This week, Skye Learning is spotlighting Dr. Jonathan Jefferson, the Chief Academic Officer and Provost at Lesley University. Skye was thrilled to include Dr. Jefferson’s expert commentary in Introduction to Leadership, a course within the Certificate in Leadership.

Formerly, Dr. Jefferson was Chair of Lesley’s Business Management Division and a professor of management. He was Managing Director of Jefferson Consulting Group for almost eight years, where he managed a portfolio of $200 million and over 130 projects. He was also formerly Director of the United States Coast Guard Academy’s Institute for Leadership. He also served as Dean of Albany State University’s College of Business and Dean of Clark Atlanta University, among other former positions.

Your employees will look to management for guidance on how they are expected to accomplish given goals. You will be called upon to decide the order or priority of tasks, the individuals responsible for completing them, the manner in which they are to be performed, and the tools that will be used to measure progress.

Managers must consider a number of factors when setting schedules and assigning work tasks, including the skill levels and experience of workers and how well a given set of employees work together. Flexibility is key when dealing with unanticipated scheduling problems.

Skye Learning’s Introduction to Emergency Management course provides an overview of fundamental concepts, including the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. See what a learner has to say about the course:

Becca Van Nederynen is an expert in remote management. She is Head of People Operations at Help Scout, a web-based help desk where 100 percent of staff work remotely. Her team focuses on recruiting, hiring, and developing employees who thrive remotely and strives to keep staff well connected in a virtual environment. She has previous experience working in database marketing, product marketing, product management, and user research.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has forced many companies to implement mandatory remote work, an arrangement that for many is completely new and daunting. And while employees can find a plethora of advice columns online on how to make telecommuting a positive experience, there is less guidance available for managers on how to effectively lead their remote staff. According to Owl Labs’ 2019 State of Remote Work report, 15% of remote employee managers surveyed received no level of training on how to manage this growing labor force.

The remote workforce has substantially changed the labor market forever, from the hiring process to expected benefits, from employee retention to technology costs. Yet, only about three quarters of remote employee managers have received some level of training on how to manage this new labor force.

This week, Skye Learning is excited to spotlight Justin Kates, a subject matter expert for the AEM^®/CEM^® Prep Course (U.S. version). This new course was created in partnership with the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), who offer the nationally recognized Associate Emergency Manager and Certified Emergency Manager certifications.

Kates is a Certified Emergency Manager and Master Continuity Practitioner. He is Director of Emergency Management for the City of Nashua, NH and Region 1 Vice President for IAEM. What’s more, Kates is an advisor for Decision Aid, an emergency management and business continuity consulting firm; an adjunct faculty member at Rivier University; a board member and Vice Chair of Volunteer NH; and more.

Organizations have always faced the need to change, but—with the current rate of technological change, intense competitive pressures, shift to a knowledge-based economy, and globalization—change has become more common and even more crucial to success. As such, leading change is an important skill for managers.

While many management experts have estimated that some 70 percent of change initiatives fail, more recent research suggests that finding valid and reliable empirical evidence of such a failure rate is problematic.

This week, Skye Learning is spotlighting Ann Connolly, a retired management consultant with a specialty in business strategy. Connolly is a subject matter expert for the Certificate in Leadership for Women in Business. Throughout this certificate, she discusses networking, communication, management, negotiation, and other leadership skills, especially as they relate to women.

Connolly has more than 30 years of experience within the financial services industry. During her career, she specialized in retirement, asset management, banking, and insurance.

Managers are often called upon to handle change in their organizations. Some changes are small and do not require much of a manager. But many are significant, requiring a strong leader to orchestrate the details. Whether it be handling new products, new technologies, new people, or new departmental missions, managers must be able to deal with change in an efficient and non-disruptive way.