Available Course Listings

Below is a list of the professional and leadership development courses being offered to Baylor faculty and staff currently. Courses, dates, and times are subject to additions, updates, and changes.

Please sign up for the courses in the Learning module in Ignite. Clicking on the course name will take you to the registration page in Ignite to enroll.

Professional Development Courses

Crucial Accountability
Crucial Accountability is the next step for Crucial Conversations. This class helps leaders better manage performance and team members better influence peers by respectfully addressing people’s behavior routinely and consistently, candidly coaching and holding accountable for lapses in behavior, and helping those around you perform at their best.
Crucial Accountability teaches a process for managing performance, strengthening trust, and eliminating inconsistency. While especially helpful for managers, the skills taught are helpful for anyone wanting to build on the skills learned in Crucial Conversations.
NOTE: Crucial Conversations is a prerequisite for this course.
Dates Offered:
August 4, 8:30am - 5:00pm, TBA

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High (2-day class)
We have all faced difficult conversations where opinions vary and emotions run strong. This two-day workshop provides the knowledge and skill to have those tough discussions, whether with co-workers or providing feedback and coaching to employees.
Dates Offered:
June 9 & 16, 8:30am - 5:00pm, TBA

Getting Things Done (GTD)
Getting Things Done (GTD) is a program that teaches you how to increase focus on the most meaningful work, organize information, prioritize commitments, create mental space for innovation, and achieve stress-free productivity. It’s productivity with purpose, or in other words—getting more of the right stuff done.
Dates Offered:
May 19, 8:30am - 4:00pm, BRIC 2160
July 7, 8:30am - 5:00pm, TBA

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change (2-day class)
Most change efforts fail or fall far short of expectations. Because of this, learning how to motivate and enable others to change may be one of the most important leadership skills you can develop.

Leading and influencing change is crucial for improving results, processes, quality, safety, service, and constituent satisfaction. This 2-day course was created from 50 years of social science research to teach influence strategies and skills for changing ingrained behavior.
Dates Offered:
July 14 & 21, 8:30am - 5:00pm, TBA

The Power of Habit
Based on the bestseller by Charles Duhigg and the latest science in habit formation, The Power of Habit teaches how habits work and how to master them for improved performance.
Dates Offered:
May 24, 9:00am - 5:00pm, BRIC 2160

Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager
In today's world, many of the people leading projects do not have "Project Manager" in their title or have been trained is project managers. The good news is "unofficial project managers" can build the skills and confidence to lead projects and engage project team members to give their best effort.

This class is aimed at anyone, regardless of their experience in project management, to start, run, and complete successful projects. It provides the tools, skills, and best practices to complete projects on time and on budget.
Dates Offered:
July 26, 8:30am - 5:00pm, TBA

Setting and Managing Goals
This class is for managers and employees and focuses on best practices for setting goals as well as how to enter and track them in Ignite.
Dates Offered:
TBA

Standing Out as an Internal Candidate
For those already working at Baylor, applying for another position at Baylor can be an unfamiliar process that’s more challenging than expected. However, a bit of knowledge and preparation greatly increases the odds of standing out as a strong candidate.
This short class provides an overview of the internal hiring process, including: how to apply in Ignite, resume writing and interviewing tips, as well as dispelling common myths and misconceptions about being an internal applicant.
Dates Offered:
TBA

Leadership Lessons

These are short classes, usually less than two hours, focused on leadership skills and best practices.

Leadership Essentials
The transition to supervisor is one of the most difficult career transitions because leading others requires developing an all-new skill set and shifting one's focus to setting expectations, motivating, resolving conflicts, holding others accountable, and getting work done through others.
This class isn’t a deep dive into leadership theory. Rather, it is the practical knowledge and supervisory skills leaders need right away. The three main topics covered are:

The fundamentals of supervision, including tools and best practices.
Employment laws and legal guidelines all leaders need to know.
The most important things to know about being a leader at Baylor.

Dates Offered:
TBA

Leadership Lessons: Communicating as a Leader
This short class looks at the additional communication demands leaders face, how to be intentional about communication, and ways leaders can communicate even more effectively.
Dates Offered:
May 31, 10:00am - 11:30am, via Microsoft Teams
August 18, 1:00pm - 2:30pm, via Microsoft Teams

Leadership Lessons: Creating a Feedback Culture
As a leader, you know giving and receiving feedback is crucial to your team’s performance. Ongoing, informal feedback is how people know what they are doing well, where they are off track, and what they could be doing even better. But feedback isn’t just something provided by leaders. The best teams are focused on continually improving through a culture where everyone on the team is comfortable seeking and giving feedback to their peers and even their leaders.

This short course provides participants with a simple feedback model, how to approach feedback when things aren’t simple, how to seek and receive feedback well, and how to build a feedback culture with your team.
Dates Offered:
June 13, 3:00pm - 4:30pm, via Microsoft Teams

Leadership Lessons: Handling Common Employee Relations Issues
This short class shares several common difficult situations managers run into with employees and recommended ways to mitigate or resolve them. Participants will also learn how create a performance improvement plan (PIP) in Ignite and the steps to navigate the entire performance improvement process.
Dates Offered:
May 17, 9:00am - 11:00am, Moody 317

Leadership Lessons: Leadership Presence
This 90-minute class looks at the impact leaders can and do have on others and focuses on being intentional about how leaders show up and lead and influence in all directions, even upward.
Dates Offered:
August 18, 9:00am - 10:30am, via Microsoft Teams

Leadership Lessons: Leading Great Meetings
This course covers best practices for leading effective, productive, and even enjoyable meetings. Includes the different types of meetings (and when to use each) as well as leading in person, remote, and hybrid meetings.
Dates Offered:
TBA

Leadership Lessons: Making Your One-on-Ones Matter
One on one (1:1) meetings are arguably a leader’s most valuable meetings. However, not ever leader holds them and not every leader holds them well. This short class will help you create impactful 1:1 meetings that make a difference. You will learn the value and benefits of 1:1s, how to get started, three different types of 1:1s, how to help your employees get the most from the meeting, and how to avoid common mistakes.
Dates Offered:
June 13, 11:00am - 12:00pm, via Microsoft Teams

Leadership Lessons: Mistakes Managers Make
No manager intends to fail, but there are some common mistakes that cause managers get in their own way. This class discusses common leadership errors and ways managers can avoid them.
Dates Offered:
TBA

Leadership Lessons: Writing and Discussing Staff Performance Evaluations
This short class provides approaches and best practices for writing and delivering annual staff performance appraisals.

Dates Offered:
TBA

Additional Leadership Courses

Merit for Managers
This virtual learning session is targeted towards new managers of staff or managers who would like an annual refresher on the annual Staff Merit process. We will review the Staff Merit process within Ignite and will walk through the timeline, what information you will be reviewing and what actions you must take to complete the merit process.
Dates Offered:
TBA

Other Professional Development Resources

LinkedIn Learning
Over 16,000 courses and learning resources covering a wide range of technical, business, software, and creative topics. Sign up at: www.baylor.edu/linkedinlearning

RightNow Media @ Work
Over 5,000 videos and resources on professional development topics such as leadership, communication, teams, and dealing with change. Also includes resources on marriage, parenting, finances, and mental health, as well as resources for children and teens. Sign up at: https://app.rightnowmedia.org/join/BaylorUHumanRescources

Last Updated: May 8, 2023