• Convenient, flexible, easy-to-use

  • Online learning that fits
    your schedule
  • Learn wherever and whenever you want
  • Easy-to-use learning platform guides you through the course



• We've helped educators at more than 15,000 schools

  • "This is how I'm going to get my continuing education credits from now on."

    - Wendy J. Cope, French Teacher, Lancaster Catholic High School, Lancaster, PA

  • "This course lives up to its promise. It is real and easy to implement. It's made a big difference in my teaching!"

    - Frank Martin, Principal, The Stevens School

  • "I absolutely love the class I am taking. I am taking it to improve my leadership skills. It's been great!"

    - Connie Cullip, Special Education Supervisor, Rudyard, MI EUPISD




• • "The Coursework is convenient and interesting! I definitely recommend the program."

    - Jennifer Desloges, 7th Grade English Teacher Plymouth Elementary, Plymouth, NH

  • "I am through about 4 lectures and am loving the ease and simplicity of how it all works! Everything is so easy to navigate."

    - LuAnn Funk, 2nd Grade Teacher, Case Avenue Elementary

• • "I took this course with some reservation, but it proved to be very helpful. Some of the simple things that I learned made a huge impact on the amount of energy my students put into learning"

    
    

    "It was easy to do. I got to work at my own pace, explore all the websites and absorb the materials As a 28 year veteran I do believe you can teach old dogs new tricks."

    - Joseph Fusco, Physics Teacher Lodi High School, NJ

Course 1046

Leadership Excellence: Improving Staff Performance

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Apply this towards your professional development requirements
(3 credits, 90 hours or certificate of completion)

Tuition: $575 for all 3 modules complete

• Motivate without Money: Inspiring Staff with Shrinking Budgets
• New Approaches to Performance Reviews that Work
• Handling Bad News: Proven Ways to Keep Staff Members Engaged

It doesn't matter if you're leading a fortune 500 business or running a successful K-12 school, getting top performance out of your employees is critical. This course helps you maximize your most valuable asset: your human resources. From faculty to staff, even volunteers, you'll learn the best ways to motivate, energize, reward and inspire your team to care more and achieve more.

What You'll Learn

Successful learning environments can always be traced back to motivated teachers and a dedicated staff. Each academic cycle, administrators everywhere face the challenge of finding a realistic and effective "motivation strategy" to inspire everyone to stay committed and give their best . In this module, you will learn:

• The 7 key motivators that can get high performance out of any underachiever
• Real motivational tools that work better than money
• How to motivate employees during times of high stress and low morale/li>
• How to turn spot and stop people who are killing morale in your school

Highlights

What You Can Do Today to Inspire Your Best Employees

• How to uncover what motivates each person individually
• Proven ways to use this information to get high performance
• How do you design a motivation plan that actually motivates?

Proven Ways to Motivate - During Times of High Stress

• Recognize and address the symptoms of stress before it affects learning
• The Dos and Don'ts of difficult communication
• Specific actions you can take to improve morale at your school

Turning Around Employees that Have Gone "Negative"

• Why people "go negative" - and how to overcome it before it spreads
• How to turn negative attitudes into positive support
• How to get your faculty and staff to own (and solve) their problems

What You'll Learn

Properly done, a strong performance review is one of the best tools an Administrator has for getting the best out of faculty and staff. More than just a feedback session, a well-done performance review sets goals, spotlights behavior, addresses issues and leaves the employee motivated and ready to give his/her best. So how do you turn the dreaded "yearly review" into a valuable, honest reflection and plan that sets people up for success? This module will show you.

• The biggest performance review mistakes - and how to prevent them
• From preparation to follow-up: Step-by-step guidance
• How to use reviews to actually change behavior
• Specific dos and don'ts for successful reviews

Highlights

Changing Employee Behavior: Performance Reviews That Work

• Performance reviews that fall short: Why they fail
• Proven checklist to ensure a successful review
• Delivering feedback that gives them the insight to change behavior

Stretching People: How to Get More from Your Employees

• Constructive feedback that motivates and inspires
• Getting buy in to the process / establishing accountability
• Keys to providing the right feedback to the right people

The "Do's and Don'ts" of Conducting the Performance Review

• What to do when you and an employee don't see eye to eye
• How to avoid "sugar coating" without damaging relationships
• Motivation killers: the important words you should never say
• The most common legal pitfalls - and how to avoid them

What You'll Learn

When your school has cutbacks or faces a major change, early response to the needs and concerns of your faculty, staff and students is essential. Left unaddressed, low morale, job insecurity and harmful gossip could do even more damage. Most schools know that a "do nothing" policy is the wrong policy but may not know how best to proactively approach this situation. This module will show you:

• The keys to counseling disengaged staff with confidence, credibility and tact
• How to help "survivors" get past the uncertainty of a cutback
• No nonsense tips to lead your team through any change
• Effective ways to get everyone focused on what needs to be done and moving forward
• The best ways to address gossip and rumors during times of change and uncertainty

Highlights

Keys to Managing Successfully During Times of Change & Uncertainty

• What your best employees expect from you now - and how to deliver it
• Management coaching styles that help (and hurt) morale
• How to build loyalty in your school even in the tough times
• Problem-solving approaches to managing reactions to bad news

Keys to Increasing Employee Engagement

• Real-world techniques to uncover and address the concerns of your best staff members
• Must-do's to get even your most disengaged people refocused on performance
• The 4 key motivational tools that work better than money and when to use them

Handling the Gossip and Rumors that Kill Morale

• Learn the lost art of confronting rumors head on and managing the information flow
• The top 3 morale killers in your school right now
• How to head-off negative people before they infect your positive ones

The Virtual Teachers Lounge™

Check in with your peers and get answers to your questions – any time, 24/7. Taking this course will give you exclusive access to the thoughts, insights and experience of other educators and K-12 experts discussing your topics and giving you solutions and ideas for whatever is on your mind. In the Teachers' lounge, you can:

• Learn new, working strategies and solutions from other educators – live!
• Get answers to your toughest questions from top K-12 experts
• Discuss course topics with your peers and benefit from their experiences
• Share your success stories and best practices to benefit other teachers and administrators
• Get new perspectives, fresh ideas and guidance – whenever you need it.
• You can log whenever is most convenient for you, 24/7

All you have to do is sign up for this course, and you're in!

Connect with, hear from and get help from you peers.

Materials & Assessment

Lectures	Your lectures, delivered by one of the nation's leading, recognized experts on this topic, are presented in multiple parts to make listening and tracking your progress easier. You can listen to each as often as you like by playing it on your computer, downloading it to your iPod or other MP3 player, even burning it to CD. Listen wherever it is most convenient for you: at home, in your car; at the park; and whenever you like: before or after work, at night or on weekends. Many educators can complete a module in only a week.
Text Resources	Virtual text resources are downloadable and expand on the material covered in your lectures. They may include articles, web links to related materials and web sites, definitions of important terms and concepts, and a bibliography. All materials can be viewed on your computer or downloaded and printed.
Assessment	To receive your Certificate of Completion or Certificate of Attendance and earn Professional Development/Continuing Education units/credits/hours, you will need to complete all assessments and submit all final projects.
Virtual Teachers Lounge	To gain Professional Development credits or hours for any of these three modules, you must participate in the Virtual teachers Lounge discussion for that module. If you are not seeking credits or hours, participation in the Lounge is not mandatory, but you are still welcome to connect with and share your thoughts, questions, insights and experience with your peers at any time.