The School of Commerce & Enterprise · business, money & management
Management & Leadership
What managers actually do all day, and how to do it so people bring their best work.
The move from doing the work to being answerable for it — delegation, feedback, one-on-ones.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — A Different Job
Output through others: what changed overnight · The player-coach trap · What your manager now expects of you
Unit II — Delegation
Matching tasks to people honestly · Briefing: outcome, constraints, deadline · Checking in without hovering
Unit III — One-on-Ones and Feedback
A standing agenda that is not a status report · Praise in specifics, criticism in private · Behavior, impact, request: the feedback frame
Unit IV — The Hard Weeks
Underperformance: name it early · Managing former peers · Your own manager, managed
Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling — the century-old frame that still runs firms.
Syllabus · 5 units · ~30 hours
Unit I — What Managers Do
Fayol's functions and Mintzberg's observed days · Efficiency and effectiveness distinguished · A short history: from Taylor to Toyota
Unit II — Planning
Mission, goals, and plans that cascade · SWOT analysis and its limits · Setting objectives people can act on
Unit III — Organizing
Structure: functional, divisional, matrix · Span of control and delegation of authority · Centralize or distribute: the recurring argument
Unit IV — Leading
Motivation theories managers actually use · Teams: forming, storming, norming, performing · Communication up, down, and sideways
Unit V — Controlling
Standards, measurement, correction · Budgets and variance as control · When measures become targets
Traits, situations, and transformations — what a century of research says leaders do.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — The Search for the Leader
Great-man and trait theories, tested · Behavioral studies: task versus relationship · Why context kept winning
Unit II — Situational Approaches
Contingency and path-goal models · Reading follower readiness · Adapting style without losing yourself
Unit III — Modern Frames
Transformational and transactional leadership · Servant leadership and its evidence · Power, influence, and their ethics
Unit IV — Leadership in the Wild
Leading without authority · Crisis leadership: clarity over charisma · Building the bench: developing others
Judgment, bias, and the discipline of choosing well when the data runs out.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~16 hours
Unit I — How Choices Go Wrong
Anchoring, sunk cost, and overconfidence · Groupthink and how to interrupt it · Noise: why the same case gets different answers
Unit II — Structuring the Decision
Framing the actual question · Options, criteria, and weighted trade-offs · Expected value and when it misleads
Unit III — Deciding Together
Pre-mortems and red teams · Disagree-and-commit done honestly · Deciding who decides
Unit IV — Living With Outcomes
Process quality versus outcome quality · Post-decision reviews without blame · Keeping a decision journal
Saying the hard thing early, cleanly, and without making an enemy.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~8 hours
Unit I — Why We Avoid
The cost of the unsaid · Stories versus facts: separating the two · Choosing the moment and the room
Unit II — The Conversation Itself
Opening lines that do not ambush · Listening for the third story · Staying steady when it gets loud
Unit III — Repair and Follow-Through
Agreements, not apologies alone · Writing down what was decided · When to escalate, and to whom
Industries, moats, and trade-offs — why some firms out-earn their rivals for decades.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~24 hours
Unit I — What Strategy Is
Strategy versus operational excellence · Trade-offs: choosing what not to do · The strategy statement in thirty-five words
Unit II — Industry Analysis
Five forces, worked on a real industry · Entry barriers and switching costs · Profit pools: where the money sits
Unit III — Competitive Advantage
Cost leadership and differentiation · Resources, capabilities, and imitation · Network effects and economies of scale
Unit IV — Strategy in Motion
Disruption: the innovator's dilemma in brief · Diversification and the corporate parent · Strategy reviews that change anything