recommend an online management course you liked

February 13, 2024 6:27 AM

I run a small company, and one of my employees has expressed the desire to move up in her career and take on a manager role. We're looking for online courses or trainings that you took and found very valuable to help you become a good manager. Do you have a recommendation?

She's currently an administrative assistant, and we're looking to add one or two colleagues to the team to help her in that role, and eventually perhaps take over her tasks entirely as she takes on a more managerial role.
She has no previous experience as a manager, but is performing well in her tasks, and i think she has the potential to be a good manager.

I (her manager) never received any formal management training, so i don't really know where to begin to teach her.

We're looking for an online course or programme in English that she could follow to get her some pointers before we start hiring extra colleagues. Ideally, something that can be done part-time next to her current tasks in a few weeks, not a full-time online MBA.

Bonus points for any additional training that's also specifically focussed on the Filipino work culture. We are an international company, but she is Filipino, and the (future) colleagues she'd be overseeing will most likely be Filipino too.

Thanks!

posted by PardonMyFrench to Education (3 answers total)

Best answer: I find The Management Center to be hugely helpful, and they have a strong focus on equity and inclusion (so, not Filipino exclusively, but coming from the idea that not everyone is coming from an identical culture). They have a book (the current edition is different from the older one; get the current one). I took their online "crash course" and found it immensely valuable: Managing to Change the World. They also have other training online, as well as a lot of written resources.

They are focused on the nonprofit and educational sector, but I think the skills are solid regardless. They're just not going to be about maximizing sales or profits.
posted by lapis at 7:03 AM on February 13 [3 favorites]

This is not a training and may be orthogonal to the question, but! On an ongoing basis, I really like the Internet advice column Ask A Manager. I've learned a lot about workplace communication and how to (and how not to) manage from reading her responses to user letters.
posted by HtotheH at 7:52 AM on February 13 [3 favorites]

Perhaps she herself can do some research and suggest courses that she could take locally. If she will be managing in the Philippines and (presumably) under Filipino business norms, I do think it is imperative to find resources that fit the local culture. I grew up there, and even though I never worked in a corporate environment there, in my experience it is very "guess" culture where soft power/influence is very important. There is also a strong culture of going along to get along (pakikisama). This is quite different to North American business norms where "ask" is the default way.

This is not to discourage your company on funding training, just a note that she may have a tougher transition given she is new, and she may need to adapt some of the learnings to fit. So be gentle on her :)

Manager Tools (podcast) has been recommended to me in the past, and I like that they have just a few basics, so it doesn't feel so overwhelming.

For me personally, the most useful basics are: delegation, clear objectives, and providing feedback.
posted by tinydancer at 10:57 AM on February 13