Class Info

Online Course: Leadership Skills for the IT Professional

Get Full Access for Only $49.00  

[tabby title=”Course Overview”]

There comes a point in the career of most IT Professionals that advancement means taking on at least some degree of leadership in their organization. The only problem is that most IT pros built their career and earned all of their accolades on a set of technology skills that aren’t transferable into leading people and managing resources.

What IT Pros Need to Be Effective Leaders

Most IT leaders earned their promotions on the basis of their technical competency, not their leadership skills. Technical leaders rarely step into leadership in possession of the complex mix of skills that engenders their success and the success of their teams. And while the results of this career transition aren’t always a disaster, we’re often left feeling that we could be doing a much better job.

This full day training seminar imparts years of hard won wisdom and the industry’s best research about how to successfully manage and lead a team of IT professionals, from all areas of information technology. Successful IT leaders require a combination of:

  • Cultivating the respect and trust of your team;
  • Behavioral knowledge to understand technology professionals; and
  • A variety of specific skills to competently lead IT professionals in the broad categories of:
    • coaching
    • facilitating change
    • promoting communication
    • growing a culture of effectiveness
    • leading teams

 

Develop Critical IT Leadership Skills in a Class Written by IT Leaders for IT Leaders

I have to be honest, my custom-written training coursework won’t train IT pros in every aspect of every leadership category. (Heck, an MBA takes at least two years of intense study and even that doesn’t guarantee a strong leader). However, my coursework will equip you with a strong foundation to confidently take on your leadership duties, handle the most common leadership issues, and avoid the most frequent and costly leadership mistakes. This coursework will enable you to further develop your leadership potential and achieve excellent results, both for yourself and for your team.

By taking this course, you will:

  1. Learn about motivating IT professionals and how to cultivate an atmosphere for effectiveness.
  2. Develop skills to envision, plan, and execute your goals at an interpersonal and organization level
  3. Review more than a dozen specific scenarios that frequently foil the new leader of IT teams and the best way to handle them, such as:
    Exposing and correcting performance problems
    Managing remote employees
    Gaining support of the organizational executives
    Delegation
    Conducting impactful meetings
    Facilitating effective and productive teamwork

 

 

[tabby title=”Sessions”]

Session 1 – Understanding leadership – 

This module describes the differences between management and leadership. We’ll discuss why both are important and necessary, and how it is possible to be one without being the other. We’ll also discuss the four fundamental leadership skills of outstanding leaders.

Session 2 – Know Thyself – 

This module describes the pivotal role of personalities in the success of teams. We’ll discuss two common personality typing systems, DISC and MTBI, and how they can amplify the leader’s ability to achieve success by leveraging their own and their team’s strengths.

Session 03 – Understanding Technical Teams –  

This module describes the six categories that motivate technologists. By learning what strongly motivates technologists, and avoiding what demotivates them, you’ll build a world-class team that delivers exceptional results. Other sub-modules include:

  • Character and Good Leaders
  • Active Listening Skills
  • Behavior and Outcomes: Why are they so important?

Session 04 – Skill: Launching a New Team –  

Launching a new project or team is not as easy as it seems. This module delves in to the best practices for launching a new IT team or project.”>order

Session 05 – Skill: Management by Objective –  

There are many ways to manage your direct reports. This module explores one of the most effective techniques to manage technologists, called Management by Objectives (MBO), enabling them to achieve top results while enabling you to meet your organizational goals.

Session 06 – Skill: Communicating Upward –  

This module covers techniques to help you influence management higher up in the organization.

Session 07 – Skill: Enabling Good Team Communications –  

This module discusses methods to communicate that not only inform, but also build and reinforce the cohesion of a strong team.

Session 08 – Skill: Delegation –  

This module teaches the importance of effective delegation and scale up the activity of your team.

Session 09 – Skill: Planning & Envisioning –  

 

Session 10 – Skill: Exposing and Resolving Under-performance and Problems –  

It’s easy to lead a team of IT professionals when everyone is doing their job and is fun to work with. This module discusses how to handle situations with staff when a team member is under-performing.

Session 11 – Skill: Dealing with Objections –  

This module discusses how to overcome impasses, obstacles and objections from within the team and from external sources.

Session 12 – Skill: Conducting Meetings –  

This module discusses how to make the most of shared time amongst the team.

Session 13 – Skill: Dealing with Change –  

This module covers how to help the team through a period of upheaval, such as major organizational change or negative situations.

Session 14 – Wrap-Up –  

This brief section covers recommended reading, useful resources, and follow-up Q&A.

[tabby title=”Speaker”]
KevinK-200Kevin Kline is a renowned database expert and software industry veteran. A long-time Microsoft SQL Server MVP and noted leader in the IT industry, Kevin is a founder and former president of PASS and the author of popular IT books like SQL in a Nutshell. Kevin is a top-rated speaker at industry trade shows worldwide. He tweets at #kekline and blogs at http://KevinEKline.com.

 

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