Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? In this course, you gain the skills to structure, measure and tune team performance. Through practical workshops, you learn how to become a leader who equips his or her teams with the skills and capabilities to deliver world-class results. You also learn how to create the conditions for success in service delivery teams, integrate leadership characteristics into your management style, and deploy a multilevel approach to minimise communication breakdowns. Who will benefit from this course? This course is valuable for anyone who wants to create an environment in which service delivery teams can maximise their productivity and performance. This course is particularly beneficial for government employees and managers involved in service delivery, customer service managers, Help Desk managers, Call Center managers and non-project oriented team leaders. What background do I need? There are no formal prerequisite requirements for this course. Familiarity with the concepts of delegation, motivation, communication and emotional intelligence is helpful, but not required. Course 290, Management Skills, provides this background. Previous experience managing teams is also helpful. I work in a project management environment. Should I take this course? No. You should instead consider Course 346, Project Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams. Course 346 focuses on developing your leadership abilities as a project leader. You gain the skills to build and empower effective project teams to ensure project success. You also learn how to align leadership behaviors with the project management life cycle. Course 222 is geared toward developing the leadership abilities of service delivery team leaders. You learn how to optimise organisation and work design for success in service delivery teams, motivate your team with effective performance measurement, and eliminate barriers and chokepoints that block teamwork. Coaching and feedback are also covered. What is service delivery and why does service leadership matter? Service delivery refers to the processes, transactions and services an organisation provides for its customers. Service delivery leaders increasingly face multiple challenges: greater complexity of work, limited resources, cost reductions and overwhelmed workers. This course gives you the tools to effectively manage these challenges. Why is it important that I develop my skills as a service delivery team leader? In order to succeed in a service team environment, it is crucial that leaders inspire their team members to work together to deliver high-quality results. This course provides the knowledge and skills necessary for service team leaders to structure, measure and tune team performance. You learn how to model the key behaviors of effective leadership, optimise team processes, and apply communication styles in pressure situations. Does this course cover conflict resolution? Yes! Differences in backgrounds, education, work experience and ways of doing things have the potential to cause conflict. Conflict that is not resolved affects individual and team performance and must be handled in a structured and timely manner. This course enhances your abilities to handle conflicts and to eliminate obstacles to effective communication. By promptly dealing with conflict, you can optimise team effectiveness. Why is performance measurement important and how is it covered in this course? Performance measurement can promote effective or ineffective work behavior. This course provides the skills to measure what matters and support positive work behaviors. You learn how to recognise and appreciate the power of performance measurement, analyse the subtle force of measurement, and tune measures to optimise results. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Introduction 1.5 Structuring effective work design 2.0 Shaping the leadership thought process 2.0 Harnessing the power of motivation and performance measurement 2.0 Forging your role as a leader 3.0 Adapting your leadership role to accommodate difference 1.5 Designing an effective team communication strategy 3.0 Planning your transition to successful leadership and creating your service leadership action plan 3.0 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. How much of this course is spent in workshops? Approximately 70 percent of class time is spent in workshops. The workshops reinforce the knowledge gained and provide you with practical experience developing your leadership skills. Exercises include identifying dimensions of difference, motivating people to stay, profiling your Emotional Intelligence (EI) strengths and employing the dimensions of coaching. The course culminates with the development of your own service leadership action plan. I keep hearing about coaching. What is coaching and why is it important? To make average performance great and significantly improve the behavior and skills of a individual, managers are harnessing the power of coaching. In this course, you learn the coaching process and how to provide feedback that drives performance development. You identify examples of good coaching that will ensure your coaching efforts produce results for both you and your team. What is effective work design and why does it matter? The organisation of a team's work is a key factor in determining team success. By focusing first on work design, you build a strong foundation on which you can develop team performance. This course provides you with the skills to design effective work assignments, optimise team structure, match task-to-team organisation and select the best team design. Is this course applicable to a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification? Yes. Although this course is not designed as preparation for the exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward PMI's PMP certification. For those who are currently certified, completion of this course counts as 17 professional development units (60 units must be completed every three years to maintain certification). For more details, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? In addition to the aforementioned Course 290 and Course 346, the following Learning Tree courses may also be of interest: In Course 275, Leading Virtual and Remote Teams, you acquire the real-world skills to deliver results across multisite and multinational environments. Course 274, Managing Performance, provides the knowledge and skills to focus the performance of the people you manage through clear, agreed performance plans and constructive, future-focused appraisals. In Course 224, The Art of Coaching: Enabling Employees to Achieve Their Potential, you gain the skills to develop the potential of your employees, peers and others with proven coaching techniques. Course 247, MBA Essentials: Enhancing Organisational Performance offers the skills to evaluate organisational information and address business challenges. You learn fundamental business concepts and proven management analysis tools typically taught in MBA programmes. The following courses may also be of interest: Course 296, Project Management: Skills for Success Course 340, Project Management for Software Development Course 287, Strategic Project Management: Achieving Organisational Goals Course 187, ITIL® v2: Achieving Foundation Certification Course 246, Managing Information Overload: Techniques for Working Smarter Course 922, Managing in Tough Times

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