Leading from the Front Line Training from CBT Direct

Leading from the Front Line Curriculum Outline

Challenges of the 21st Century

Overview/Description
Leadership is dynamic. It must evolve with the changing times. It must grow and change based on internal factors that are prevalent in one time, and obsolete in the next. The 21st century brings its own unique set of challenges that leadership must accommodate. In this course, youll learn how evolving work environments affect leadership. Youll explore the implications of 21st century trends like virtual employees and portable assets, and learn how you can meet the leadership challenges they present. Additionally, youll learn about the values of intellectual assets and how you can maximize your infrastructure assets. The course concludes with leadership strategies for e-Business.

Target Audience
Frontliners, middle and upper-level managers, or anyone interested in developing leadership skills

Expected Duration
2.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Leadership Challenges in a Changing Environment

Recognize the benefits of meeting the leadership challenges in a changing work environment.

Identify the changes in the workplace that present leadership challenges.

Identify the characteristics of successful 21st century organizations.

Identify the characteristics required of leaders in todays organizations.

21st Century Employee Trends

Recognize the value of understanding 21st century trends as they apply to business.

Differentiate between the advantages and challenges of having virtual employees.

Choose the ways to maximize portable assets.

Choose the statements that identify changing employee expectations and motivations.

Intellectual Assets

Recognize the benefits of intellectual assets to a company.

Match the types of intellectual assets with the correct descriptors.

Identify the ways to manage knowledge workers.

Identify the ways to maximize infrastructure assets.

The Challenges of e-Business

Recognize the benefits of e-Business.

Differentiate between the attributes of the industrial age and the attributes of the information age.

Identify the facts about the history of e-Business.

Differentiate between the components of e-Business and those of e-Commerce.

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Organizational Culture and Leadership

Overview/Description
What is organizational culture? How would you describe your companys culture? How is leadership related to culture? In this course, youll explore the concepts related to organizational culture, and learn how the different cultures relate to leadership. Youll learn about the dynamics of cultural change and how you, as a leader, can influence the direction of your organizations culture. The course ends with strategies for leading in a learning culture.

Target Audience
Frontliners, middle and upper-level managers, anyone interested in developing leadership skills

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

An Introduction to Organizational Culture

Recognize the importance of having a healthy organizational culture.

Match business situations to their relationship with organizational culture.

Match cultural traits with their manifested workplace behaviors.

Identify the strategies that help companies create healthy cultures.

Assessing the Culture

Recognize the benefits of assessing organizational culture.

Identify the applicable steps to eliminating negative behaviors and making values more in sync with the times.

Differentiate between a strategic process and a cultural process.

Match the tasks involved in developing a healthy culture with the corresponding examples.

Leading Cultural Change

Recognize the benefits of leading cultural change.

Identify the ways for leaders to meet the needs of employees during times of cultural change.

Identify the statements that are true about developing a vision.

Identify the ways to redesign your leadership approach.

Leading in a Learning Culture

Recognize the benefits of being a learning organization.

Identify the characteristics of a learning organization.

Identify the steps in the learning process.

Differentiate among the roles of leaders in a learning organization and the functions they serve.

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Energizing and Empowering Employees

Overview/Description
Energy. Without it, the wheels and gigabytes of industry come to a screeching halt. And without energized, empowered employees, your part of global industry will make far less progress. This course introduces you to the importance of energizing and empowering employees. By doing so, you multiply the benefits to your department, team, and organization. The course begins by showing you ways to cultivate employee energy as well as the reasons why its important. It shows you not only the need to energize and empower employees, but also how to do so. Then youll explore the role of communication in amplifying that energizing process. You will also learn how to create a work environment that inspires excellence. Finally, youll see how to act on that energy and reap the benefits.

Target Audience
Front-line supervisors and middle and upper management

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Cultivating Employee Energy

Recognize the benefits of cultivating energized employees.

Distinguish between the good and the poor ways to energize employees.

Choose the examples of the empowerment model for energizing people.

Identify the key elements of an environment that energizes employees.

Communicating with Employees

Recognize the importance of communication in energizing people.

Identify the tips that help you establish empathy with others.

Identify the ways to encourage employee suggestions.

Identify the ingredients necessary for communicating corporate vision.

Inspiring Others to Excel

Recognize the benefits of inspiring excellence in others.

Choose the ways to build morale.

Identify the methods that stimulate creativity in others.

Identify the positive and the negative ways to motivate others.

Acting on the Energy

Recognize the importance of capitalizing on employee energy.

Identify the examples that illustrate the traits successful leaders model to energize employees.

Select the effective methods of recognizing and rewarding employee contributions.

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Leadership and the Knowledge Worker

Overview/Description
What are your companys most valuable assets? For many of todays companies, its the knowledge and experience of their workers. Does your company know how to best use this intellectual capital? Is your company a nurturing environment for knowledge workers? In this course, youll learn about intellectual capital, how to lead your company from the front line to retain and increase its intellectual capital, and how to make the most of knowledge workers.

Target Audience
Front-line employees or anyone interested in developing leadership skills

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Intellectual Capital

Recognize the value of your companys intellectual capital.

Identify the statements that describe knowledge workers.

Identify the business impacts of knowledge workers.

Identify the ways to create a nurturing knowledge-worker environment.

Taking the Lead

Recognize the benefits of leading the organization to develop knowledge workers.

Select the ways to optimize the sharing of new skills among knowledge workers.

Apply knowledge to identify the examples of the ways to leverage knowledge in different scenarios.

Apply knowledge to choose the examples of the steps in sharing decision making.

Motivating Knowledge Workers

Recognize the importance of motivating knowledge workers.

Choose the ways to encourage additional learning in knowledge workers.

Identify the examples of effective methods of using the expertise of knowledge workers in given scenarios.

Identify the examples of ways to reward participants in a knowledge system in given scenarios.

Establishing a Knowledge Base

Recognize the benefits of leadership in creating ways to share knowledge.

Apply the methods of introducing knowledge management into an organization by matching them to examples.

Select the descriptions of the various types of knowledge bases.

Identify the examples of ways to facilitate a knowledge base.

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Leading Change from the Front Line

Overview/Description
Have you ever wanted something at work to change, but no one ever addressed the issue, so you just put up with it? Maybe you didnt bring it up because you thought you were the only person who didnt like it. Maybe you didnt want to make a fool of yourself by making it an issue. Or maybe you thought your boss would be irritated if you mentioned it. If any of this sounds familiar, this course is designed to help you. It suggests how you can compare your fears of negative outcomes against the potential gains of making a change. It explains the ways you can find out if others want the change, too, so that you know ahead of time what kind of resistance your idea will face. It even offers suggestions for making office politics work for you when you make suggestions. Finally, it gives you ideas on how to build a strong, positive reputation that will stand you in good stead with management.

Target Audience
Employees on the front line; anyone interested in developing leadership skills

Expected Duration
2.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

The Dynamics of Change

Recognize the benefits of leading change in the workplace.

Classify the four elements of change according to the described business example.

Determine the appropriate steps for leading change, given a scenario.

Identify ways to enlist help from the key people in the change process.

Taking Risks to Facilitate Change

Recognize the importance of confronting and overcoming fears of taking risks .

Identify the risks of initiating change in the workplace.

Select methods to decide if the risks described in a business scenario are worth taking.

Identify the missing steps for facing a fear in given business scenarios.

Swimming with the Sharks: Surviving Office Politics

Recognize the benefits of bringing strong ethics into the workplace political arena.

Choose the steps for becoming an ethical politician.

Identify the ways front-line employees can positively affect the political environment.

Choose the effective ways of weathering a political situation.

Winning Managements Respect

Recognize the importance of earning the respect of management.

Differentiate between the self-perceived image and the image others perceive.

Select the ways to establish a history of success.

Determine the ways to show respect for management based on the RESPECT model.

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Dynamics of Leadership

Overview/Description
Can anyone, regardless of company status, be a leader? Yes! Leaders can be found at all levels in the work force. When youre learning how to lead, is it possible also to be responsible for discovering new future leaders? You bet it is. Even though you arent in management, do you have the power to influence someone to change his behavior? Again, the answer is yes. In this course, youll learn how to become a leader; how to train yourself and others to lead; how to build effective relationships; and how to build strong, long-lasting coaching relationships.

Target Audience
Front-line employees; anyone interested in developing leadership skills

Expected Duration
3.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Becoming a Leader

Recognize benefits of becoming a leader.

Match leadership myths with the scenarios that best describe them.

Identify fundamental leadership qualities.

Determine which leadership style is used in a business scenario.

Training for Leadership

Recognize the importance of focusing on leadership from the front line.

Apply the appropriate leadership role with a co-worker in a given situation.

Identify the principles of self-leadership in a given business situation.

Identify potential future leaders.

Building Effective Relationships

Recognize benefits of building strong relationships with co-workers and bosses.

Assess a given situation to determine missing factors for deciding whether to ignore or confront animosity.

Use methods for influencing co-workers to modify their behavior in a business scenario.

Use techniques to create a more peer-like relationship with his or her boss in a given situation.

Coaching for Success

Recognize benefits of a coaching relationship.

Identify what to expect from a leadership coach.

Analyze a given scenario to determine which coaching pitfall is demonstrated.

Analyze a business scenario and determine whether someone successfully used coaching strategies.

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Leading from the Front Line Simulation

Overview/Description
In this simulation, you will be tasked with serving as a networker, dealing with the issues that arise when informal leaders take the initiative and lead from the front line. As the Manager for the Customer Service Team for Cross & Witherson, Unlimited, you have been made aware of a growing problem with product returns. Using your management and persuasive skills, you must convince both your manager and your fellow co-workers of the value of exploring a possible solution--the creation of a knowledge base. This simulation is based on the SkillSoft series Leading from the Front Line. It has links to the following courses: LEAD0121, LEAD0123, LEAD0124 and LEAD0125.

Target Audience
Frontliners, middle and upper-level managers, or anyone interested in developing leadership skills.

Expected Duration
0.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Leading from the Front Line Simulation

Demonstrating the qualities of leadership.

Encouraging new ideas.

Sharing the decision making power.

Empowering and energizing associates.

Navigating office politics.

Leveraging knowledge and problem solving.

Managing knowledge workers in a learning culture.

Creating a knowledge base.

Fostering methods to increase intellectual capital.

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Leading from the Front Line

Leadership is an essential skill that can be elusive if the fundamentals are ignored. Whether you’re working with a small group within your division or leading a larger project made up of several players from different divisions, these leadership courses have applications that can help you grow.

Discover the dynamics of leadership, such as how to energize and empower employees and lead change from the front line. Learn the importance of cultural change and the secrets of how to influence your own company’s culture in order to help it grow and thrive with the times.

These CBT Direct online courses cover the many nuances often associated with leadership, such as the many challenges you’ll encounter, the cultural pitfalls and the benefits of leading by example. Be confident in leading from the front line with CBT Direct’s online training!

Leading from the Front Line