[2020] The Complete Management Skills Certification Course

Whenever you’d like to take the management skills simulation game that’s part of this course, you’re welcome to try it. This training tool is designed to give you a chance to take some of the management concepts you’re learning in this course and apply them to everyday life. You’ll handle challenges related to human resource management, leadership, and more. Make sure that you make a copy of the interaction sheet (available as a Google Sheet) so that you can choose your own answers and see your results in real time.

In this part of the management simulation game, you’ll practice components of leadership and management. As you learned in the course, your leadership style sometimes needs to change to suit a unique business situation. This should help you (especially if you’re a new manager) take pressure off of yourself to be the “perfect manager,” and, instead, realize that your management style may just need to be a function of your business environment.

Now let’s jump into a part of the game that’s designed to build your negotiation skills. You’re now going to work on learning how to use some of the negotiation skills that you learned as they related to B2B sales and contract negotiation. Negotiation skills are some of the trickiest skills to develop, and we encourage you to watch the expert interview series in this course to help learn how experienced businesspeople approach negotiation.

In this lesson, you’ll get results from the simulation game. Hopefully, the game helped you learn more about team management, hiring, talent acquisition (especially IT recruiting and technical recruiting), and contract negotiation--particularly as they apply to the everyday life of a manager.

One of the hardest things for some new managers to learn as they transition away from being in a “production role” towards a “management role” is that the key skills for their new job including those like human resource management, operations management, change management, team management, talent acquisition management, and people management--not programming, account management, or other topics that you do on your own. In this section, you’ll learn management skills for everyday life, and lots of new manager tips.

This section should be especially helpful for new managers. In the following sections, you’ll directly get content that teaches you how to apply the management science research that powers the MIT Advanced Management Training program.

Human Resource Management--whether you’re in HR or you’re a manager in a non-HR function--becomes an important skill when you’re a manager, whereas it may not have been a big part of your job before you were a manager. In this lesson, you’ll learn recruitment skills--particularly, how to manage interviews. You’ll learn how to interview for skills, for example. This is a management skill that’s especially important when you’re involved in IT recruiting or in any talent acquisition project that involves hiring for a hard skill (like programming, engineering, legal, research and many accounting functions).

This lesson is designed to help you (especially if you're a new manager) learn how to give feedback to your team. The ability to give feedback is essential for two reasons--one obvious, the other not so obvious. The obvious reason that feedback is important is that it enables you to develop your team--this is something a manager should think about every day. The less obvious reason that feedback is important is that it’s quickly becoming an important part of people management--especially people analytics--programs. So, let’s dive into feedback, performance management, and Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset” concept.

In the previous lesson, you learned about Carol Dweck and the “Growth Mindset” concept. Now, practice using the Growth Mindset approach. Hopefully, this will help you in your everyday life as a manager.

Conflict management is part of the everyday life of a manager. In this lecture, you’ll go beyond simple “tips and tricks” related to conflict management and, instead, learn what a few Harvard researchers found out about conflict management at work. As you take the lesson, think about how what you’re learning might apply to your people management approach.

As a side note: if you can include conflict management in your suite of management skills, that’s something you can put on your resume. While conflict management may not be an especially fun part of team management, many people who hire managers know that it’s an important part of the job.

Let’s start building your persuasion skills. In this lesson, you’ll learn the CSA system (something we developed here at Eazl)--a step-by-step method for planning a persuasive effort. As you go through this lesson, think about the concept of “reverse engineering.” That is--think about how persuasion is the process of taking an audience on a journey. This system can be applied to business writing projects, B2B sales presentations, and much more.

We converted the CSA Persuasion Planning system into a cloud-based resource that you can use on-demand, at any time. In this lesson, practice applying the persuasion skills that you learned in the previous lesson.

Let’s spend another module developing your persuasion skills. In this lesson, you’re going to to learn how to develop a persuasive message. Essentially, you’re developing an argument to present to audiences.

This is a critical skill, and if you’re a new manager, you should spend extra time with this content. Before you start this lesson, you might brainstorm all of the instances when you’ll need to “argue your case” as a manager. Some examples might include: B2B sales presentations, talent acquisition projects when you’re pitching candidates who have multiple employment offers, convincing a team that you’re about to take through a change management process, persuasive business writing projects.

Let’s dive in!

For most managers, internal communication skills are especially important. For example, if you’re trying to build your team management abilities, a key factor may be your communication skills. In this lesson, you’re going to get introduced to a communication model that’s taught as a part of MIT’s Advanced Management Training Program. As you take this lesson, focus on the idea of “formal power” (or “position power”) and try to imagine a business situation when you’d have position power and when you wouldn’t have position power. If you had to persuade in both of those situations, how would your persuasion approach be different?

In this lesson, you’re going to learn about one of the more underrated components of successful business communication: visual communication. While most people might imagine that communication skills center around speaking skills or business writing skills, the more intelligent communicator will consider how most people communicate and learn every day: with images. Imagine how many images your employees see every day on social media and in the physical world. Visual communication skills are, increasingly, the most important business communication skills.

Public speaking is an undeniably-important communication skill. Every time you make a B2B sales presentation, try to lead a large group through a change management process, or pitch to an professional audience, your public speaking skills will be tested. In this lecture, you’re going to learn how to integrate technologies (and apply many of the persuasion and visual communication techniques you learned earlier in this section) into your presentations.

In this lecture, you’re going to have the opportunity to see many of the communication skills that you learned in this section in action. Davis is going to use the CSA Persuasion Planning system and integrate visual communication, persuasion techniques, and audience analysis to build an argument.

PS: Don't forget to check for additional resources in the links section of this module!

When you hear the phrase “negotiating skills,” what comes to mind? Maybe you think of Alec Baldwin’s famous “always be closing” scene in Glengarry Glen Ross--a style of persuasion that borders on aggression. Negotiation doesn’t have to be that way.

In this section, you’re going to learn that negotiation skills often involve using your communication skills in a specific way. In fact, you can often be “integrative” in your negotiation approach. You’re going to start the section off learning about integrative bargaining (an approach to negotiation that brings the parties together), then move to negotiation preparation, then to negotiation-specific communication skills, and then you’ll develop a multicultural dimension to your negotiation approach--necessary for cross-country or multilateral negotiations.

Some people believe that leadership and management must be combative--that the everyday life of a manager involves some level of force. This is particularly true in negotiation. However, in this lesson you’re going to shift your negotiation mindset from a “zero sum” mindset to a “let’s make bigger pie” mindset. This is called “integrative negotiation.”

How many times in your life have you heard ______ is about preparation? Negotiation preparation is also essential. In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to prepare for negotiation by considering the issues you’ll bring up in the negotiation, what bargaining chips you may have, and which information you’ll use to start important discussions.

If you’re a new manager, this module will be especially helpful. Make sure to keep your eyes out for the negotiation prep sheet, a tool that you can access from your computer or mobile device to help you prepare for negotiations.

Often, people think that communication skills involve persuasion, public speaking, business writing, and sales skills--which they do. However, perhaps the most important communication skill is a simpler one: learning how to interact with different audiences.

When you’re involved in a negotiation, you’re necessarily communicating with another audience--a person or a group--and it’s important to consider their psychology as it pertains to the negotiation in which you’re involved. In this lesson, you’re going to develop your negotiation skills in this area.

It’s undeniable that being able to “close” is one of the most critical negotiation skills. In this lesson, you’re going to learn a few tactics that people experienced in negotiation use to “close the deal.” As you go through this module, consider how you might apply these tactics to your business communication skills more broadly. For example, is there another instance--outside of a negotiation--when you might use one of these tactics to catalyze a discussion?

Business is increasingly multinational. So, managing global norms and cultural sensitivities is an increasingly important skill. In this lesson, you’re going to learn a framework that’s used to identify what the prevailing cultural dynamics are for a specific territory, and then how that might inform your approach to negotiations with audiences in that place. As you go through this module, you might continue to expand how you think about the concept of “communication skills” so that it includes your ability to flow between communication styles as you interact with audiences from different places.

Hymie Bielsky is especially experienced in mergers and acquisitions. During his tenure as CEO of Safety-Kleen Europe, he led the sale of the business twice. Trained as a lawyer, Hymie is experienced in contract negotiation and the law. In this interview, he discusses the role of investment bankers, lawyers, and a few of the negotiation tactics to which he frequently refers.

Ian Butcher is a board-level headhunter. He has placed board members and C-Suite executives at large firms like BP (British Petroleum), Barclays Bank, and many others. In this interview, you’ll learn how negotiation works in a human resource (HR) context. As you watch the interview, challenge yourself to apply tools like the BATNA and Hofstede’s framework for managing global norms to topics that Mr. Butcher discusses.

In this hands-on tutorial, you’re going to develop your skills managing global norms and cultural sensitivities with some online tools. Let’s dive in!

Time management is among the biggest issues for new managers and experienced managers alike. Your ability to focus your time and resources on things that matter will often determine how successful you are in leadership and management.

In this section, you’re going to learn about personal productivity. You’re going to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the human brain, about time management through organization, how focus and time management differ for managers who manage developers and non-developers, and how to be efficient in your business communication--with respect to the information you consume and when you engage in outgoing communications (e.g. business writing, presentations).

In this lesson, you’re going to focus on personal productivity and time management by learning how to organize your ideas and activities. As you’ll learn about efficient business communication with the Minto Pyramid in a coming lecture, learning how to think in terms of hierarchically-structured concepts helps you be more efficient. As you go through this lecture, you might think to yourself: “How could organizing my thoughts like this help me with team management?”

Many of us have to switch between “maker time” and “management time.” That is, one of our most difficult time management issues is the ability to move between producing something (for example, PowerPoint Presentations, business writing needs, product management duties) and managing projects (for example, using collaboration or productivity apps to get alignment between people on various projects).

In this lesson, you’re going to learn about the psychology of focus and time management by learning about “maker bursts,” the Pomodoro Technique of time management, clustering, and finding focus through emotional flow.

Increasingly, productivity apps like Asana, Trello, Slack, and Notion.so, are a part of the everyday life of a manager. In this lesson, you’re going to learn whether management science research substantiates the use of productivity apps for managers (spoiler alert: it does). You’re going to learn how your team management skills can be developed by developing skills around the use of productivity apps, and more. As you go through this lesson you might challenge yourself to make connections between the use of productivity apps and the development of your internal management network (often, through the use of these apps) and how developing your skills in this area gives you more “soft power” that you can use as persuasion resources.

In this lesson, you’re going to build cognitive bridges between managing your information flow (both what you consume and what you share with others), your business communication skills, and personal productivity. As you go through this lesson, you might think about any productivity apps or news apps that you currently use and reflect: do they enhance your focus or distract you from the topics on which you need to focus?

Paul Klipp is an agile coach, agile consultant, and agile project management expert who, after earning his MBA, has focused his career on enabling software development teams to collaborate internationally. Mr. Klipp’s specialization in agile project management led him to create productivity apps, an agile project management training curriculum and coaching company, and some of the world’s most widely-used content that centers around the topics of time management, personal productivity, and the use of productivity apps.

In this exclusive interview with Mr. Klipp, you’ll hear him discuss how he developed the “ultimate productivity recipe,” and you’ll get tips on applying this recipe to your own leadership and management approach.

You can find Mr. Klipp’s website at http://www.paulklipp.com/.

In this SideBYSide tutorial, you’ll get hands on with Paul Klipp’s ultimate productivity recipe. As you go through this tutorial, you might reflect on how you can apply these techniques to your use patterns with whichever productivity apps you use (e.g. Evernote, Notion.so, Trello, Slack, etc.).

In this interview with popular Udemy instructor and entrepreneur Jonathan Levi, you’ll learn about Mr. Levi’s thought process when it comes to choosing which opportunities are worth his time and energy. As you watch this interview, you might reflect on your own approach to time management, focus, and personal productivity. How do you choose what’s worth your time? How might your approach evolve after considering what Mr. Levi has to say?

In this interview, you’ll hear from Jenise Harmon, a psychologist and counselor, about the power of saying “no.” This interview is, in many ways, a follow up to the interview with Jonathan Levi, which touched on focus and the selection of opportunities. You might bookmark this interview and return to it if you’re a new manager who finds themselves saying “yes” to too many requests for your time, or someone who feels overwhelmed with commitments.

In this hands-on tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply business communication concepts you learned in the productivity section of the course. Specifically, you’ll learn how to curate your incoming information feed. In an era when social media apps and other technologies suck up your time and attention, it’s critical that you develop the time management skills and ability to focus on information that’s relevant to you--not information that others want to push onto you.

Some political leaders see society as a stool with three pillars--civil society, businesses, and the government. In this section, you’re going to develop your skills and awareness of the economy--particularly how hands-on economics involves the latter two pillars earlier mentioned (government and business).

Government decisions (for example, how government institutions impact financial markets) often cause big changes in an economy. That’s why knowledge of macroeconomics (for example, understanding what makes GDP) and microeconomics (for example, why firms are driven to specialize) is a useful component in your leadership and management skills toolkit.

In this section, you’re going to begin by learning about GDP--a macroeconomic concept. You’ll first learn about it from a conceptual level, then get hands-on with macroeconomic data (this is often helpful, for example, for managers who need to develop presentations as part of their business communication duties). Then, you’re going to learn how central banks impact financial markets, and why that matters for your leadership and management approach. Then, you’ll move onto two microeconomic concepts--the advantages of specialization and the economics of offshoring (sometimes called “outsourcing”). Then, you’ll wrap up with a lesson on environmental economics and learn some economic concepts that are key to one of the hottest topics today, the “circular economy.”

In this lesson, you’ll learn about the elements of GDP--a core macroeconomic concept. As you go through this lesson, you might think about your own country’s economy. For example, is international trade a major driver of the economy? Does consumption drive your country’s economy? What about investment? Understanding the drivers of an economy will help you, as a manager, make better business decisions.

In this hands-on exercise, you’re invited to use Google Public Data Explorer--a fun and friendly tool for finding, comparing, and presenting economic data. As you play with the tool, imagine how you might connect this tool with the communication skills section of this course--particularly, how you might invite the audience of one of your upcoming pitches or presentations to view certain economic data that you have prepared for them using the Google Public Data tool and then shared with them with one of Google’s link-sharing tools.

In this lecture, you’re going to learn more about central banks, money supply, and financial markets. Specifically, you’re going to learn how decisions made by governments impact issues that many managers (especially managers with financial oversight responsibilities) deal with as a part of their everyday lives--details like interest rates and demand trends. These are macroeconomic concepts, and next time you read a business publication like the Financial Times, you might select an article that discusses central bank decisions, recall what you’re learning about economics in this lesson, and apply these concepts to what you’re reading in the article.

In this lesson, you’re going to develop your sense of two important economic concepts--why firms specialize and what drives international trade. As you learn about these concepts, you might work on connecting this lesson with the logic behind certain mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of which you are aware. For example, the economics of some acquisitions may center around acquiring a firm that enables the parent firm to further specialize in a valuable niche, making them more competitive and valuable. Or, you might consider how these concepts help provide the logic for strategic partnerships. Aren’t partnerships often based on multiple firms providing (think: “trading”) complementary capabilities?

In this lesson, you’re going to explore one of the more sensitive international trade topics: how labor is traded internationally. You’ll learn what economic research has to say about offshoring. When does it make sense? As you go through this lesson, you might recall a time when you interacted with a business or service that outsourced labor. Looking back on it, did that decision align with the economic concepts you’re learning in this lesson?

Financial markets increasingly favor companies who integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their activities. In this lesson, you’re going to learn about a key environmental economics concept: environmental limits. As you go through this lesson, you might work to connect the concept of environmental limits with the “circular economy” concept. Specifically, how could business practices associated with the circular economy prevent a firm from approaching an environmental limit? As a stretch goal, reflect on the value this would have to the firm. How could that value be realized through well-executed business communication strategies?

One of the most studied topics in macroeconomics, international trade, and financial markets is the topic of financial crises. When a financial crisis hits global markets, a rare opportunity is created for those that are ready to pursue it. Industries are reshaped. International trade patterns change. Some firms cease to exist, leaving markets open for new entrants.

In this conversation with the well-known blogger and economist Mike Shedlock, you’ll learn about the nature of economic and financial crises. As you listen to Mr. Shedlock, you might reflect on the current state of the global economy and your national economy. Based on what Mr. Shedlock asserts, do you see economic hazards? What opportunities or threats might materialize if these hazards materialized into major macroeconomic events?

In this conversation with economic blogger, author, and consultant Charles Hugh Smith, he’ll present the idea of the “authentic self” and connect that concept to complex economic systems and why cooperation is often in our best interest. As you listen to the interview, you might consider whether or not the behavior of firms and individuals that you observer is more often “economically rational” or not (by the way, this question is the basis for the economic field of study called “behavioral economics”). As an extension, you might reflect on Mr. Hugh Smith’s ideas around environmental economics. For example, is there a firm with with you’re familiar that could realize economic benefits from embracing practices championed by proponents of “circular business” or the “circular economy”? Would those practices require cooperation?

In this hands-on tutorial, you’re going to put your hands on real macroeconomic data by using Google’s Public Data Explorer. As you go through this tutorial, you might follow along with your instructor and, if you have any new economic ideas as a result of watching the previous interviews with prominent economists, you might explore them through the use of Google’s Public Data Explorer. For example, what metrics can you find that are related to the circular economy? What about data related to the human capital that exists within a specific country? How are those metrics trending?

In this lecture, you’re going to get exposed to macroeconomic data sets that can be used for more advanced purposes, like econometric analysis, regression modeling, and the creation of custom economic metrics and visualizations.

Leadership skills can be developed. Additionally, you can develop a leadership style that suits your particular situation. In this section, you’re going to work on developing practical leadership skills. You’ll start by learning how to develop a leadership style (an important concept that can be applied to your new team management approach), then you’ll continue focusing on team management skills by learning about sensemaking and the MBTI. Later in the session, you’ll build your leadership communication skills by learning more about one-to-one communication strategies and one-to-many leadership communication strategies. You’ll wrap this section by learning how the X-Teams concept applies to your leadership and management approach.

One common team management challenges is this: how can you come to some sense of “truth” when you are working on integrating multiple perspectives, and everyone has a unique communication style, which presents new challenges. In this lesson, you’re going to learn about the concept of “sensemaking”--something that should help you with your leadership and management approach and, in a way, with your leadership communication skills toolkit. As you go through this lesson, you might reflect on a time when a group you were a part of was trying to work together, and it seemed that there were many miscommunications. How might the lesson in which you’re about to participate have informed an alternative approach for you in that instance?

New managers might be able to remember a time when their job was less about communicating with others--when neither team management nor people management, for example, weren’t major parts of their job. In this lesson, you’re going to learn about the MBTI. It’s one of many psychological frameworks that you can integrate into your leadership skills toolkit that enables you to lead with more empathy and understanding about the different people you work with. As you go through this lesson, why don’t you challenge yourself to consider the concept of personal productivity. Was there a time when one of your managers could have enabled you to be more productive if they had been able to understand you by knowing more about your style through a tool like the MBTI?

Leadership and management communications often involve persuasion through the consistent and clear presentation of some kind of “ vision.” For example, your ability to present your people with a clear vision can impact your teammates in talent management and recruiting execute their hiring projects. It can impact what marketing communications are delivered to clients or customers. In this lesson, you’re going to learn more about creating a compelling vision. This may not be a skill you would put on your resume, but most successful business leaders are good at it.

In this lesson, you’re going to learn about the X-Teams team management approach. This approach centers around team productivity through external engagement. As you go through this lesson, you might remember a time when you participated in a team that “talked a lot and did a little” as a counterpoint to the X-Teams team management approach about which you’re learning.