Managerial Leadership Certificate

Communication styles and cultural gaps between different generations exist in almost every workplace.  Effective peer communication, as well as conflict resolution across generations, can help managers and management teams function with greater understanding. This course will allow participants to:

• Recognize different aspects of generational cultures,
• More effectively manage cross-generational communication and relationships,
• Understand how components of culture can lead to conflict and misunderstanding,
• Understand generational factors at play and the potential conflict arising from generational differences,
• Bridge differences using communication skills such as active listening and expressing empathy, and
• Address miscommunication and deescalate emotions with strategies and tools to effectively lead all generations.

Taught By: Dr. Scott Eldredge
April 4th - Biltmore Park

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Today’s leaders face significant challenges including building dynamic and productive teams, handling a crisis on the fly, ensuring effective policies are in place to create organizational culture, and reducing legal risks. This course is designed to help managers become high impact leaders in a constantly changing and politically dynamic world by developing personal insights, a better understanding of different working styles, effective communications skills, and learning how to maintain a high level of professionalism in a variety of situations. In this course students will learn how to:

• Assess their leadership style and develop ways to be more effective,
• Develop leadership strategies that are separate from just knowing how to manage,
• Learn strategies for developing highly effective teams,
• Improve their communication competency by building key skills, and
• Improve employee relations, organizational culture, and reduce liability risks.

Taught By: Dr. Sarah Minnis
April 11th - Biltmore Park

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Giving performance feedback is one of the most critical supervisory and managerial communication skills after technical or subject matter expertise. Feedback needs to be delivered frequently, and in a way that motivates and inspires employees to perform at their peak. Whether coaching employees, implementing change initiatives, or navigating difficult situations, managers and supervisors must be able to effectively communicate with their staff. This critical course will cover in-depth topics such as:

• The power of feedback in the workplace,
• Creating detailed feedback,
• How to plan for effective feedback,
• Steps for giving feedback,
• Steps for receiving feedback,
• Feedback and communication styles,
• Handling difficult feedback situations, and
• Developing and reassessing feedback skills.

Taught By: Dr. Scott Eldredge
April 18th - Biltmore Park

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Managers spend significant time and energy focusing on the value proposition.  Participants will pause to examine what factors are limiting the ability to offer more value, serve more customers, increase profits and expand business.  Program participants will also learn how to meet customer needs by making the teams work easier, better, faster and cheaper. 

The topics covered in this course include:

• Understanding of the concept of value versus waste,
• Strategies to balance workload and align to tasks and goals, and
• Techniques to visualize and improve data-driven processes.

Taught By: Rebecca Simmons
April 25th - ONLINE

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The ability to present ideas with confidence is essential for professional success and career advancement. In this day-long course designed especially for the NOC, managers will learn how to make a positive first impression, meet and greet with ease, and polish and practice their elevator pitch. Students will build confidence and skills that will enable them to be heard in meetings, deliver presentations with poise and presence, and strengthen storytelling skills. Whether giving a presentation or conducting numerous kinds of meetings for stakeholders, senior management, teams, supervisors, or direct reports, students will enhance their management skill sets for effective and efficient information-sharing, organizational goals and buy-in, and critical understanding. Topics covered include:

• Pre-meeting and Presentation Phase: Know you audience,
• Effective skills and techniques for meetings and presentations,
• Tools of choice: When to use them, and
• Tips and tricks for success.

Taught By: Gabe Wisnewski-Parks
May 2nd - Biltmore Park

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Dr. Scott Eldredge - Dr. Scott Eldredge is an Associate Professor in the Communication Department at Western Carolina University. Prior to moving to Western North Carolina, Dr. Eldredge spent 20 years working for some of the world’s largest advertising and communication agencies including J. Walter Thompson and Lowe Campbell-Ewald. His background includes experience working for a diverse list of clients including General Motors, Ford Motor Company, OnStar, Novartis, and M&M/Mars. Dr. Eldredge now teaches public relations courses including Introduction to Public Relations and Public Relations Campaigns, as well as topic classes in Health Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Social Media Management. He also serves as the faculty adviser for the WCU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, and for Catamount Communications, WCU’s student-run Public Relations firm. Dr. Eldredge holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Information from the University of Tennessee, a Master of Arts in Advertising from Michigan State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication (News & Public Affairs) from the University of Florida.

Dr. Sarah E. Minnis - Sarah E. Minnis, PhD, has more than 25 years of career advising and organization development experience in higher education, non-profit organizations, and traditional corporate entities including more than 15 years specializing in military veterans’ civilian reintegration and employment. Her ongoing research and practice to provide support for employment communities to better understand the value, and more effectively utilize the skills, of veterans has been published and presented in journals and workshops nationally and internationally.

Through a lens of ethical and equitable practices, Sarah specializes in organization development and career development to help organizations build on their strengths to support growth and capability throughout. With a sensitivity to the unique needs of veterans, she uses research-based content to help organizations focus on the military to civilian transition to build veteran-ready organizations and help civilians better understand the reason why veterans can be vital assets to the organization. She is qualified to speak on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice issues, leadership, disability and accessibility, and how to balance employee and employer needs in turbulent times.

Organizational leaders, managers, and HR professionals in decision-making positions can benefit from Sarah’s knowledge and experience. She has anchored panels, led workshops, and contributed to journals with a variety of co-authors.

Sarah is an Associate Professor in the Master of Science in Human Resources program at Western Carolina University and holds a PhD in Human Resource Development from Texas A&M University, a Master of Arts in Education degree in student affairs from Western Kentucky University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Central Washington University.

Rebecca A. Simmons - Rebecca A. Simmons is an Associate Professor in the School of Integrated Sciences at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and has taught non-credit courses for Western Carolina University.  Before joining the School of Integrated Sciences, she was an instructor in the JMU Department of Computer Information Systems and Management Science (CIS & MS).  She is a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt through the American Society for Quality (#4608, since 2009).  In addition to her academic career, she has over twenty years of industry experience, working as an Operations Manager, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Engineer, and Supply Chain/Materials Manager in a variety of production environments as well as not-for-profit and service organizations. Ms. Simmons teaches classes in Lean Six Sigma, statistics, project management, and operations / supply chain management to students in the Integrated Science and Technology program and Global Supply Chain Management minor.  The applied nature of her scholarship stretches across disciplines to explore and address current issues in production and global supply chains, providing unique opportunities for students to gain “hands-on, real-world” experience, emphasizing themes common to ensuring sustainable cultural change. In her consulting work, Ms. Simmons focuses on applying structured, data-driven methodologies to achieve both incremental and breakthrough improvement, resulting in increased customer value and satisfaction.  By applying continuous improvement and Lean Six Sigma principles, she helps organizations improve quality, increase speed to market, and build flexible/responsive operations while reducing costs and minimizing (or eliminating) defects/errors.    

 Gabe Wisnewski-Parks - Gabe Wisnewski-Parks is a professor in the Department of Communication at Western Carolina University, where he teaches the foundational human communication course. He earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Persuasive Communication and Public Advocacy from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Beyond teaching, his communication experience ranges from coach for college commencement speakers; Invited judge for Mock Trial tournaments; Workshop facilitator for leadership communication courses; and award-winning speaker at academic conferences. Additionally, Gabe has worked as a member of the marketing/communications team for The United Way of Greater Greensboro, NC.  Gabe’s research relates to communication education, political communication, public influencers, and social media. His current project is a co-authored book chapter with Dr. Vincent Russell, investigating Democracy and Civic Engagement in Public Speaking curricula. Gabe’s other scholarly works have been published in Southern Communication Journal, the Lexington Studies in Contemporary Rhetoric book series, and Flow Journal of media criticism. Gabe has provided non-partisan, expert analysis on social media influencers and public communication for CNN Business.