Confident Manager Foundations

What you'll walk away with

• Make the shift from doing the work to getting work done through others.
• Flex between directing and supporting based on where each person sits on a task.
• Give feedback that changes behaviour instead of damaging trust.
• Set goals your team can act on, and track them without micromanaging.
• Run meetings that end in decisions rather than another meeting.

Course content

Sample lessons are shown below. Full lesson content, workbooks and templates are released to enrolled participants as a formatted e-course pack (PDF, print-ready) after enrolment.

1. 01

   Week 1 — The transition into management

   Sample lessons

   What changes when your results start coming from other people, and what to stop doing.

   • The first passage

     Map what you were rewarded for as a contributor against what you are now accountable for, and identify the three habits that no longer serve you.

     Informed by The Leadership Pipeline (Charan, Drotter & Noel, Jossey-Bass / John Wiley & Sons).

   • Leading yourself first

     Self-observation, self-set goals and self-cueing: a weekly routine for noticing your own behaviour before you try to shape anyone else's.

     Informed by Self-Leadership Theory (Manz & Neck).

   • Humility and will

     Why quiet resolve outperforms personality, and how to hold a high standard without making it about you.

     Informed by Level 5 Leadership (Jim Collins, Good to Great).

2. 02

   Week 2 — Goal setting and delegation

   Sample lessons

   Clear ownership, deadlines and quality expectations, matched to each person's readiness.

   • One-page goals

     Write goals short enough to be remembered and specific enough to be checked, then agree how progress will be reviewed.

     Informed by The One Minute Manager® (Blanchard & Johnson, HarperCollins).

   • Diagnosing development level

     Assess competence and commitment task by task, and choose a directive, coaching, supporting or delegating response accordingly.

     Informed by Situational Leadership® (Hersey & Blanchard).

   • The delegation conversation

     A five-part script covering outcome, boundaries, resources, check-ins and the decision rights you are handing over.

3. 03

   Week 3 — Communication and feedback

   Enrolled only · 3 lessons

   Active listening, praise and redirection, and meetings with a stated purpose and outcome.

   • ●Praise that landslocked
   • ●Redirection without damagelocked
   • ●Listening past the first answerlocked
4. 04

   Week 4 — Accountability and conflict

   Enrolled only · 3 lessons

   Holding standards and mediating disagreement early, without becoming quality control for everyone.

   • ●The accountability ladderlocked
   • ●Mediating between two peoplelocked
   • ●Difficult conversations rehearsallocked
5. 05

   Week 5 — Modelling the way

   Enrolled only · 2 lessons

   Values you can act on, and the credibility that makes people follow them.

   • ●Clarify and act on valueslocked
   • ●Encouraging the heartlocked
6. 06

   Week 6 — Strategic thinking and your 90-day plan

   Enrolled only · 2 lessons

   Decision-making, problem-solving, and connecting team goals to company direction.

   • ●From transactional to transformationallocked
   • ●Your 90-day leadership planlocked

Course material

Enrolled participants receive the complete formatted e-course pack and all implementation materials listed below.

• Participant e-book (A4 screen edition and 6×9in print-ready edition)
• Weekly practice workbook with reflection prompts
• Delegation, feedback and one-on-one templates
• Facilitator notes for organisations running the course internally

Prerequisites

None. Best suited to leaders in their first 18 months of managing people.

Facilitation

Facilitated by an XZX senior partner, with written material authored in-house.