Introduction to Management Course

Module 1: Conceptual Understanding

• Identify the four critical challenges facing managers and how the course addresses them.
• Differentiate manager, supervisor, team leader, and executive roles; apply Katz’s technical–human–conceptual skill shift.
• Review OPM’s ECQs and Fundamental Competencies and the Seven Leadership Practices.
• Connect these concepts to your current context and goals for development.

Module 2: Strategic Orientation and Visioning

• Assess your position on the strategic–operational continuum and its implications for preferences and decisions.
• Create a team vision aligned to higher-order organizational vision, priorities, and resource realities.
• Apply the Kolb learning cycle (experience, reflection, theory, experiment) to your development and your team’s.
• Analyze Challenge #1: integrating multiple work units while balancing competing interests.

Module 3: Balancing Competing Interests

• Contrast win/lose, lose/lose, compromise, and win/win approaches and their short- and long-term effects.
• Use structured steps for conflict resolution and recognize common cognitive traps during conflict.
• Select and apply conflict styles (problem solving, compromising, forcing, avoidance) appropriately.
• Intervene constructively in team dynamics; give clear feedback using BIG/SBI models.

Module 4: Delegation and Empowerment

• Plan incremental delegation as a developmental tool and link delegation to empowerment and trust.
• Gather critical information quickly in new roles to delegate beyond your technical expertise.
• Decide what not to delegate; follow practical delegation steps and create a delegation chart.
• Adopt time-management habits that support empowered teams and manager focus.

Module 5: Current Thinking on Motivation and Applying It to Our Work

• Summarize motivation milestones (Hawthorne, Maslow, Herzberg) and their relevance to managers.
• Differentiate extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation and when each works best.
• Apply Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and evaluate Pink’s “Drive.”
• Work through case studies on blended workforces and bargaining-unit contexts to craft workable solutions.

Module 6: Coaching and Mentoring

• Use the CTEC coaching process (Characterize, Target, Evaluate, Celebrate) for performance and development coaching.
• Distinguish coaching from mentoring, therapy, and problem solving.
• Diagnose needs with ability–motivation and support–technical assessments to tailor coaching.
• Design a coaching plan that builds buy-in, milestones, and recognition.

Module 7: Influencing and the Uses of Power

• Define seven power bases (coercive, connection, expert, information, legitimate, referent, reward) and effective use.
• Build influence (not just authority) and avoid self-disempowering habits.
• Select styles of influence (friendliness, bargaining, reason, assertiveness, higher authority, coalition building) to fit the context.
• Analyze public examples and media cases to spot effective/ineffective influence.

Module 8: Analyzing Your Network

• Map critical internal/external partners and the interdependencies that drive results.
• Evaluate relationship quality vs. importance and prioritize where to improve.
• Create a Critical Relationships Enhancement Plan with concrete actions.
• Strengthen collaboration skills to support Challenge #4.

Module 9: The What, The So What, and The What’s Next

• Review key learnings across all modules and summarize competencies tied to the four challenges.
• Complete gap and/or force-field analyses to set personal and organizational improvement targets.
• Build an action plan and communicate “what’s next” to stakeholders and your team.