Level Up Your People Management Skills

Managers play a critical and often under-supported role in organizations. Many managers realize they must shift from doing work to getting work done through others. But they are not solely responsible for growing and developing people. Conflicts between their boss’s expectations and their people’s needs are common. They juggle extra work that challenges their ability to provide direction and feedback to others. Popular trends in team-based work and becoming Agile confuse how managers engage. Showing up as clear, connected, and curious as a manager in a fast-changing world requires new skills and techniques.

Managers hear they should be coaches for their people. But front-line managers and supervisors cannot ignore their role in evaluating work performance. The key to creating accountability starts with setting and clarifying expectations. Leaders at all levels struggle to give direction and respond well to their people’s reactions. Managers get good at alignment conversations that bring out people’s concerns and mobilize commitment. They can use the same skills to manage up and collaborate with peers to create networks of support. Burnout does not have to be part of the manager’s job.

The manager role has evolved more in the past three years than in the previous twenty. Learning to use authority well brings up insecurities around power and relationships with others. Great managers recognize that their role comes with greater control and influence and use it to create positive change. They realize that being successful as a manager is not as simple as “hire great people and trust them.” Effective managers hold their people and themselves accountable for delivering the right results in the right way.

Managing Amazing People brings critical tools, techniques, skills, and ideas from professional coaching, brain-based training, neuroscience, leadership, change management, and much more to help front-line managers and supervisors succeed.

What to Expect

We take training and learning seriously. We respect the investment of both time and money that you are making to advance your skills. As such, we use the latest training approaches and techniques. We also bring energy and fun to ensure you have the best possible experience and learn as much as possible. In this course, you can expect:

• Brain-friendly training. We design our classes to dramatically increase learning and retention. This is true even for our virtual classes! We know some people have had bad experiences with virtual training – just watching piles of videos or listening as people click through slides. In all of our classes, we work through in-depth exercises throughout the course in small groups.
• A focus on your real-world situations. You’ll work with others on real challenges you’re facing in your organization.
• Playfulness and fun! This material is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to dull. Play helps to create a safer space to learn, and laughter increases engagement and retention.
• Two instructors. Managing Amazing People is co-taught by two instructors, each with their own experiences and perspectives. The combination leads to additional depth and insights, as well as real-time lessons around partnership and mutual support. Even for virtual classes, we provide a live, instructor-led, and interactive learning experience.
• A color, in-depth course workbook and materials shipped to you. We have many students reach out to thank us for something “real” in a virtual world.

Learning Objectives

• Learn the increasing scope of leadership roles and how to clarify your role with your boss and your people
• Explain the challenges that traditional management approaches face and why a different approach is needed for better results
• Learn how to use power and influence to provide direction and create patterns of collaboration and productivity
• Practice setting and clarifying expectations and addressing accusations of micromanagement
• Apply a technique for receiving feedback (including complaints and escalations) to improve your leadership behavior
• Learn how to build effective working relationships without delving into people’s private lives
• Dispel common leadership myths to address real people management challenges
• Explore supporting people through change efforts, addressing change fatigue, and influencing change sponsors
• Apply an approach to build networks of mutual support with peers and stakeholders
• Practice an approach to coach, provide feedback, and work through challenges while mentoring someone who is not like you
• Experience how to be clear, connected, and curious as a leader during challenging conversations
• Explore “no win” situations and systems you can’t change
• Demonstrate how to deal with underperformance and be clear when it may lead to firing someone
• Establish and refine a leadership vision to apply when you return to work.

Who Should Attend

• Front-line managers and supervisors
• Leads who are moving into management roles
• Leaders responsible for helping managers succeed

Details

Length: Four half-days + a 2-hour online follow-up session thirty days later

Location: Virtual, via Zoom with Miro for interactive exercises

Level: Any degree of experience with people management

Prerequisites

Experience being a front-line manager/supervisor with direct reports or a team/functional lead responsible for mentoring others to deliver results. If you have any questions regarding your experience and qualification to take the course, ask!

Course Facilitators

Managing Amazing People is co-trained by Allison Pollard and Paul Tevis from Helping Improve

Allison Pollard

Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture. Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences.

Paul Tevis

Paul Tevis is an executive coach, organizational effectiveness consultant, and trainer. As a coach, he supports CEOs, COOs, CTOs, VPs, Directors, and managers to achieve bottom-line results. He focuses on the connection between their leadership behaviors, their teams’ commitment & engagement, and the results they are (or aren’t) getting. As a consultant, Paul advises senior leaders of growing companies to deal with the human challenges that growth brings. Whatever they’ve been doing has contributed to their success to this point – and it may be keeping them from reaching their next goal. As a trainer, he helps organizations develop new skills to solve pressing problems through interactive workshops and training. He leads in-person and live, online classes in leadership, change management, innovation & prototyping, and Agile & Lean product development.

Paul is an Organization & Relationship Systems Certified Coach (ORSCC), a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner, and the holder of numerous Lean/Agile certifications. He is also an experienced improviser and a member of the Applied Improvisation Network, a worldwide organization devoted to bringing the collaborative tenets of theatrical improvisation from the performance stage to the larger world. He frequently presents at local and international conferences, including QCon and the Agile Alliance’s Agile20xx conferences.

Cancellations and Transfers

Please email us to request a transfer or to cancel. Refunds will be provided with 30 days notice of cancellation. One-time transfer to a future class will be provided with 14 days notice, for free. Transfers requests with less than 14 days of notice or additional transfers (after the first transfer), will incur a $250 fee.