Foundations of Management Goes Virtual
I’d like to first share the origins of our Foundations of Management© program. By doing so, I think you’ll agree on the credibility of its premise. In 1993, I know that’s a really long time ago, an insurance company, RLI, asked us to create a leadership development program for newly anointed supervisors that we could deliver to their employees, but also could retain as our own copyright. Perfect!
We started by surveying not only the brand new supervisors, but those that had been in the position for two years or less. For new supervisors we asked them questions such as, “What are your biggest challenges as a leader?”, “What training topics could help you improve your leadership abilities?” and “What type of training do you wish you would have attained prior to your promotion/placement into your current leadership role?” For the more experienced supervisors, we asked similar questions though stated more like, “What type of training do you wish you would have attained prior to accepting your current leadership role?” etc.
In addition, we researched academic articles regarding entry-level leadership competencies needed to be successful in the role. And, we compared our survey and the academic research against what other leading leadership development firms were marketing/delivering to organizations. Then we designed our program to meet the needs of the surveyed supervisors and the research of academicians.
The designed Foundations of Management© classroom program to this day consists of thirteen three-hour modules, which can be delivered over several weeks or more condensed, depending on customer needs. The topics covered include: human motivation, influence, personality, listening and communications, conflict management and feedback techniques, negotiation and mediation, meeting management, selection, performance reviews, feedback, and coaching, sexual harassment, team dynamics, personal productivity, and change management.
Throughout the years, we have updated the topics as a result of surveying our customers’ supervisors, academic research, and technological advances. The program has been successfully delivered in a variety of industries, including financial, insurance, manufacturing, social services, healthcare, government, music business, and education. An additional result of our highly-valued FOM delivery has been the development of two more programs (requested by our clients) for middle managers and executives.
Now it’s time to advance Foundations of Management© to a virtual delivery and we feel confident that we can help new leaders achieve just as good of behavioral development online as we have in the classroom. The program still covers all topics as listed above except for meeting and productivity management and sexual harassment so that we could condense the e-learning program to eight two-and-a-half hour sessions that will be offered two Fridays a month for four months. The program will still include all attendee and breakout group discussions, individual and group in-session assignments, skill practices and role-plays. Self-assessments, including the DiSC for Managers, Baron Leadership EQ-I, and Five Behaviors are still part of the learning process, too.
Plus, our (optional) three-session coaching program aligned with the FOM program is still being delivered by the same person who teaches every session of the program and is highly encouraged if you truly want personalized behavioral change. We invite you to join us on our maiden live instructor led course which starts September 18 and has a registration deadline of September 11, 2020.
Please visit this link for more information and this link to register.
Dorene Burkhalter, M.S., C.E.C.
Founder, Paramount Potentials
