Building Blocks for Managers: New courses available

From: Human Resources

The Talent Development team curates relevant and meaningful courses, articles, and videos aimed at helping managers and leaders develop critical skills that assist them in their roles and positions at Virginia Tech. Explore these selected learning opportunities within Leading Yourself and Others, Communicating with Impact, Building Productive Relationships, Building an Inclusive Team, and Cultivating Business Acumen.

This update features resources that we hope you find enlightening, engaging, and entertaining. In Leading Self and Others, TED’s series “How to Be a Better Human” has a great post on the two kinds of praise we all need at work. These two different types of praise have two distinct effects, one that moves the team forward, and another that makes the employee stronger. Learn how they work and when they are best used.

Under Communicating with Impact, you may find the LinkedIn Learning Course, “Mastering the Art of Feedback” to be useful in smoothing out those challenging conversations. Giving feedback can be awkward and uncomfortable, our brains have built-in mechanisms that make us want to deflect and defend, but by approaching these conversations in the right way and keeping in mind our biases, we can use these conversations to build trust, improve our relationships, and give and receive feedback in a constructive way.

Another learning opportunity you may find helpful is the TED talk “Forget the Pecking Order at Work” under Building Productive Relationships. In her 2015 TEDWomen talk, Margaret Hefferman argues that competition and performance aren’t what makes companies successful, but instead it’s the social bonds, the trust and connection, built amongst teams that truly helps them to succeed. Explore how leaders can create conditions to foster social bonds.

Check out Building Blocks for Managers and more. For questions or more information, contact the Talent Development team at hrservicecenter@vt.edu.