Top 10 Leadership Trainings for 2022 – Remote · Hybrid · Onsite
Business leaders have always been judged by the results they deliver. However, the circumstances in which they must deliver results today is very different than it was before COVID-19 hit. Tremendous changes in the workplace mean that effective leadership may be more important today than it ever has been. But development strategy skills that worked before are suddenly outdated. For example, before COVID, many were ambivalent about the importance of emotional intelligence, change management and influencing others. Today, however, those skills can make or break a leader.
If you are a leader, chances are that you don’t like to sit still. You are always thinking about how things — including your career — can get better. To keep your career thriving, you may need updated leadership trainings so that you can continue to deliver results in the new world of work. Fortunately, there are great leadership trainings available online, so you can fit them into your schedule. After reviewing many training programs, I believe these ten offer the skills that are relevant today:
10 Leadership Trainings
1. Remote Leadership Course, Chris Dyer
The work-from-home framework in this course introduces new opportunities to scale your business, vastly improve employee morale, hire top talent wherever you find it, and unite your team across time zones and lifestyles. The course guides you through the key steps for hiring, leading, and meeting in a remote business structure, so your business can adapt and thrive for long-term growth and agility. The course incorporates insights from my book The Power of Company Culture: How Any Business Can Build a Culture that Improves Productivity, Performance and Profits (2018), as well as from the book I co-authored with Kim Shepherd, Remote Work: Redesign Processes, Practices and Strategies to Engage a Remote Workforce (2021).
https://chrisdyer.com/courses/remote-leadership-course
2. Harvard Online Leadership Programs
The venerable university offers a slate of programs, such as “Collaborative Leadership: Developing and Empowering an Agile Organization” and “Emotional Intelligence in Leadership.” Built around hands-on exercises and dynamic discussions (most programs are delivered live), the courses will help you master management and leadership best practices. The skills they promise to teach are timely and relevant, and include driving innovation, maximizing productivity, navigating complex challenges, and taking advantage of emerging opportunities.
https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/leadership-management-programs/
3. Sales Leadership, FPG
Forrest Performance Group offers a two-day Leadership Sales Coaching® boot camp and a 12-month intensive Leadership Foundations Course. The idea behind the boot camp is to transform managers into coaches, and helps attendees define their vision and why. It also provides methods for measuring effectiveness in implementing key objectives of coaching. The 12-month program covers this and more, including budgeting your coaching time, leading successful sales meetings, and hiring sales talent.
https://www.fpg.com/leadership-sales-coaching
4. Manager Boot Camp, Creative Talent Partners
Taught by management expert Cecilia Gorman, this 8-week course is targeted at people who recently were promoted into management, focusing on foundational management skills. What I like about their approach is that the videos are accessible and combined with a one-on-one personal coaching call with the teacher. The content covers relevant skills such as setting expectations, evaluating performance and motivation teams. In addition, it can help you build self-awareness and define your own personal leadership style.
https://courses.ceciliagorman.com/courses/manager-boot-camp-2020
5. The Feedback Loop Course, Improvising Radical Candor
Based on Kim Scott’s best-selling book Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, this program is as much entertainment as education. The people at Radical Candor teamed with Second City Works, the professional services arm of Second City comedy theater. The lessons are based on scenarios performed in what they call “Netflix style.” There also are improv-based exercises and more, all intended to help you develop skills in both giving and receiving feedback — and feedback is essential to developing strong relationships.
https://improvisingradicalcandor.com/get-the-feedback-loop/
6. Managing Remote Teams, Udemy
This program includes three hours of on-demand video along with downloadable resources, and covers topics such as aligning team members to company goals, optimizing online meetings, tips for managing remote team members who have children at home, digitalizing processes, and more. The certificate course was created by Dr. Corrie Block, PhD, Professor of Strategic Management at Monarch Business School, Switzerland, and CEO of Paragon Consulting. One great thing about Udemy is that they publish student feedback and ratings, and this course received 4.1 of 5 stars, with 50% of students giving it 5 stars.
https://www.udemy.com/course/managing-remote-teams
7. Executive Education, The Wharton School
Wharton offers hundreds of programs in live online, self-paced, and blended formats. Not only is the content based on research and theory developed by their distinguished faculty, but you also can interact directly with those professors. Topics range from “Customer Analytics for Growth Using Machine Learning, AI and Big Data” to “Business Model Innovation in the Digital Age” to “Women on Boards: Building Exceptional Leaders.” They also promise to help you develop a network of peers with your classmates.
https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/online-learning/
8. Managing Hybrid Teams, Remote-How
Leveraging their online platform for remote and hybrid consulting, Remote-How has launched a new online campus. The goal is to enable leaders of remote and hybrid teams to connect and share, and offers live leadership development programs, mentoring and more. A membership gives you access to their global network, live virtual workshops and e-learning. Programs include workplace operations, people & culture, sales & marketing, and others.
https://remote-how.com/academy/managing-hybrid-teams-training
9. Managing Virtual Teams, LinkedIn Learning
Taught by senior communication and training professional Phil Gold, this certificate course originally came out in 2019 and has been updated based on the “new world” that has emerged since COVID. The content focuses on helping managers get the most out of remote teams in terms of productivity, engagement and growth. Key skills taught include building trust, overcoming obstacles, building strong connections between and among team members, and establishing and managing goals. The course is part of what LinkedIn calls a “learning path,” in this case “Staying Positive and Productive during Uncertainty” — a valuable skill set for us all these days.
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/managing-virtual-teams-2019
10. Leading Remote Teams, eCornell
Cornell also offers a certificate in managing remote teams, although this university certificate requires completion of five courses. These include Building High-Performing Virtual Teams; Virtual Communication, Constructive Conflict, and Collaboration; Decision-Making and Accountability; and others. The content was developed by Cornell faculty, including Beta Mannix, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Management, who has been researching virtual work for 20 years. According to Profession Mannix, working virtually presents many challenges, but many more opportunities.
https://online.cornell.edu/leading-remote-teams
Leadership Trainings – The Next Step
Clearly there are many options for leadership trainings, for managers of onsite, remote and hybrid teams. To narrow down the right one for you, clarify your training goals — what are the issues you want to solve? What skills or techniques do you need? The next step is to decide how much you want to spend. The cost of the courses listed here varies widely, so you should be able to find the training that fits your budget. Happy learning!
References
Dyer, C and Shepherd, K (2021) Remote Work: Redesign processes, practices and strategies to engage a remote workforce. Kogan Page, London.
Dyer, C (2018) The Power of Company Culture: How any business can build a culture that improves productivity, performance and profits. Kogan Page, London.
Scott, K (2017) Radical Candor: Be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity. St. Martin’s Press, London
