Online Management Training Courses Become a better manager or supervisors by developing key leadership and management skills taught at AMA seminars. Building the managerial and supervisory skills that can help you and your organization succeed starts with AMA. The state of South Carolina offers statewide training courses to public sector managers, supervisors, human resources professionals and individuals who want to increase their knowledge and skills and become more productive and effective in the workplace. Additional training may be needed depending on the roles assigned to employers or individual managers, supervisors, and workers. For example, employers, managers, and supervisors may need specific training to ensure that they can fulfill their roles in providing leadership, direction, and resources for.
Most employers recognize providing professional development opportunities is a benefit many employees expect. In fact, a 2013 survey of 4,000 randomly selected members of the Society for found 88 percent of organizations offer professional development opportunities as a benefit for employees.
However, many workers aren't satisfied. A 2014 TINYhr survey of more than 200,000 employees around the world found 66 percent of employees feel their current employer doesn't provide enough opportunities for growth or professional development.
Perhaps a lack of funding is the reason. If that's the case, here are 50 of the best (and free) professional development resources for employees:
1. Career development.
Employees are always looking for ways to shape their skills, experience and the future of their career. Provide them with classes that enable them to develop the professional skills they need to advance their careers within the workplace so they don't go looking for jobs elsewhere.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) career development courses:
Land That Promotion, Muse University
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills, Coursera
LinkedIn Learning Webinars, LinkedIn
Beyond the To Do List, iTunes
Hack Your Work Life, Muse University
The Seven Secrets of Authenticity, Udemy
Personal Branding: How to Build and Manage Your Image, Accredible
Marketing Yourself for Career Success, Udemy
The Seven Essential Steps to Getting Your Dream Career, Udemy
Professional Presence, Kaplan University
Related: Pump Up Your Team by Encouraging Employees to Visualize Their Success
2. Communications development.
Strong skills are a necessity in the workplace. A 2014 CareerBuilder survey of about 2,100 hiring managers found 56 percent of respondents desire candidates who are effective communicators.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) communications development courses:
8 Steps to Discovering and Creating Content Your Audience Will Love, Online Marketing Institute
Introduction to Public Speaking, edX
The Lede Podcast, Copyblogger
Technical Writing, New Jersey Institute of
Professional, Technical Writing, Purdue University
Writing for the Web, Class Central
Communication for Managers, Massachusetts Institute for Technology
Proposal Writing, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Corporate Communication, Saylor Academy
Being an Effective Presenter, Udemy
Related: How to Hack Your Team's Productivity
3. Technology skills development.
Technology is taking over the workforce, and employees need to be able to edit website code or effectively use Microsoft Excel. In an analysis of more than 100 million job postings by Burning Glass in 2014, it was discovered that 80 percent of middle-skill jobs require candidates to possess strong digital skills.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) technology skills development courses:
Google's Python Class, Google
Javascript, Code School
Codecademy, Codecademy
Getting Started with Google Analytics, Udemy
Intensive Introduction to Computer Science, Harvard Open Courses
Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft
Introduction to Cyber Security, FutureLearn
Excel Easy, Excel Easy
Introduction to Web Development: HTML, Udemy
Strategic Information Technology, Saylor Academy
Related: Ban Dull Meetings at Your Workplace
4. Leadership development.
Regardless of whether an employee is ready for a management position, employers need to shape every employee into a leader. In fact, Deloitte's 2015 Millennial survey of more than 7,800 from around the world found 60 percent of respondents hope to reach a senior leadership position with their current employer.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) leadership development courses:
Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices, Coursera
A Dose of Leadership, iTunes
Fundamentals of Management, Coursera
Introduction to Management, Kaplan University
What Great Bosses Know, iTunes
Managing People Who Hate Managing, American Marketing Association
Being Boss, iTunes
The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen, FutureLearn
Fundamentals of Corporate Management, Alison
Strategic Management, Open2Study
Related: 5 Standout Ways to Transform Underperformers Into Superb Employees
5. Analytical skills development.
Employers desire employees who are creative and innovative thinkers. A 2013 online survey of 318 employers by Hart Research Associates found 93 percent of respondents think the ability to think critically is more important asset than the candidate's undergraduate major.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) analytical skills development courses:
Big Data: Measuring and Predicting Human Behavior, FutureLearn
Big Data for Better Performance, Open2Study
Business Statistics, Saylor Academy
Foundations of Business Strategy, Udemy
The Analytics Edge, edX
Fundamentals of Accounting, Alison
Sets, Counting, and Probability, Harvard Open Courses
Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, Coursera
Making Sense of News, edX
Introducing Corporate Finance, OpenLearn
What are your favorite free resources for professional development? Tell us in the comments below.
Related: 5 Easy Ways to Keep Top Performers Happy
In This Article
The Challenge of Coaching Difficult Employees
Where to Start With Your Difficult Employee
Creating a Positive Environment For Your Coaching Session
Video: 7 Steps for Coaching Difficult Employees
Survey: Coaching Employees
Back to Top
The Challenge of Coaching Difficult Employees
Management comes with many challenges that can test the most seasoned business professional.
One of the most difficult and frustrating challenges for any manager, however, is working with difficult employees.
Working with difficult employees is an emotional tug-of-war experience that is stressful for the manager and employee alike.
Often, by the time the manager is able to rectify the situation through voluntary or involuntary termination of the employee, the damage to office morale and overall productivity is great. The good news is that managers do have an alternative they can use to get a better result from their difficult employees.
By following a 7 step, coaching model, managers can build an effective working relationship with their difficult employees and motivate them to improve their performance. The goal of this model is to return the employee to productivity—not punish the employee or begin dismissal procedures. It is not disciplinary.
Coaching an employee to improve his or her performance can be productive or destructive — it mostly depends on how the coaching is done. Click To TweetThere's a business case I can make for not always approaching performance improvement in a disciplinary fashion. Truthfully, when you use a productive coaching process to improve employee performance, you will also improve workplace motivation.
Back to Top
Where to Start With Your Difficult Employee
Unless you are dealing with a fireable offense or other special circumstance, your first interaction with your difficult employee should be coaching.
Here's why this is true:
The truth is that many 'problem employees' can become your 'model employees' when you follow sound coaching processes.
This is especially true if your employee has the skills OR the potential to do the job AND if they ultimately want to succeed. By demonstrating to this employee that your first approach is to work with them in a productive manner (rather than punish them), you're much more likely to gain their cooperation to improve their performance.
You'll also positively affect the motivation of the rest of your team as they watch you closely to see how you interact with this employee. They'll feel much better about you as their manager if you handle this situation without abusing your power in anyway. After all, from their perspectives, in the future they could be in the same position with you as this employee.
Back to Top
Creating a Positive Environment For Your Coaching Session
Using a positive coaching process to improve poor performance can improve morale. Click To TweetA 'how-to discussion' on each of the 7 steps of this coaching model follows:
1.Create A Positive Tone For The Coaching Meeting
For a coaching session to be successful, it must begin positively. Several activities are important for this step. First, creating a cordial but business tone is important. This can be achieved by coaching the employee in private. This follows the management principle of praising in public and correcting in private. Few, if any, employees enjoy being verbally reprimanded in front of their peers.
Second, the manager needs to explain the purpose of the meeting in a friendly and non-accusatory manner. Avoiding inflammatory words is critical! Too often, coaching sessions are derailed by the manager's poor choice of words in opening the meeting.
2. Describe Undesirable Employee Behavior In Factual But Neutral Terms
To keep a coaching session productive, a manager must describe the undesirable employee behavior in specific terms that do not further inflame the situation. The manager who tells her employee that he has a bad attitude, is moody, and is just generally unpleasant will only make the existing working situation worse. The better approach is to describe what a 'bad attitude' looks like in neutral terms.
Does the employee not return phone calls, miss deadlines, not show up at regularly scheduled meetings, produce inaccurate work, refuse to help co-workers, etc. All of these other descriptors of a 'bad attitude' are more specific and less judgmental. Including some specific examples of undesirable behavior that the manager has personally observed herself is important for the credibility of the meeting. Voicing only what everyone else has told the manager and not what she has observed herself is less effective for coaching difficult employees.
Finally, the manager must have accurate and specific examples of the employee's performance issues for discussion purposes. A manager who engages a difficult employee in a coaching session with 'descriptions of undesirable behavior' that are erroneous and easily refuted will only make the situation worse.
3. Obtain Agreement From Employee That A Problem Exists
Once the manager has provided data to support her position about the employee's performance gap, she will need to work with the employee to get him to agree that an issue exists. This often occurs when the manager reinforces her descriptions of the undesirable behavior in factual and neutral terms. (It is difficult for an employee to continue to refute specific instances of not returning telephone calls, missed deadlines, missed meetings, etc.)
Once the manager and employee agree that a problem exists, the manager is ready to work with the employee on the next step of this model.
Employees will remember their coaching session. Did they feel that it was fair? Or, did they feel like they were kicked when they were down? Click To Tweet4. Determine Reasons For Employee Performance Gaps
Asking the employee to discuss the reasons for his performance gaps will provide valuable information to the manager. For the manager, this step will point out any actions that the manager may need to take, herself, to address relevant organizational issues impacting the employee. These managerial actions might involve other team members, organizational resources, or other factors. For the employee, it begins the groundwork for getting him to take responsibility for improving his actions.
To facilitate this step, the manager will need to use active listening skills, ask open-ended questions, and paraphrase what the employee communicates. This will begin a healthy two-way communication with the difficult employee.
5. Require Employee To Help Own The Solution
The manager must avoid the urge to tell the employee what he must do to solve his performance issues. Instead, she should engage him in 'owning the solution' for his performance issues. She can use an open-ended questioning approach to coach the employee to find his own solution.
It is important that she not criticize or make judgmental statements about any solutions the employee suggests. Instead, through a series of guided questions and paraphrasing, she can help him find a solution. Once this has occurred, the manager can add other elements to the solution to make it viable for what she needs from this employee.
The important point of this step is that the employee needs to have joint ownership with his manager in coming up with the solution.
6. Use WIIFM To Motivate Employee To Act Responsibly
The acronym WIIFM stands for What's In It For Me. Appealing to an employee's WIIFM is a powerful motivation tool. The manager should use this opportunity to discuss positive outcomes for the employee by appealing to what he values. For example, if the employee values career growth, the manager might explain to the employee that improving his performance will allow him to be more competitive for other positions in the unit or company.
7. Summarize Meeting And Define Next Steps
In this last step, the manager summarizes the meeting and the agreements she and her employee have reached. She also defines key actions and time frames that are necessary for the employee to improve his performance. Finally, she outlines her plan to follow up with her employee to assist him in his improvement efforts. Like the first step, it is important that the manager end the meeting on a positive tone.
The 7-step coaching model consists of a private meeting between the manager and the employee. Its success depends on the manager's ability to communicate effectively and facilitate employee engagement.
Through active listening and facilitation, describing behavior in factual but neutral terms, and appealing to the values of the employee, a manager can begin the process of establishing a relationship of trust with her difficult employee. While this model may not work for all situations, it can be useful when coaching—not corrective action—is desired.
When you coach an employee what he or she will most remember about the discussion is how you made them feel. Click To TweetEmployee Training Manager Software
Back to Top
Employee Training Manager Professional Crack Windows 10
Most employers recognize providing professional development opportunities is a benefit many employees expect. In fact, a 2013 survey of 4,000 randomly selected members of the Society for found 88 percent of organizations offer professional development opportunities as a benefit for employees.
However, many workers aren't satisfied. A 2014 TINYhr survey of more than 200,000 employees around the world found 66 percent of employees feel their current employer doesn't provide enough opportunities for growth or professional development.
Perhaps a lack of funding is the reason. If that's the case, here are 50 of the best (and free) professional development resources for employees:
1. Career development.
Employees are always looking for ways to shape their skills, experience and the future of their career. Provide them with classes that enable them to develop the professional skills they need to advance their careers within the workplace so they don't go looking for jobs elsewhere.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) career development courses:
Land That Promotion, Muse University
Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills, Coursera
LinkedIn Learning Webinars, LinkedIn
Beyond the To Do List, iTunes
Hack Your Work Life, Muse University
The Seven Secrets of Authenticity, Udemy
Personal Branding: How to Build and Manage Your Image, Accredible
Marketing Yourself for Career Success, Udemy
The Seven Essential Steps to Getting Your Dream Career, Udemy
Professional Presence, Kaplan University
Related: Pump Up Your Team by Encouraging Employees to Visualize Their Success
2. Communications development.
Strong skills are a necessity in the workplace. A 2014 CareerBuilder survey of about 2,100 hiring managers found 56 percent of respondents desire candidates who are effective communicators.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) communications development courses:
8 Steps to Discovering and Creating Content Your Audience Will Love, Online Marketing Institute
Introduction to Public Speaking, edX
The Lede Podcast, Copyblogger
Technical Writing, New Jersey Institute of
Professional, Technical Writing, Purdue University
Writing for the Web, Class Central
Communication for Managers, Massachusetts Institute for Technology
Proposal Writing, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Corporate Communication, Saylor Academy
Being an Effective Presenter, Udemy
Related: How to Hack Your Team's Productivity
3. Technology skills development.
Technology is taking over the workforce, and employees need to be able to edit website code or effectively use Microsoft Excel. In an analysis of more than 100 million job postings by Burning Glass in 2014, it was discovered that 80 percent of middle-skill jobs require candidates to possess strong digital skills.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) technology skills development courses:
Google's Python Class, Google
Javascript, Code School
Codecademy, Codecademy
Getting Started with Google Analytics, Udemy
Intensive Introduction to Computer Science, Harvard Open Courses
Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft
Introduction to Cyber Security, FutureLearn
Excel Easy, Excel Easy
Introduction to Web Development: HTML, Udemy
Strategic Information Technology, Saylor Academy
Related: Ban Dull Meetings at Your Workplace
4. Leadership development.
Regardless of whether an employee is ready for a management position, employers need to shape every employee into a leader. In fact, Deloitte's 2015 Millennial survey of more than 7,800 from around the world found 60 percent of respondents hope to reach a senior leadership position with their current employer.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) leadership development courses:
Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices, Coursera
A Dose of Leadership, iTunes
Fundamentals of Management, Coursera
Introduction to Management, Kaplan University
What Great Bosses Know, iTunes
Managing People Who Hate Managing, American Marketing Association
Being Boss, iTunes
The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen, FutureLearn
Fundamentals of Corporate Management, Alison
Strategic Management, Open2Study
Related: 5 Standout Ways to Transform Underperformers Into Superb Employees
5. Analytical skills development.
Employers desire employees who are creative and innovative thinkers. A 2013 online survey of 318 employers by Hart Research Associates found 93 percent of respondents think the ability to think critically is more important asset than the candidate's undergraduate major.
Here's a roundup of the best (and free) analytical skills development courses:
Big Data: Measuring and Predicting Human Behavior, FutureLearn
Big Data for Better Performance, Open2Study
Business Statistics, Saylor Academy
Foundations of Business Strategy, Udemy
The Analytics Edge, edX
Fundamentals of Accounting, Alison
Sets, Counting, and Probability, Harvard Open Courses
Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, Coursera
Making Sense of News, edX
Introducing Corporate Finance, OpenLearn
What are your favorite free resources for professional development? Tell us in the comments below.
Related: 5 Easy Ways to Keep Top Performers Happy
In This Article
The Challenge of Coaching Difficult Employees
Where to Start With Your Difficult Employee
Creating a Positive Environment For Your Coaching Session
Video: 7 Steps for Coaching Difficult Employees
Survey: Coaching Employees
Back to Top
The Challenge of Coaching Difficult Employees
Management comes with many challenges that can test the most seasoned business professional.
One of the most difficult and frustrating challenges for any manager, however, is working with difficult employees.
Working with difficult employees is an emotional tug-of-war experience that is stressful for the manager and employee alike.
Often, by the time the manager is able to rectify the situation through voluntary or involuntary termination of the employee, the damage to office morale and overall productivity is great. The good news is that managers do have an alternative they can use to get a better result from their difficult employees.
By following a 7 step, coaching model, managers can build an effective working relationship with their difficult employees and motivate them to improve their performance. The goal of this model is to return the employee to productivity—not punish the employee or begin dismissal procedures. It is not disciplinary.
Coaching an employee to improve his or her performance can be productive or destructive — it mostly depends on how the coaching is done. Click To TweetThere's a business case I can make for not always approaching performance improvement in a disciplinary fashion. Truthfully, when you use a productive coaching process to improve employee performance, you will also improve workplace motivation.
Back to Top
Where to Start With Your Difficult Employee
Unless you are dealing with a fireable offense or other special circumstance, your first interaction with your difficult employee should be coaching.
Here's why this is true:
The truth is that many 'problem employees' can become your 'model employees' when you follow sound coaching processes.
This is especially true if your employee has the skills OR the potential to do the job AND if they ultimately want to succeed. By demonstrating to this employee that your first approach is to work with them in a productive manner (rather than punish them), you're much more likely to gain their cooperation to improve their performance.
You'll also positively affect the motivation of the rest of your team as they watch you closely to see how you interact with this employee. They'll feel much better about you as their manager if you handle this situation without abusing your power in anyway. After all, from their perspectives, in the future they could be in the same position with you as this employee.
Back to Top
Creating a Positive Environment For Your Coaching Session
Using a positive coaching process to improve poor performance can improve morale. Click To TweetA 'how-to discussion' on each of the 7 steps of this coaching model follows:
1.Create A Positive Tone For The Coaching Meeting
For a coaching session to be successful, it must begin positively. Several activities are important for this step. First, creating a cordial but business tone is important. This can be achieved by coaching the employee in private. This follows the management principle of praising in public and correcting in private. Few, if any, employees enjoy being verbally reprimanded in front of their peers.
Second, the manager needs to explain the purpose of the meeting in a friendly and non-accusatory manner. Avoiding inflammatory words is critical! Too often, coaching sessions are derailed by the manager's poor choice of words in opening the meeting.
2. Describe Undesirable Employee Behavior In Factual But Neutral Terms
To keep a coaching session productive, a manager must describe the undesirable employee behavior in specific terms that do not further inflame the situation. The manager who tells her employee that he has a bad attitude, is moody, and is just generally unpleasant will only make the existing working situation worse. The better approach is to describe what a 'bad attitude' looks like in neutral terms.
Does the employee not return phone calls, miss deadlines, not show up at regularly scheduled meetings, produce inaccurate work, refuse to help co-workers, etc. All of these other descriptors of a 'bad attitude' are more specific and less judgmental. Including some specific examples of undesirable behavior that the manager has personally observed herself is important for the credibility of the meeting. Voicing only what everyone else has told the manager and not what she has observed herself is less effective for coaching difficult employees.
Finally, the manager must have accurate and specific examples of the employee's performance issues for discussion purposes. A manager who engages a difficult employee in a coaching session with 'descriptions of undesirable behavior' that are erroneous and easily refuted will only make the situation worse.
3. Obtain Agreement From Employee That A Problem Exists
Once the manager has provided data to support her position about the employee's performance gap, she will need to work with the employee to get him to agree that an issue exists. This often occurs when the manager reinforces her descriptions of the undesirable behavior in factual and neutral terms. (It is difficult for an employee to continue to refute specific instances of not returning telephone calls, missed deadlines, missed meetings, etc.)
Once the manager and employee agree that a problem exists, the manager is ready to work with the employee on the next step of this model.
Employees will remember their coaching session. Did they feel that it was fair? Or, did they feel like they were kicked when they were down? Click To Tweet4. Determine Reasons For Employee Performance Gaps
Asking the employee to discuss the reasons for his performance gaps will provide valuable information to the manager. For the manager, this step will point out any actions that the manager may need to take, herself, to address relevant organizational issues impacting the employee. These managerial actions might involve other team members, organizational resources, or other factors. For the employee, it begins the groundwork for getting him to take responsibility for improving his actions.
To facilitate this step, the manager will need to use active listening skills, ask open-ended questions, and paraphrase what the employee communicates. This will begin a healthy two-way communication with the difficult employee.
5. Require Employee To Help Own The Solution
The manager must avoid the urge to tell the employee what he must do to solve his performance issues. Instead, she should engage him in 'owning the solution' for his performance issues. She can use an open-ended questioning approach to coach the employee to find his own solution.
It is important that she not criticize or make judgmental statements about any solutions the employee suggests. Instead, through a series of guided questions and paraphrasing, she can help him find a solution. Once this has occurred, the manager can add other elements to the solution to make it viable for what she needs from this employee.
The important point of this step is that the employee needs to have joint ownership with his manager in coming up with the solution.
6. Use WIIFM To Motivate Employee To Act Responsibly
The acronym WIIFM stands for What's In It For Me. Appealing to an employee's WIIFM is a powerful motivation tool. The manager should use this opportunity to discuss positive outcomes for the employee by appealing to what he values. For example, if the employee values career growth, the manager might explain to the employee that improving his performance will allow him to be more competitive for other positions in the unit or company.
7. Summarize Meeting And Define Next Steps
In this last step, the manager summarizes the meeting and the agreements she and her employee have reached. She also defines key actions and time frames that are necessary for the employee to improve his performance. Finally, she outlines her plan to follow up with her employee to assist him in his improvement efforts. Like the first step, it is important that the manager end the meeting on a positive tone.
The 7-step coaching model consists of a private meeting between the manager and the employee. Its success depends on the manager's ability to communicate effectively and facilitate employee engagement.
Through active listening and facilitation, describing behavior in factual but neutral terms, and appealing to the values of the employee, a manager can begin the process of establishing a relationship of trust with her difficult employee. While this model may not work for all situations, it can be useful when coaching—not corrective action—is desired.
When you coach an employee what he or she will most remember about the discussion is how you made them feel. Click To TweetEmployee Training Manager Software
Back to Top
Employee Training Manager Professional Crack Windows 10
Video: 7 Steps for Coaching Difficult Employees
Back to Top