Ten Useful Free Online Courses For Managers

In any business, it is important to have managers that can provide leadership and direction to employees. From setting goals and organizing teams to facilitating communication and providing accountability, good managers can have a huge impact on the company and employees. Good managers can bring out the best in employees, but there is more to management than what most people realize. As the business landscape continues to evolve the managers of tomorrow need to have the right skills for the job. Fortunately, there are plenty of useful online courses that can help managers to reach their full potential and in turn, help employees to meet workplace goals. Here are some of the free options that are available for new managers or students who want to prepare themselves for a managerial career.

People Management Skills

Free people management skills courses are available online and can be completed in as little as five weeks. These courses are aimed at helping participants to discover their leadership styles and also understand the different management styles. In addition, these courses teach students the importance of managing conflict and well-being in the workplace.

Remote Leadership Training

As remote work is becoming more common a lot of managers have found it difficult to effectively manage a remote team and keep them productive. Remote Leadership Training courses address some of the issues managers face in these situations and how they can establish an effective and productive environment for their team. These types of courses also tend to cover what types of remote tools can be used to effectively work remotely and what type of common challenges remote workers face.

Leading Culturally Diverse Teams in The Workplace

Many companies strive to have diverse and inclusive teams, which means managers must be able to lead these teams efficiently. Courses that cover this topic help managers understand what cultural diversity is, why it matters in teams and how to harness the potential benefits of multicultural teams.

Developing Emotional Intelligence

To build quality relationships and make effective decisions it is important to understand and develop emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is something that can impact every facet of your life as it determines how you react and respond to events. Courses in developing your emotional intelligence cover the advantages and disadvantages of emotional intelligence, how it differs from cognitive intelligence and how it can be improved.

Human Resources Foundations

Even if managers do not work directly in human resources they might still be required to be more involved in the recruitment process. A free course in human resources foundations can help managers to brush up on interviewing techniques, establishing payment strategies, as well as performance management principles. Once managers have a basic understanding of human resources they will be better equipped to set realistic goals for their teams and how to improve employee retention.

Recognizing and Dealing With Unconscious Bias

Something that a lot of managers overlook is the fact that they have unconscious biases that can negatively impact the way in which they lead teams. Although it is impossible to completely eliminate unconscious bias it is useful to complete a course that can make you aware of them and what actionable steps can be taken to manage them. Doing so is an important step towards workplaces that are innovative and inclusive.

Conflict Management

Conflict in the workplace is sometimes inevitable, but a good manager will know how to deal with these situations in a healthy manner. Conflict management courses can teach students what the different types of conflict are, what can cause them and when to intervene. These courses also deal with ways to reduce destructive conflict, and what the steps are for collaboratively resolving conflicts.

Public Speaking

Managers need to lead and inspire people, but to do so they need to be confident in their public speaking skills. This can be an invaluable skill to have for team meetings where it is important to share ideas with co-workers and know how to deal with their questions without sounding dismissive.

Inspirational Leadership

A good manager does more than just issue orders and instructions for employees to follow. A course in inspirational leadership can help managers learn how to build the morale of their teams and earn their trust. It can also help managers to get the most out of their teams by empowering them instead of having to resort to tactics such as using money as a motivator.

Well-being and Welfare at Work

No matter how big or small a business is if it doesn’t cater to the well-being of its staff it will never operate efficiently. A course in well-being and welfare at work can help managers to understand the importance of looking after employees. It can also help managers gain the skills needed to assess and plan for the professional development of their employees.