Managing for Execution

Certificate ID: MEC1
Learn the high-performance leadership skills you need to execute your initiatives: managing for momentum, negotiating for results, and coaching for excellence.

Description

Charisma, good ideas, and planning help, but leadership is ultimately about execution: the ability to get things done. However, leading and managing for execution is an endeavor that requires leaders to master a variety of specific skills. Cornell University’s Certificate in Managing for Execution is a unique program developed by Samuel Bacharach, McKelvey-Grant Professor at Cornell University, based on his research and writing, predicated on the assumption that successful execution demands a proactive capacity, and that proactive capacity has three components: managing for momentum, negotiating for results, and coaching for excellence.

The managing for momentum component of the certificate program teaches high-performance leaders how to sustain the momentum of an initiative once they have the initial support for their ideas. Sustaining momentum demands that leaders have the capacity to balance both directive and facilitative leadership styles. These courses will develop the managerial competencies necessary for establishing and sustaining an agenda’s momentum to assure that it is implemented appropriately. All too often leaders are capable of mobilizing people around their ideas but fail to manage for momentum. Leaders who are able to sustain momentum understand the appropriate structures, priorities, cultures and monitoring systems that will assure the agility and flexibility that is necessary for successful execution of their ideas.

The negotiation portion of the certificate program addresses a fundamental, critical leadership skill that is essential to successful execution. A disproportionate amount of time in the workplace is spent in negotiations, and it is therefore critical that a successful manager and leader be a proactive negotiator who appreciates that negotiation is essential to moving agendas along. Before a leader can become an effective and proactive negotiator, they need to confront negotiation myths, put them to rest, and learn the skills that are critical to anticipating, analyzing, and preparing for negotiations. These courses develop the skills necessary to craft a negotiation strategy that takes into account the nature of your relationship with the other party, whether or not they are the right negotiating partner, the options and issues under consideration (and how to categorize and prioritize them), and the bargaining power of each party. Specifically, you will learn to evaluate people, anticipate their negotiation styles, and appreciate the cultural context of the negotiation.

The final component of this certificate program addresses coaching: how to get the best out of the others to achieve excellence. Execution demands the capacity to get others to achieve to their maximum ability. Execution depends on the leader’s capacity to assure that others take on the challenge of being proactive. Successful execution cannot rely simply on traditional hierarchical supervision, but demands that leaders take on the role of coaches. Coaching principles that are integrated into the organizational culture will assure the agility, creativity, and flexibility necessary for successful execution. The coaching courses in this certificate program will help leaders adopt and apply the coaching process in order to enhance the capacity of others to ensure successful execution.

The certificate in Managing for Execution will equip you with the high-performance leadership skills you need to execute your initiatives: managing for momentum, negotiating for results, and coaching for excellence.

Who Should Take This Certificate?

This certificate is designed for functional managers and leaders who need to develop the proactive capacity to maintain momentum, negotiate for results, and develop team members’ abilities to execute.

Enrollment

To register, contact an Enrollment Counselor at info@ecornell.com or 1-866-326-7635 (+1-607-330-3200 from outside the United States).

Certificate programs are eligible for eCornell Payment Plans. Discounts are available for military personnel, veterans, and Cornell University Alumni. eCornell programs are not eligible for financial aid or federal Pell Grants. Contact an enrollment counselor for more information.

Courses in this Certificate

• Establishing Momentum: Managing Structure, Resources, and Performance

  • Effective leaders not only develop good ideas and create action, but also implement the ideas and sustain action. You can be charismatic. You can be charming. But your skill as a manager will be evaluated in terms of your ability to get things done.

    Once you have gotten an initiative off the ground, you need to ensure that your coalition has the ability to produce results and drive momentum. A proactive leader must have the managerial competence to build the coalition’s capacity to keep the initiative moving forward and growing, and the performance-management skills to keep it operating effectively.

    This course is designed to help learners:

    • Develop a “roadmap” for establishing momentum for their coalition’s agenda
    • Apply facilitative and directive leadership styles appropriately in teams and organizations
    • Maintain organizational capacity in order to allocate resources and prioritize effectivelyMonitor performance in order to evaluate progress and make corrections
    • Apply these skills to a change agenda in their organization
    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Managing for Momentum
    • The need for both political and managerial competence
    • The four dimensions of momentum
    • Facilitative vs. directive leadership
    • Structural Momentum
    • Creating hierarchies, while sustaining groups
    • Providing resources without going too far
    • Giving autonomy and defining parameters
    • Performance Momentum
    • Being clear about results, while remaining objective
    • Making adjustments without over-reacting
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Describe the dimensions of effective leadership and their implication on the long-term success of their agenda
    • Identify the four dimensions of momentum and explain why you need to manage all four to ensure the success of your agenda
    • Choose facilitative and directive leadership approaches, as appropriate
    • Recognize and respond appropriately to changing conditions within the organization
    • Balance multiple considerations in building and maintaining the capacity of their organization
    • Evaluate performance and make corrections
    
    
• Sustaining Momentum: Motivating Through Vision, Culture, and Political Agility

  • Leaders need to provide the vision exercise the political agility, and establish the organizational culture necessary to keep their initiatives vital and moving forward. Proactive leaders must have the skills to keep the “soul” of their coalition alive and relevant to the needs of the organization.

    This course is designed to help learners:

    • Manage organizational culture to sustain momentum.
    • Become politically agile in ensuring continued support for their agenda.
    • Manage their coalition—and their agenda—for the long-term.
    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Cultural Momentum
    • Creating a problem-solving culture
    • Developing the collective while supporting the individual
    • Celebrating results without "worshiping idols"
    • Political Momentum
    • Keep the coalition mindset alive
    • Don’t feed the Trojan horse
    • Beware of counter-coalitions
    • Proactive Leadership
    • Putting your agenda together, from idea to implementation
    • Planning your next agenda and leveraging current success.
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Create a culture of motivation that helps people learn and problem-solve while providing opportunities for affiliation and re-affirmation
    • Become politically agile: anticipate conflict and continuously mobilize support to ensure that their agenda remains vital
    • Build on current success and plan their next agenda
    • Focus on the big picture - from acting on an idea to implementing for long-term results - in their organization
    
    
• Preparing for Negotiations

  • Negotiation is a basic leadership skill that all successful managers need. However, many of us suffer from common misconceptions about negotiators and negotiations. Before you can become an effective and proactive negotiator, you need to confront these myths, put them to rest, and learn the skills that are critical to anticipating, analyzing, and preparing for negotiations.

    This course, the first in a series of two, focuses on how to prepare to negotiate and develops the skills to become a proactive negotiator. Proactive negotiation skills enable managers and other organizational leaders to adjust to changing business situations while keeping key personnel motivated and committed. Skilled negotiators know when to negotiate and how to frame the negotiation to improve their bargaining position. This course will teach you how to evaluate the best way to resolve differences and how to strategically prepare for negotiation before you get to the table.You will develop the skills you need to craft a negotiation strategy that takes into account the nature of your relationship with the other party, whether or not they are the right negotiating partner, the options and issues under consideration (and how to categorize and prioritize them), and the bargaining power of each party. Specifically, you will learn to evaluate the peeople anticipate their negotiation styles, and appreciate the cultural context of the negotiation.

    This course will provide you with a practical and effective framework and toolset to prepare for all types of negotiations, ranging from power negotiations to problem-solving negotiations and mixes of the two. It is based upon the academic and applied research of the Cornell ILR School’s Professor Samuel Bacharach and makes extensive use of real-world examples and situations, advice and insight from negotiation experts, and opportunities to apply and practice the skills in authentic situations.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Proactive Negotiation
    • Introducing Proactive Negotiations
    • To Negotiate or Not
    • The Proactive Negotiator
    • Framing the Negotiation
    • Analyzing the Situation
    • Categorizing the Issues
    • Prioritizing the Issues
    • Alternatives and Bargaining Power
    • Knowing With Whom You’re Dealing
    • Negotiating with the Right Person
    • Personality and Negotiation Style
    • Understanding Their Culture
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Participants who complete this course will be able to:

    • Assess your needs and alternatives
    • Assess the other parties' needs and alternatives
    • Determine when to negotiate
    • Anticipate power, personality, and cultural issues that may affect negotiations
    
    
• Tactics and Skills for Negotiating

  • Successful negotiation demands the flawless execution of a well-crafted strategy. This course develops the skills necessary to ensure that you can think both strategically and tactically at the negotiation table and master the techniques and maneuvers that will determine your success or failure.

    This course provides a practical framework for managing negotiations that can be used in almost any type of negotiation. This course clearly guides you through the process of negotiating to ensure that you are able to execute your strategy and achieve your objectives. How a negotiation starts can significantly affect how it ends; this course ensures that you are able to set the initial tone for your negotiations, decide whether you should make the first move, determine how to present your proposals, and establish your negotiation style. It also provides tools to ensure that your ego does not impair your ability to gain your desired outcome.

    Once the negotiation has commenced, this course fully explores strategies and tactics for engaging the other party to ensure that you understand their position, can elicit additional information from them, and present your own arguments most effectively. This course focuses on developing an increased capacity to listen, ask proactive questions that will move the agenda forward, and make the appropriate arguments to achieve your objectives. Bluffing is explored in detail to provide you with mastery of the concept so you can determine if and when it is an appropriate tactic to use in a variety of situations. The strategic use of emotional expression is also explored as a potentially advantageous tactic. Finally, effective closing techniques are discussed in detail to help ensure that you end up with a negotiated agreement that meets all your objectives.

    This course is based upon the academic and applied research of the Cornell ILR School’s Professor Samuel Bacharach and makes extensive use of real-world examples and situations, advice and insight from negotiation experts, and opportunities to apply and practice the skills in authentic situations.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Getting Started
    • Avoiding the ego trap
    • Establishing setting and tone
    • Making the first move
    • Deciding how many issues to put on the table
    • Being cooperative or competitive
    • Engaging the Other Party
    • Being a Proactive Listener
    • Asking Proactive Questions
    • Making Proactive Arguments
    • Knowing When to Bluff
    • Using emotions effectively
    • Closing the deal
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Learners who complete this course will be able to:

    • Avoid the dangers of ego
    • Establish the negotiation setting and make the first move
    • Decide whether to be cooperative or competitive
    • Use proactive arguments, questions, and emotions to engage the other party
    • Close negations effectively
    
    
• The Coaching Mindset for Engaging and Developing Others

  • Being a proactive coach is a fundamental component being a good leader in the workplace. Coaching implies that leaders not only supervise, but develop the capacities and skills of all employees. A coaching mindset implies that leaders approach employees not simply as subordinates, but protégés, resources to be developed and expanded. Coaching is critical to good workplace leadership. In developing this course, Samuel Bacharach, McKelvey-Grant Professor at Cornell University, and Yael Bacharach, MA, LCSW, appreciate that not all styles of coaching are suitable for the workplace, and distill three decades of academic and business research into coaching best practices most appropriate for organizational leaders. The course emphasizes the importance of supplementing the traditional supervisory mindset with the coaching mindset.

    The course draws upon a variety of examples to illustrate coaching in an organizational context, and details the four functions of coaching in an easy-to-understand and practical context. The course takes a step-by-step approach through the five rules of the coaching dialogue and illuminates effective techniques for listening, asking questions, and providing feedback. The course provides a wealth of tools and processes, including instruction on how to recognize and use the language of coaching and balance the different functions of coaching.

    Through coaching, leaders are able to support and encourage their team members to learn skills and acquire knowledge that helps improve job performance. Coaching works laterally too, in that a leader can apply coaching techniques when working with colleagues. The organization as a whole benefits from a solid coaching culture. Without the right coaching principles in place, employees may not reach their full proactive capacity, rendering the organization less able to execute its goals. This course goes beyond the basics and offers detailed instruction on maximizing the proactive capacity of employees by showing leaders how to integrate the coaching mindset into their leadership style.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • The Role of the Coach
    • The Sports Coach and the Workplace Coach
    • The Coaching Mindset
    • The Four Functions of Coaching
    • Personal Integrity and the Coaching Dialogue
    • The Role of Personal Integrity in Coaching
    • Listening and Reflecting in the Coaching Dialogue
    • Questioning and Providing Feedback in the Coaching Dialogue
    • Classic Mistakes in Coaching Dialogue
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Define coaching in terms of the organizational context, differentiating the coaching mindset from the supervisory mindset
    • Apply the listening, questioning, and feedback skills necessary to facilitate the coaching dialogue
    • Assist others in building their proactive capacities
    
    
• The Coaching Process for Engaging and Developing Others

  • Leaders who have learned to develop a coaching mindset, studied coaching functions, and practiced the coaching dialogue in The Coaching Mindset, can continue their studies here by examining the coaching process. This course, developed by Samuel Bacharach, McKelvey-Grant Professor at Cornell University, and Yael Bacharach, MA, LCSW, teaches the essential steps of coaching. As in The Coaching Mindset, the authors realize that in the workplace not all coaching approaches are appropriate, and have developed a model process which is uniquely applicable for organizational settings.

    The course walks through the process of goal setting in each of the four arenas of coaching; helps you to understand the framing, prioritization, and execution of goals for your subordinates; and addresses roadblocks that appear throughout the coaching process. After taking this course, leaders will understand everything from how to help their proteges with specific work and personal issues to how to leverage coaching to become a high-performance leader within the organization. Leaders will come away with a deep understanding of how to work with their proteges on overcoming blocks and obstacles, providing their proteges appropriate feedback, and helping their proteges with goal setting and skill development. The coaching process specified in this course will enhance not only the leadership capacity of the coach, but also the proactive capacity of the protege. Coaching is no longer a luxury. It is a tool that leaders must have when trying to get top performance from everyone in the organization. Successful organizations are those that make coaching part and parcel of their organizational culture.

    This second course in the coaching series and tenth course in Professor Bacharach’s management series will give leaders additional tools for working effectively within their organizational culture and building the proactive capacity of individuals and the organization alike.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Clarifying Goals
    • Fundamentals of the Coaching Process
    • Understanding Goals in Terms of the Four Arenas
    • Clarifying Goals in Each Arena
    • Coaching the Protege to Action
    • Addressing Blocks and Achieving Goals Through the Coaching Process
    • External Problems and Obstacles
    • Internal Blocks
    • Goal Achievement
    
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Use the coaching process successfully in a workplace relationship
    • Work with a protege to cultivate a vision of the future, while working effectively with the immediate situation
    
    

Accreditation

Participants who successfully complete all six courses in this certificate series will receive a Certificate Managing for Execution from Cornell University.

Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) will give .6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to each student who successfully completes each course. Students can apply to the ILR School for the CEU units after they have successfully completed the courses.

HRCI Recertification

The courses in this certificate series have each been approved for six (6) Strategic Management recertification credit hours toward SPHR and GPHR recertification and six (6) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute. Please contact the Human Resource Certificate Institute (HRCI) for further information about certification or recertification.

Technical Requirements

With all eCornell courses, access is easy. Participants only need a computer and an Internet connection. To view specific technology requirements, visit our Technology Requirements page.

 
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