Overview

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You were likely promoted to a leadership position because you were excellent as an individual contributor, but leading people requires a whole new set of skills. you're suddenly tasked with delegating tasks, managing disputes, and making difficult decisions and assessments. In this course, bestselling author and success coach Kirsten Blakemore will help you find your footing and your confidence as a new leader of people. you'll learn a host of time-tested strategies for managing your time as well as your teams, ranging from giving difficult feedback to dealing with your own stress. You'll also be able to face the challenges of leading teams remotely, and how to be compassionate no matter what your team faces. If you're ready to stop dreading and start enjoying your new role as a manager, and to tackle it all with a heart-forward approach, then this course is for you.

Syllabus

Heart Forward Managing

Great leadership isn't just about competence — it's about character. In this module, you'll build the five foundational tenets of heart-forward leadership: curiosity over assumptions, a results-focused mindset, self-awareness, integrity, and win-win decision-making, so you can show up as the kind of leader people genuinely want to follow. You'll also get a practical toolkit of reflection strategies you can apply from your very first day as a manager.

Managing Remotely

Remote work has changed the rules of leadership — and not all leaders have changed with it. In this module, you'll build strategies for leading remote teams with purpose and structure, and apply compassionate check-in practices that support your team's mental wellness without overstepping. The tools you develop here will strengthen both individual connection and collective performance, no matter where your team is working from.

Getting Back to the Basics

Fair, inclusive, and accountable leadership isn't an HR initiative — it's a daily practice that every leader owns. In this module, you'll strengthen your ability to set consistent standards, recognize and address your own biases, build a culture of positive accountability, and lead your team through the discomfort of necessary change. These are the fundamentals that determine whether people trust you enough to follow you.

Building Up Your Team

A great team doesn't happen by accident — it's built, one relationship and one conversation at a time. In this module, you'll develop the skills to align your team around a shared cause, understand what actually motivates each person, lead with the trust-building behaviors your team is already watching for, and grow into the kind of mentor and ally others remember. The best leaders don't just direct their teams — they invest in them.

Directing During Confrontation

Conflict and difficult conversations don't have to derail your leadership — they can define it. In this module, you'll identify your default reaction to confrontation and build the skills to enter difficult conversations with purpose and emotional control, and you'll deliver difficult feedback in a way that genuinely lands and drives growth. The strongest leaders aren't the ones who avoid hard conversations — they're the ones who handle them well.

Managing Your Time: All 24 Hours

Time is your most finite resource as a leader — and remote work has made the boundaries between using it well and losing it to chaos thinner than ever. In this module, you'll build intentional habits for managing your work schedule and personal time, create structures for effective delegation and empowered decision-making, and develop a sustainable burnout prevention practice. When you manage your time well, you lead better — and you last longer.

Managing Your Work

The toughest leadership decisions aren't always about strategy — they're about the people right in front of you, and the work right on your desk. In this module, you'll build the skills to balance your own responsibilities through smart delegation, develop your team members' strengths without fear, make the honest performance assessments that great leaders can't avoid, and recognize the contributions that keep a team genuinely engaged. These are the management practices that determine whether your team thrives or stagnates.

Conclusion

You've done the work. Now carry it forward. This final lesson brings together the core principles from across the course — not as a summary to memorize, but as a foundation to build on. Great people leadership isn't a destination. It's a daily practice of showing up with intention, honesty, and heart. Whatever challenge comes next, you now have the tools, the frameworks, and the clarity to face it well.