HR & People Ops
People Manager Essentials
A practical two-day course for new, frontline, and developing managers who need repeatable tools for expectations, coaching, feedback, delegation, performance, conflict, change, and team health.
- Format
- Live virtual, in-person, or private on-site
- Duration
- 2 days
- Level
- Introductory
- From
- $1295.00
About this course
Course overview
Give managers practical tools they can use immediately.
People Manager Essentials is a two-day course for new, frontline, and developing managers who need a clear operating baseline for leading people day to day. The course focuses on the work managers repeatedly face: setting expectations, running one-on-ones, coaching, delegating, giving feedback, handling performance concerns, navigating conflict, communicating change, and supporting team health.
The course is designed for HR and people-operations teams that need a consistent manager enablement experience across departments. Participants leave with a manager role map, conversation toolkit, performance and conflict guide, and 30-day manager action plan.
Learning outcomes
What you'll learn
Every module is tied to an outcome you can bring back to your team the next day.
- Define the people manager role, common boundaries, decision rights, recurring responsibilities, and first-manager traps
- Set clear expectations using goals, role clarity, working agreements, one-on-ones, team norms, and operating rhythms
- Coach employees using listening, questions, observation, feedback loops, growth plans, and follow-up practices
- Delegate work with clear outcomes, constraints, risk awareness, support, and accountability without micromanagement
- Give timely feedback, document performance concerns, reinforce accountability, and partner appropriately with HR
- Navigate difficult conversations, interpersonal conflict, trust issues, psychological safety, and team norms constructively
- Communicate change, manage resistance, support adoption, and sustain team health during uncertainty
- Document 16.0 PMI education PDUs: 5 Ways of Working, 8 Power Skills, and 3 Business Acumen
Audience
Who it's for
- New, frontline, and developing managers who need practical manager fundamentals
- HR, people-operations, and learning teams building a repeatable manager enablement baseline
- Technical leads, project leads, supervisors, and team leads moving into people-management responsibilities
- Organizations that need shared manager language around expectations, coaching, delegation, feedback, performance, conflict, change, and team health
Course structure
Syllabus
A structured path from core concepts to applied practice.
Day 1 - Manager Foundations, Expectations, and Coaching
- Manager responsibilities, boundaries, authority, accountability, and common first-manager traps
- Management versus individual contribution, technical leadership, project leadership, HR ownership, and executive sponsorship
- Role clarity, goals, priorities, working agreements, team norms, decision rights, and communication channels
- One-on-ones, team meetings, check-ins, planning cadence, and follow-through systems
- Coaching mindset, listening, questions, observation, feedback loops, growth plans, strengths, and development needs
- Delegation levels, task clarity, decision rights, outcomes, constraints, risk, support, workload visibility, capacity, prioritization, and healthy escalation
Day 2 - Feedback, Performance, Conflict, Change, and Team Health
- Timely feedback, behavior-impact language, reinforcing expectations, recognizing progress, and documenting patterns
- Performance concerns, difficult conversations, improvement plans, HR partnership, and fairness
- Sources of conflict, trust erosion, interpersonal tension, team norms, inclusion, and psychological safety
- Difficult conversations, mediation basics, issue framing, repair attempts, and manager neutrality
- Manager role in change communication, sensemaking, resistance, uncertainty, adoption, and reinforcement
- Stakeholder alignment, message clarity, feedback loops, employee support, team health signals, accountability habits, decision logs, follow-up, and 30-day manager action planning
Public cohorts
Upcoming sessions
Secure your seat in a live, instructor-led cohort. Private team deliveries available on request.
No public cohorts on the calendar yet.
We run this course as a private team cohort on demand, or you can be the first to know when the next public date drops.
Frequently asked questions
Still have questions?
How is this different from Leadership Essentials for Managers?
Is this only for new managers?
What do participants leave with?
How many PMI PDUs does this course provide?
Can this be tailored for private teams?
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Bring this training to your team
We deliver private cohorts in-person and online, tailored to your operating context.