10 Best Online Training Courses for Managers (Updated 2024)

Even managers can benefit from ongoing training and education. Here are the best online training courses for managers to help them reach their full potential.

As we monitor the marketplace, we notice that many growth-driven companies are increasingly investing in training courses for managers and personnel leaders within their organizations.

But why?

Well, if you’ve ever managed or been managed, you’ll understand the critical role that managers play in motivating employees and helping them succeed at their jobs.

In fact, research shows that employees who do not rate their supervisor highly are four times more likely to seek employment elsewhere, compared to employees that do rate their supervisor highly.

Great managers - managers who display strong emotional intelligence and provide employees with clear direction - are one of the main reasons why people choose to stay at their organizations.

Yet, to be able to make an impact in the workplace, managers need training. Let’s consider the best training courses for managers who are looking to upgrade their skills and lead others more effectively.

What Training Do You Need to Become a Better Manager?

While the specific tasks and duties managers are expected to perform vary substantially depending on the organization, they usually require skills from at least one of the following three categories:

Personal skills: The ability to evaluate oneself to identify strengths and weaknesses

Interpersonal skills: The ability to manage, motivate, and communicate with employees

Corporate skills: The ability to conceptualize and implement the processes and workflows that must take place for the organization to meet its goals

Thus, managers need comprehensive training that enables them to increase their self-awareness, improve team cohesion, and mobilize employees to work in alignment with organizational goals.

There are many online training courses for managers that enable individuals to fit their learning around a busy schedule.

These courses are a flexible option for companies of various sizes that are looking to enroll groups of targeted employees into training programs.

They are also ideal for managers who want to engage in self-directed learning. Individuals can refer back to the content at their convenience, ensuring that the learning sticks and is directly applied on the job.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.

What Are the Best Training Courses for Managers?

Here are the 10 best online training courses to help managers develop skills that can help them better handle their responsibilities:

1. The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work

It does not matter whether you are a first time manager in a shop or a middle manager in an office environment; the same skills apply to every workplace. This course offered by the University of London will walk you through various HR theories that can improve the way you manage people at work.

Course Syllabus:

Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Interviews
Week 3: Leadership and Decision Making
Week 4: Performance Management
Week 5: Pay as a Motivator
Week 6: Managing Conflict at Work

This course will equip you with the skills needed to make good decisions, motivate and appraise your team, and manage conflict in the workplace.

Key Course Features:

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Approx. 29 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, English, Spanish

=> Enroll in the Manager's Toolkit Online Training Course here.

2. Leadership Communication

A while ago, I enrolled in the Leadership Communication course by Virtual Speech, a VR education platform for soft skills training.

This course features a unique learning approach. First you’ll learn the fundamentals of leadership communication in tutorial classes, then you’ll practice these techniques in immersive virtual reality scenarios. In this way, you’ll be able to test out new approaches, and learn to communicate with poise, clarity and conviction.

In this course, you'll learn to:

Apply leadership and communication techniques that drive business success

Implement best practices for influencing the people around you

Communicate confidently in any environment with practice in VR

Course Curriculum:

1. Welcome and overview of course

2. Fundamentals of leadership communication

3. Understand and connect with your audience

4. Nonverbal and verbal communication

5. Using language to achieve impact

6. Prepare and deliver effective presentations

7. Handling difficult situations

8. Different business situations and audiences

9. Sell your organizations vision, mission and values

Key course features:

4 hours of online classes
6 leadership case studies
7 VR training scenarios
All VR features
Quizzes and assessment in VR
Flexible, self-led format
12 months access

Virtual Speech courses can be used to train both individuals and groups.

During the enrollment process, you'll be able to select the number of courses and headsets you require (maximum is 25). Afterwards, you'll be made course admin and can add users to the course from the admin dashboard.

=> Enroll in the Leadership Communication Online Course here.

3. Train the Trainer

Before you can start training others, you must first develop the knowledge and skills needed to convey information in a compelling manner.

In the Train the Trainer course, you’ll learn how to confidently train others in ways that fully involve and engage the learners.

This course teaches you how to create and deliver successful training sessions for audiences of any size, develop your communication skills, plan a training session, use your voice and body language effectively, deal with difficult participants, answer audience questions, and more.

In this course, you’ll learn:

Techniques to effectively train people in a professional environment

How to create and deliver successful training sessions with practice in VR

To develop your communication skills and give memorable training sessions

Course Curriculum:

1. Welcome and overview

2. Your role as a trainer

3. Planning a training session

4. First 15 minutes

5. Presentation and communication skills

6. Using your voice

7. Body language and eye contact

8. Asking and answering questions

9. Dealing with the unexpected

10. Final thoughts

Key course features:

4 hours of online classes
5 Train the Trainer case studies
4 VR training scenarios
All VR features
Quizzes and assessment in VR
Flexible, self-led format
12 months access

=> Enroll in the Train the Trainer Online Course here.

4. Effective Delegation for New Managers

New managers make a lot of mistakes when they first start delegating, including micromanaging their employees, seeking instant gratification, and believing they can do it all themselves. This super-short Udemy course (approx 30 minutes) teaches you how to delegate efficiently and free up time to focus on more strategic tasks.

The content includes three main sections - before delegation, during delegation, and after delegation:

Before Delegation

Step 1: Determine What to Delegate

Step 2: Determine Who to Delegate to

During Delegation

Step 1: Explain the Task Clearly

Step 2: Describe Goals, Not Actions

Step 3: Give a Clear Timeline

Step 4: Describe the Authority Level

Step 5: Put it in Writing

After Delegation

Step 1: Check-In

Step 2: Give Meaningful Feedback

The course is delivered in a format that is easily digestible for busy professionals (each video lecture is around 2 minutes long). By the end of the course, you'll be armed with a comprehensive end-to-end process that you can implement right away with your employees.

Key course features:

33 mins on-demand video
1 article
1 downloadable resource
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV
Certificate of completion

=> Enroll in the Effective Delegation for New Managers Course here.

5. Coaching Skills for Managers

This specialization course on Coursera teaches managers the essential skills to coach people for improved performance. The course instructor is Executive Coach and UC Davis Instructor Kris Plachy, who has created and transformed dozens of teams through coaching.

In this course, you will learn how effective managers use coaching to establish clear expectations and accountability, how to assess performance, and how to conduct coaching conversations that build awareness and get results.

You will also have the opportunity to apply insights about management and coaching through developing your own coaching practice and tools.

Program Syllabus:

Course 1: Managing as a Coach

Course 2: Setting Expectations & Assessing Performance Issues

Course 3: Coaching Practices

Course 4: Coaching Conversations

Key course features:

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online courses

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule

Flexible Schedule

Set and maintain flexible deadlines

Intermediate Level

Some related experience required

Approx. 4 months to complete

Suggested 5 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish

=> Enroll in the Coaching Skills for Managers Online Course here.

6. How to Manage & Influence Your Virtual Team

Learning how to manage people you don't see face-to-face is an important skill that you need regardless of what industry you're in. Moreover, due to the pandemic, many managers are now faced with the challenge of leading employees who are working remotely.

In this course, you will learn principles of persuasion and communication that can help you manage and influence a virtual team.

You'll also learn how to increase levels of trust and accountability among your team members, while reducing the time you spend on frustrating meetings, unnecessary technology, and back-and-forth emails.

The course contains the following sections:

The Psychology of Communication in Virtual Teams

Principles of Behavior Change

Tactics of Influence & Persuasion

Managing Virtual Meetings Effectively

Choosing and Evaluating the Right Technology

Building Trust in Virtual Environments

Useful Email and Phone Techniques to Influence Your Team

Key course features:

3 hours on-demand video
1 article
5 downloadable resources
1 practice test
Full lifetime access
Access on mobile and TV
Certificate of completion
NASBA CPE credits: 4.6

Note for Project Management Professional (PMP) certification holders:

This course qualifies for 3 Professional Development Units (PDUs) under the Project Management Institute's (PMI's) Education requirement. After you're done with the course, you will get a "Certificate of Completion" from Udemy, which you can use as evidence for PMI. All 3 hours can be claimed under the Leadership category.

=> Enroll in the How to Manage & Influence Your Virtual Team course here.

7. Essential Public Speaking

This course by Virtual Speech provides you with the fundamental tools of communication to help you manage your nerves and feel more confident in front of an audience.

The immersive training allows you to practice your skills in a safe, virtual environment, to help you feel prepared for your next presentation, meeting, or public speaking event. Course participants have stated that practicing in VR has reduced their anxiety, as they get more used to speaking in front of an audience.

In this course, you will:

Learn to be more confident when speaking in front of others

Practice techniques to engage audiences with AI-powered feedback
Practice delivering difficult speeches in the safety of VR

Course Syllabus:

1. Welcome and overview

2. Understanding speech

3. Connecting with the audience

4. Planning your speech

5. Impromptu speeches

6. Writing and structuring your speech

7. Literary techniques

8. Coping with nerves and anxiety

9. Delivering your speech

10. Summary

Key course features:

4 hours of online classes
6 public speaking case studies
8 VR training scenarios
All VR features
Quizzes and assessment in VR
Flexible, self-led format
12 months access

=> Enroll in the Essential Public Speaking Online Course here.

8. Finance for Managers

This operational finance course is designed to teach managers how to read the “story” that the balance sheet and income statement tells about the company’s operations. The insights you gain from this course will help you understand the financial consequences of managerial decisions on operations, marketing, etc.

Course Syllabus:

Week 1: Course Overview
Week 2: Operational Ratios and Forecasting
Week 3: Diagnosis and Action Plan
Week 4: Negative NFO and DuPont Analysis

This course can be applied to multiple Specializations or Professional Certificates programs on Coursera, including:

Think like a CFO Specialization
Foundations of Management Specialization

Key course features:

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance with your schedule

Approx. 14 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: English, Arabic

=> Enroll in the Finance for Managers Online Course here.

9. Persuasive Business Storytelling

In today’s fast-paced and information-rich world, if you want to be heard, you have to cut through the noise and connect on a human level.

As a manager, storytelling is a crucial communication skill that increases your impact and ensures that your team members are present in the moment and absorbing your message.

This Business Storytelling course teaches you the fundamental techniques for good storytelling and how you can seamlessly weave stories into various workplace scenarios to enhance your influence and engagement in business.

In the course, you will learn how to:

Be memorable, confident and relevant so you are heard

Streamline content through stories and save time in presentations

Inspire colleagues, unstick resistance to an idea, and encourage action

Overcome difficulties with getting your message heard and decisions made

Course Syllabus:

1. Welcome and introduction
2. Why is storytelling important
3. Where can you find stories?
4. How to construct a story for maximum impact
5. How to deliver a story so it's compelling
6. Build a story using this template and guide
7. Mastery, making storytelling a business asset
8. Continuous improvement: next steps

Key course features:

8 hours of online classes
4 Business Storytelling case studies
5 VR training scenarios
All VR features
Quizzes and assessment in VR
Flexible, self-led format
12 months access

=> Enroll in the Persuasive Business Storytelling Online Course here.

10. Strategic Leadership and Management

The Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization course provides managers with the tools and techniques to effectively lead people and teams, manage organizations through organizational design, and formulate and implement strategy.

The course covers the strategic, human resource, and organizational foundations for creating and capturing value for sustainable competitive advantage – including how to analyze the competition and develop strategies both within a business and across a portfolio of businesses.

Program Syllabus:

Course 1: Foundations of Everyday Leadership
Course 2: Applications of Everyday Leadership
Course 3: Designing the Organization
Course 4: Managing the Organization
Course 5: Business Strategy
Course 6: Corporate Strategy
Course 7: Strategic Leadership and Management Capstone

The capstone project at the end of the course will give you an opportunity to apply strategic management concepts to an actual business situation with participation by one or more focal companies.

Key course features:

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online courses

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule

Flexible Schedule

Set and maintain flexible deadlines

Beginner Level

No prior experience required

Approx. 8 months to complete

Suggested 3 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish

=> Enroll in the Strategic Leadership and Management Course here.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for checking out this list of the best training courses for managers that you can enroll in online. Perhaps, you’ve noticed a common theme - that most of these management training programs focus on developing soft skills such as communication, delegation, and conflict resolution.

Why are such skills often the focus of training programs for managers?

Because, as we mentioned earlier, employee-manager relationships play a fundamental role in employee loyalty and retention.

While it’s easy to help individuals improve technical skills (such as learning how to create a spreadsheet or order inventory), proper management training teaches much more vital skills needed to keep employees motivated, productive, and committed to the company.

Whether you’re exploring training courses for your team or for yourself, hopefully this article has helped you discover popular online course options that can meet your educational needs.