Preparing to Lead

In Preparing to Lead , you'll learn ...

• List three essential elements of self-development
• Develop a plan for building alliances with others
• Examine their behavior to determine if there are "qualifiers" associated with them that may restrict career development
• View their performance through the eyes of their supervisor looking for improvement opportunities

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 6 PDH

Length: 117 pages

Human Resource professionals know that the quality of the relationship between employees and their immediate supervisor is the primary factor that determines the employee’s performance, productivity, and morale. The best way to recruit and retain employees is for an employer to develop the organization’s leadership skills from top to bottom.

This course will be an essential tool for those employers who understand the value of developing and retaining their internal talent while not creating more problems than they solve. The concepts presented here will get the learner off to a safe start while gaining experience regardless if the organization is public, private, or volunteer. We say “safe” as in avoiding errors that can create problems now or in the future. The model for this course is the typical high school drivers’ education program where (in theory) you learn just enough to start driving safely with minimal risk to yourself and others while you gain experience.

Many employers do not even attempt the basic learn-to-drive-before-you-get-into-traffic concept when making promotions into first level supervisory positions. They select the best technician in a particular job function on the false assumption that the person who knows most about the work is the natural person to lead the work. Unfortunately, very few employers are willing to invest the resources necessary to develop their new leaders but are willing to risk the expense associated with high turnover, low morale, minimal productivity, and poor customer service, which inevitably result. This on-the-job-training approach to developing leadership skills usually leads to disaster.

Completing this course is like having an experienced mentor to help you understand the workplace from a position of “been there, done that” to guide your employees' development in a logical sequence of looking inward at themselves, then outward at the people around them, and finally, at the subtleties of the work, itself. While we do not pretend it will guarantee success, we will promise that the learner will address many of the key issues that business authors and thinkers have identified as critical for professional growth. There is a suggested reading list at the end of the course for those who want to delve more deeply into the topics presented here.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• List three essential elements of self-development
• Develop a plan for building alliances with others
• Examine their behavior to determine if there are “qualifiers” associated with them that may restrict career development
• View their performance through the eyes of their supervisor looking for improvement opportunities
• Analyze their daily performance to determine if they are actually productive or just “busy”
• List some unwritten job expectations their supervisor may have of them
• List some unwritten expectations their coworkers may have of them
• Explain if they connect authentically with others
• Analyze themselves to determine the extent of their orientation toward reality

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 63 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.