10 free training courses for managers

Taking on a leadership role entails big responsibilities – especially if you’re assigned to a high-performing team. In Mitti (by SafetyCulture)’s Beginning to Lead a High-Performing Team course, you will learn the qualities of a high-performing team, and the difference between management and good leadership. You’ll learn how leadership goes beyond administering and managing your team to meet daily goals and is being invested and involved in their individual growth and development. There are 3 lessons and a quiz to assess your manager’s understanding at the end of the course. This training for managers is excellent for leaders with extremely talented teams.

Scope: Qualities of a high-performing team, management vs. leadership

Alison’s What Great Leaders Do course talks about the competencies of an effective and good leader, and how to apply them in a real work setting. There is a situational portion where you will be shown the things you need to consider when you encounter problems or difficulties in decision making. Then, when you’re faced with a similar situation, you are able to make sound decisions based on case studies, aside from empathy . There are 2 modules in this course with 10 subsections and there is an assessment at the end of the course. The course takes 1.5-3 hours to complete.

Scope: Qualities of a leader, application of leadership

There’s no surprise that your employees are the most important asset of an organization, especially if the industry is labor-intensive. As a leader, you need to know how to handle people and fortunately, The Wharton School has a Managing Social and Human Capital course on Coursera. This course will tackle employee’s motivation and the role of rewards, distributing tasks based on strengths and weaknesses, managing decisions, and modifying organizational architecture when the current setup no longer works. This online management course takes approximately 7 hours to complete.

Scope: Motivation and rewards, systems of work, managing decisions, organization architecture

Project management is not an easy task and it requires proper planning to ensure the success of a project. With the project management training program of Mitti (by SafetyCulture), you will know the qualities needed in a project manager. The course mainly focuses on the traits, techniques, and methods of a project manager when assigned a project, such as the ability to delegate and assign tasks. There is a gamified quiz at the end to see how much you have learned. Like all Mitti (by SafetyCulture) courses, lessons are delivered bite-sized to stay true to their microlearning platform. You can finish the course anytime, which is great for busy learners.

Scope: Project manager traits

Managers are expected to coach their team to boost morale and help improve their performance. Coursera’s Coaching Skills for Managers Specialization course explores different coaching styles and practices that can improve your coaching conversations with your team. It also tackles how to manage expectations and assess the performance of your team members so they can improve. This specialized online management course is offered in 9 languages and it takes approximately 4 months to complete.

Scope: Coaching practices & conversations, setting expectations & assessing performance

For new managers, it takes a while to get used to their new role, but with AMA’s Management Skills for New Managers course, helpful lessons about management skills are offered to fast-track your training. This course tackles your role as a manager, particularly how to coach your team to increase productivity and performance. Performance management is also included to track if goals are being met, as well as, individual employee development and growth. If you’re in the US, you can opt to take the course on-site, however there is an online option. There are only 2 lessons in this course that can be completed in 2 days, following 1 lesson per day.

Scope: Performance management, coaching, growth & development

Some businesses hire people from around the world which we call remote teams. Ever since COVID disrupted the regular work set-up, companies have been advising their employees to work from home. The main challenge of this work setup is that it requires good communication to collaborate effectively without being in the same space. The Managing Remote Teams course by Global Knowledge will teach you how to leverage technology to build communication and trust in a remote setup then maintain team cohesion.

Scope: Remote teams, communication & trust, technology, sustaining team cohesion

With case studies of successful global brands such as Apple and L’Oréal, you now have a chance to learn the methods of the successful leaders and teams behind those brands with FutureLearn! A Leader With Sense: Finding Your Leadership Style using Savoir-Relier course is a 4 module course that employs the Savoir-Relier method. Savoir-Relier is all about nurturing and maintaining high-quality relationships which is ideal in a team. This is particularly useful when learning about the building blocks of effective leadership, such as awareness and confidence, building trust and self-confidence, collective resilience, and designing your purpose. This course takes approximately 16 weeks to be completed when allocating 2 hours of study per week. This is a flexible course you can take at your own pace.

Scope: Effective leadership, grow self-confidence, collective resilience, purpose as a leader

Not everyone is born a natural leader, but it can be developed when given the right guidance and training. Mitti (by SafetyCulture) gives free management training courses such as the How to be a Passionate Leader course. This course teaches you how to channel your inner passion and direct that to your own leadership traits. With that, making sound decisions and building relationships and trust amongst the other employees comes next. This course includes 8 interactive bite-sized lessons that you can take on the go. Certification is available upon completion of the course.

Scope: Personal passion, leadership behavior, building relationship and trust, decision making