Overview
Project Success Starts with Effective Leadership
Leading a team through any task or project requires special skills, and an understanding of the team dynamic and politics. This introductory-level course for managers or anyone interested in leading teams, addresses the key issues surrounding leadership in a team environment.
You’ll learn how to account for the special and unique circumstances when working in a team, where responsibility, accountability, communication, and leadership are shared.
When you finish this course, you’ll have the skills to:
- Increase productivity with effectively structured teams.
- Unleash team creativity throughout your organization.
- Successfully guide teams through change and conflict.
- Complete projects on time and on budget.
- Improve your company culture and team dynamics.
Learning Outcomes:
- List and identify the key characteristics and types of teams
- Recognize the benefits and challenges of empowered teams that leaders need to be aware of
- Identify differences in the primary and secondary roles filled by empowered teams and team leaders
- Recognize the key sources of motivation for empowered teams
- Explain Tuckman’s model of team development
- Recognize the key qualities and skills of a team leader
- State the value of using the “checklist for team leaders”
- Recognize and apply suggested approaches for managing conflict in teams
- Discuss the different approaches needed for leading virtual teams
Who Should Attend
- Leaders and managers of organizations with complex systems and multiple stakeholders, including in the non-profit and public/government sectors.
- Members of a newly (or soon to be) reorganized or restructured team.
- Project managers and other employees interested in increasing their teams’ productivity and performance.
Curriculum
MODULE 1: POWER OF TEAMS
Day 1 Live Session:
- Introduction to course and colleagues
- Walkthrough of technology & expectations
- Overview of concepts to be covered
- Assign teams and team projects
Coursework:
Study slides 1 through 14, including answering courseware questions.
Individual Homework Assignment:
Students will be given a rubric to reflect on their prior team experience, analyze characteristics contributing to or decreasing its effectiveness, and analyze their own behavior within the team context.
Team Online Discussion Question:
Share and discuss examples of when you were in or led an effective team. How did you know it is/was effective?
MODULE 2:
Live Session:
- Effective team characteristics
- Motivation
- Leadership styles
Homework:
Study slides 15 through 28, including answering courseware questions
Individual Writing Assignment:
Students will be given a rubric to identify and diagnose a workplace conflict they have experienced and explore ways that the conflict may have been prevented or mitigated.
Team Online Discussion Question:
If conflict is inevitable, is it possible to choose your conflicts?
MODULE 3: TROUBLESHOOTING TEAMS
Live Session:
- Types of conflicts
- Diagnosing conflicts
- Addressing and preventing conflicts
Homework
As a team, do a deep dive into your assigned aspect of effective team functioning and prepare a 10-minute presentation for the class summarizing your research findings.
Individual Writing Assignment:
Students will be given a rubric to confidentially analyze their class team’s processes alongside concepts learned in class and consider how their personal habits and preferences that surfaced in this group may show up in other teams they work with.
Team Online Discussion Question:
Tuckman’s final stages of group development are adjourning and mourning. Is this something you’ve experienced in teams you’ve worked with? How can a leader prepare a group for this?
MODULE 4: TEAM PRESENTATIONS
Live Session:
- Team Presentations
- Team Process Debrief
- Wrap-up and Learning More
Instructors
“We have groups in every aspect of our lives, not just in the workplace, but our families are groups, and our hobbies happen in groups. These are not skills that are limited to the workplace. They can really impact how you interact everywhere and your success everywhere in your world.”
-Kaomi (Karen) Taylor Mitchell, instructor, Leading Effective Teams
FAQ
The course itself is a Mindedge course through one of our educational partners. The Subject Matter Expert (SME) will lead discussions and live sessions in the Brightspace environment.
The course is 4 weeks in length.
The course runs 4 weeks, but learners have access to the Mindedge course for up to 90 days. If you do not feel you will complete the work in the four weeks you can reach out to the SME to discuss your options.
You will have access to the course content 90 days from the date of registration.
Yes! The course is 100% online and can be taken anywhere.
The tuition rate is set at $850 for all learners and does not differ based on a learner’s residency.
Yes, all course materials are included in the price and materials can be accessed through the online platform Brightspace.
- Weekly Subject Matter Expert (SME) presentations to review previous material, and introduce and explain new material
- Weekly live session with SME
- Discussion boards for weekly assignments, along with peer and SME support
- Access to course materials
If you are a non-credit student seeking accessibility support, please email access@uvm.edu and the UVM Student Accessibility Services team will be able to assist. In your email, please include that you do not have a 95 number/NetID.
- Have questions about taking an online or distance education course? Visit the Online and Distance Education FAQ page
- Have more basic questions about Professional and Distance Education? Visit our About Us and FAQs pages.
Payment must be paid in full when you register.
No refund is issued for this program.
Yes, We offer a 20% Discount for PMI-CV, VBSR, or LCRCC Members, UVM and UVM Medical Center Affiliates
Can I use VA Benefits, military tuition assistance, GI Bill, or VA Fry grant to pay for this course?
No, this course has not been certified for VA benefits.
You will be assessed on your participation in the discussion boards, completion of assignments, and comprehension of the course material. Students must successfully participate in 70% of the program in order to receive a Digital Badge. Because this is a non-credit course, there is no transcript.
We estimate 4-6 hours a week for the course. However, people vary their level of involvement in the course.
Yes, there is a live session on Wednesdays from 6:30 – 7:30 ET for four weeks.
Neither federal nor institutional financial aid is available for non-credit professional programs. Consult your State Department of Labor to determine if there are training grants available to support non-credit certificates aimed at career change.
For Vermont Residents: The Vermont Legislature designates a certain amount of grant money every year for Vermont residents who want to pursue education or training beyond high school. These grants are administered through VSAC.
Learn more about options for discounts, grants, loans, scholarships, and more on our tuition and financial aid page.
Kaomi Taylor Mitchell, MPA is a career nonprofit leader with a specialty in helping organizations identify and navigate through key growth and pivot points, Kaomi recently stepped down after 11 years as the Executive Director of the beloved Governor’s Institutes of Vermont. Prior to that she worked as a consultant and on the staff of a wide variety of businesses and nonprofits, including four years as Executive Director of a national health advocacy organization, and brought her diverse experience to the business departments of Champlain College and St. Michael’s College where she taught graduate and undergraduate students at as an adjunct professor for eight years. Kaomi holds a Masters degree in Public Administration and Certificate in Adaptive Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School and completed postgraduate work in public policy at Tufts University.
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