Leadership Essentials
Leadership Essentials is a comprehensive program for new and emerging people leaders who need a stronger foundation across the full management role. The program covers leadership identity, communication, managing up, coaching, performance management, difficult conversations, recruiting, onboarding, cross-functional leadership, financial literacy, delegation, culture, and team standards.
This program is designed for SMBs that want managers to lead with greater consistency, accountability, and confidence while building stronger teams and more sustainable leadership habits.
What to expect
Leadership Essentials is a 12-week instructor-led program designed for new and emerging people leaders who need a structured foundation across the full management role.
The program covers the full leadership lifecycle, including leadership identity, communication, coaching, performance management, recruiting, onboarding, cross-functional influence, financial literacy, delegation, culture, and team standards. It is designed to help managers lead with more consistency, confidence, and accountability.
By the end of this program, participants will be able to:
- Establish leadership credibility and manage the transition from peer to people leader
- Communicate clearly in one-on-ones, team meetings, upward reporting, and difficult conversations
- Use coaching frameworks to build team capability and ownership
- Manage performance proactively with clearer expectations and documentation
- Recruit, interview, and onboard with more structure and consistency
- Navigate cross-functional relationships and competing priorities with confidence
- Read, interpret, and contribute to a Profit and Loss statement
- Build delegation habits, team standards, and culture practices that sustain performance
Curriculum Details
Module 1:
Leadership Identity, Mindset & Credibility
Participants examine the leadership identity shift that happens when they move from doing the work to leading others. The module introduces common new-manager failure patterns and helps participants define expectations, accountability habits, and personal leadership standards.
Module 2:
Communication Frameworks & Managing Up
Participants learn how to communicate clearly across team meetings, direct reports, written updates, and senior leadership conversations. The module focuses on direction-setting, upward communication, decision documentation, and replacing common communication habits that create confusion.
Module 3:
Coaching & Developing Your Team
Participants learn how to coach team members without simply giving answers or taking work back. The module introduces the GROW model, development planning, and practical ways to help direct reports build ownership, capability, and independence.
Module 4:
Performance Management & Difficult Conversations
Participants learn how to identify performance gaps early, distinguish between skill and will issues, and conduct difficult conversations with structure. The module includes feedback and documentation frameworks that help managers address issues fairly, clearly, and consistently.
Module 5:
Recruiting, Interviewing & Onboarding
Participants learn how to improve hiring quality by defining role requirements, asking better behavioural interview questions, and scoring candidates consistently. The module also covers 30-60-90 day onboarding so new hires can ramp faster and understand expectations from the start.
Module 6:
Interdepartmental Influence & Cross-Functional Leadership
Participants learn how to build credibility beyond their own team and manage competing priorities across departments. The module focuses on stakeholder mapping, cross-functional conflict, resource negotiation, and communication with peer managers and senior leaders.
Module 7:
Understanding & Managing a P&L
Participants learn practical financial literacy for managers, including how to read a Profit and Loss statement and understand the line items they can influence. The module focuses on budget responsibility, variance analysis, and communicating financial performance in a credible way.
Module 8:
Delegation, Culture & The Leadership Playbook
Participants learn how to delegate more effectively, assign ownership, and build accountability structures that reduce micromanagement. The module also focuses on team culture, communication norms, and performance standards, and documenting the leadership practices developed throughout the program.
Timeline
Registrations open year round.
Registration details
Program Format
The program is delivered in-person and virtually
Price
$10,000 + HST per trainee
Duration
12 Weeks
Best designed for
- Newly promoted managers who want a structured foundation across the full scope of management
- Team leads and supervisors managing direct reports without formal leadership training
- Emerging leaders preparing to move into management
- SMB owners and operators building a management layer and consistent leadership standards
Registration is open
Registration is now open.
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Contact us
For more information, please contact us at
yspace@yorku.ca
416-736-2100 ext. 44940
