. The secret to a flourishing team is coaching both the team and individual team members.

A manager’s coaching skills have a direct effect on team performance and business results. Managers who care enough to help and train their team members elicit cooperation, encourage team member confidence, create more successful business units and improve the organization’s success. The Vital Learning Coaching Job Skills™ program teaches team leaders and managers how to successfully coach team members in their jobs, as well as how to widen the breadth of team members’ skill sets. Coaching isn’t just showing employees how to do something; it involves observing, analyzing, demonstrating and providing feedback to ensure a team member’s success and skill development. Coaching is a proactive process of developing relationships with team members — relationships that ultimately can build the trust and respect that create the foundation of thriving, successful organizations. Coaching Job Skills teaches managers a process of observation, analysis and communication to help them learn how to effectively coach team members.

The program teaches managers how to identify performance problems, which performance problems can be resolved by coaching and how to solve performance problems. By carefully planning one-on-one discussions, managers can support and improve each team member’s commitment to achieving results. Throughout the course, managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Improving Work Habits

You have a talented team, and you focus a significant amount of time and energy on helping them address and resolve performance issues. But, there is a difference between job performance and work habits. Effective managers and leaders can identify opportunities for team members to improve work habits and help their team reach the next level.

Employees with good work habits are more productive and attentive to quality, avoiding bad tendencies like poor communication. Learning how to distinguish between job performance and work habits, as well as honing your ability to coach and develop others regarding their work habits, improves employee productivity.

The Vital Learning Improving Work Habits™ course provides supervisors, team leaders and managers with the tools necessary to recognize and address poor work habits. The course helps managers and team leaders understand the importance of focusing on negative behaviors as well as earning team members’ recognition of the problem and their commitment to changing their habits. Using the tools and skills learned in the course, managers and team leaders are able to improve employee productivity and address issues before they develop into disciplinary problems that affect everyone on the team.

Learn to:

Distinguish between performance and work habits
Recognize poor work habits
Effectively develop and coach others to improve work habits

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Effective Discipline

Disciplining your team members is a difficult but necessary process to help ensure that the goals and actions of your team members are aligned. Effective discipline has the potential to be a positive learning experience for both you and your team members if this aspect of employee performance management is carried out the right way.

Utilizing strong coaching skills is critical when disciplining your team members. Learning how to use effective discipline as a teaching opportunity and deliver constructive, negative feedback in a way that encourages team members to change without demeaning them is paramount to the success of your team.

The Vital Learning Effective Discipline™ course provides supervisors, team leaders and managers with the interpersonal performance training necessary to dramatically reduce employees’ problem behaviors. Involving team members in performance discussions and winning their commitment to behavioral change enables managers and team leaders to turn a potentially negative interaction into a positive developmental step. Learn to:

Encourage self-discipline
Deliver disciplinary actions to team members
Use discipline as a positive growth experience

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Providing Performance Feedback

Most employees want feedback about their performance. Even those who constantly self-evaluate their performance can’t improve unless a team leader or manager takes the time to point out employee strengths and weaknesses. Because leaders are fully aware of a team member’s performance level, they are responsible for establishing a process that will help improve performance and maintain good team relations. Leaders must provide team members with performance feedback, whether it’s given during a formal annual review or informally during one-on-one meetings.

An effective, successful performance feedback process must be collaborative so that both the leader and the team member can view the situation objectively and agree on what areas need improvement. The final step is mutual commitment to agreed-upon changes. Properly implemented, the performance feedback process leaves employees’ self-respect, self-esteem and dignity intact.

The Vital Learning Providing Performance Feedback™ program equips managers with a fair and fact-based collaborative model for feedback sessions that reduces the discomfort and improves the payoff from these challenging discussions, which part of every manager’s role. Because providing performance feedback is collaborative, team members intuitively agree to the process and devote their full commitment to its success.

Providing Performance Feedback provides managers and team leaders with the tools necessary to implement a systematic, fact-based approach to performance improvement through quality feedback. With its focus on logical processes and reasonable commitments, Providing Performance Feedback can help even experienced managers evaluate and improve performance more effectively. Using the Vital Learning’s process, managers can demonstrate their commitment to an open and consistent performance improvement process.

Throughout the course, supervisors, team leaders and managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Resolving Conflicts

Diverse work teams promote creativity and ideas, which can bring exceptional outcomes. They can also foster conflict when individuals bring to the table different personalities and work styles. Managing those differences quickly and effectively can mean the difference between a minor “speed bump” and a major roadblock, which can diminish the morale and productivity of one team member or the entire team.

Workplace conflicts are unavoidable; the key is to control and reduce their effect on business. By keeping the team focused on performance and minimizing the effects of inevitable conflicts, supervisors, team leaders and managers can greatly improve their team’s productivity and effectiveness. 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. Resolving Conflicts helps managers develop skills to identify the source of team member conflicts. Using effective communication and management techniques, managers can help individuals see the situation from another point of view and move beyond the conflict. Managers will also learn about the positive and negative aspects of conflict and how some conflict can be beneficial. Throughout the course, supervisors, team leaders and managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Managing Complaints

Managing complaints is not at the top of any manager’s list of favorites. It’s easy to write off a complaint as a whining employee or someone who just likes to complain. In reality, most employees don’t enjoy complaining, so if they approach a manager or team leader with a complaint, it’s likely a legitimate problem. Leaders need to keep an open mind when it comes to managing complaints. After all, one complaint may be something small, but another could be something that affects the entire company — like a whistleblower reporting illegal conduct or activities. Knowing how to listen to and resolve complaints is a critical skill for every supervisor, manager and team leader to possess. Ignoring complaints won’t make them disappear, and it could negatively affect the productivity and morale of an employee or the entire team.

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 best leaders are those with an open-door policy for complaints. They follow a specific methodology for finding the root cause of an issue, and they apply the appropriate problem-solving technique. Using this approach, these skilled leaders handle issues before they snowball and require much more time and effort to resolve. A leader’s inability to effectively solve problems and resolve complaints can limit the success of an entire organization. With its focus on listening and problem solving, Managing Complaints can help even experienced managers become more comfortable hanging an “always open” sign on their office doors.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Supporting Change

Change is an ever-present and important part of business today. Whether the change is to streamline the Company’s structure and processes, meet financial goals, or expand business lines, organizations that fail to change find competing and surviving in today’s marketplace increasingly difficult. Yet it can be difficult to keep employees focused on performance with all the distractions caused by change initiatives. Managers must effectively handle the emotions, fear and anxiety that accompany change and encourage their teams to support the company’s new initiatives.

No matter what the change — whether it’s new procedures, corporate downsizing, or a merger or acquisition — humans are programmed to resist it. And yet, change is inevitable and necessary in business. The challenge for supervisors, team leaders and managers is to lead and guide their team members through change, encouraging employees to embrace change rather than resist it.

The Vital Learning Supporting Change™ program equips leaders with the tools to understand and interpret change in order to more successfully manage their teams through it. By working to support change while addressing the team’s comfort level with it, leaders can more effectively facilitate acceptance of new ways of doing things.

By understanding change, leaders can more clearly communicate it to their team members. This clear communication reduces misunderstanding and anxiety. It also helps employees accept the change initiative more quickly, thereby minimizing lost productivity and decreased performance. Supporting Change teaches leaders how to effectively communicate change and gives them an understanding of the three phases of change, strategies for supporting change with team members and ways to deal with rumors of change.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Developing Performance Goals and Standards

Managers and team leaders must continually analyze whether their teams are aligned with the organization’s goals and standards. If the team or a single team member is not performing up to the organization’s standards, then the leader’s job is to put them back on track. Devising a strategy and setting goals is easy; it’s far more difficult to establish and implement a well-defined process that aligns with the organization’s standards, goals, vision, and mission.

The management skill level of first-line managers affects team member retention, overall productivity and even profitability. The relationship between a team leader and a team member is critical to any organization’s success, and an important part of this relationship is mutual agreement about what work needs to be done, why it’s important and when it will be accomplished.

The Vital Learning Developing Performance Goals and Standards™ program encourages this mutual agreement and equips managers and team leaders with the tools they need to succeed by aligning the team’s goals and standards with expectations set forth by the organization. By focusing on logical processes and reasonable commitments, Developing Performance Goals and Standards can help even experienced managers build a more effective process for creating goals, outlining clear work standards and encouraging better job performance. By using the SMART — specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented and time-framed — approach with team members, managers demonstrate their commitment to an open and consistent performance improvement process. The SMART approach fully outlines organizational performance requirements, so team members understand these requirements and their own roles in the organization. This approach involves the following:

Defining goals, objectives and performance standards
Identifying and setting SMART performance standards Involving team members in creating individual SMART-based performance standards
Monitoring team members’ progress toward their goals during individual review meetings

Because SMART is a collaborative way to develop goals and standards, team members intuitively agree to the process and fully commit to its success, aligning themselves with the organization’s performance requirements.

Throughout the course, managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Communicating Up

As a supervisor, team leader or manager, you must become a communication expert. Your job not only requires you to communicate effectively with your team, but you also must learn to communicate effectively with your boss and other members of senior management. If you often feel like you’re not accomplishing what you need to during meetings with your boss, in your “communicating up” skills might need improvement.

Meeting with a superior requires preparation very similar to that needed when meeting with team members. Employees must take the time to plan and consider the best approach and ensure that their messages are understood clearly. The Vital Learning Communicating Up™ program teaches supervisors, team leaders and managers how to hold more successful meetings with their managers and other members of senior management, transforming these meetings into positive, productive experiences. Communicating up is not difficult, but it does require employees to empathize with their managers, as well as to understand the manager’s specific style and work challenges. 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. Communicating Up provides the tools necessary to help employees understand a senior manager’s communication style, deliver bad news with grace, communicate group or employee achievements, and maintain the manager’s attention during a meeting. With a focus on preparation and clear commitments, Communicating Up can help even experienced managers build a more effective process for communicating and collaborating within the organizational hierarchy. Throughout the course, managers review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Delegating

Managers who live by the old adage, “If you want something done right, then do it yourself,” haven’t learned a crucial part of management: effective delegation. Delegating projects and responsibilities can take some time, and it requires clear communication, but when done effectively, delegating brings a wealth of value to any team: It balances the workload and strengthens the bonds between team members.

Delegating demonstrates that a manager or team leader trusts the team member, and it encourages development of team members’ skills. It can also make team members feel like their jobs are important and meaningful to the success of the business unit. However, to achieve these results, managers and team leaders must delegate effectively.

The Vital Learning Delegating™ program teaches supervisors, team leaders and managers how to develop team members in order to strengthen their commitment to the success of the organization. A properly delegated task teaches team members accountability and responsibility, so employees feel more a part of the team and of the entire organization.

Delegating helps managers master the skills needed to effectively assign work to others. By learning to clearly communicate expectations and encourage participation and involvement, managers can use effective delegation to develop team members’ skills and abilities.

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.

Throughout the course, managers and team leaders review video presentations and case studies, participate in group discussions, practice new skills, and receive immediate feedback. The program provides them with implementation tools, a troubleshooting guide and additional resources to help them apply the skills they have learned on the job.

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

TEAM DEVELOPMENT

Motivating Team Members

Improve team management skills and motivate team members to perform at peak productivity levels by learning to assess motivational practices, develop a plan for creating a motivating work environment and build team member confidence.

Objectives:
Improve team member performance
Understand the factors that motivate team members to perform effectively
Understand how motivation varies from team member to team member
Distinguish between motivators and dissatisfiers
Learn how to create a work environment for each team member that will motivate higher performance

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Developing & Coaching Others

Improve team management skills and motivate team members to perform at peak productivity levels by learning to continuously coach, encourage learners and handle coaching moments.

Course Objectives
Ensure that training changes behavior
— Successfully motivate, direct and coach team leaders through a learning process to ensure that they transfer learning into improved on-the-job performance

Coach effectively
— Effectively handle “coaching moments” to improve team leaders’ performance on the job

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

TALENT MANAGEMENT

Hiring Winning Talent

Companies worldwide are facing the challenge of hiring winning talent and increasing employee retention. Learn to define what you’re looking for, plan and conduct interviews and make personnel selections.

Course Objectives
Establish an efficient process that will reduce the time it takes to interview and select a qualified candidate
Maximize new hires’ productivity once they join your team by ensuring that candidates are a good fit for the job
(both technical and organizational fit)
Ensure team cohesion and support for new hires by involving team members in the hiring process
Increase the retention of all new hires, and in particular reduce turnover during the first year on the job

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

Retaining Winning Talent

Companies worldwide are facing the challenge of hiring winning talent and increasing employee retention. Learn to determine the risk of attrition, identify factors which motivate team members and increase engagement and commitment of team members.

Objectives:
Describe the scope and severity of the talent shortage
Calculate the costs of attrition
Identify attrition risks that currently exist within your own team
Identify what motivates team members and how to build their commitment
Use the STAR Model to identify specific retention practices to apply with your team members
Conduct a discussion with team members to discover retention needs
Intervene when you see early warning signals exhibited by team members
Develop and implement a proactive retention action plan that will reduce unwanted turnover within your work team

Click here to see Upcoming Classes or Click here to contact your local Solutions Consultant

If you have questions about registering, please contact Carol Jones.