A Division of N. E. Fried And Associates, Inc.

Testimonials Course Offerings Time Commitment Registration Technical Requirements

Award Winning Supervisory Series Now Available Online 

If you would you like to build or refresh your supervisory skills, consider earning your next CPE credits with our award-winning, highly interactive online supervisory series developed by our partner, Vital Learning.  Relax, as you enjoy our fun-filled, engaging program.  It’s packed with solid information and skill building techniques, designed to keep you interested and involved.  We promise that you won’t spend more than three minutes reading material before we have you engaged in watching a video, clicking, dragging and dropping information, or answering questions to practice or test your knowledge.  And, the best part is—by applying the skills you’ve learned, you’ll become a more effective, respected leader in your organization. 

What Other CPAs Are Saying… 

“I’ve really enjoyed these courses!  I especially like the small units. They are very convenient and work well with my schedule.  Each course immediately grabs your attention by making the learning process fun.  They not only offer lots of new knowledge but also reinforce many of my current management practices.  It’s comforting to know that I’m doing the majority of things right!”

Sri Haran, CPA –  Partner ♦ Haran, Watson, & Company

“My schedule is very hectic, so I loved the fact that I didn’t have to commit to a whole day of training and worry about losing a fee if I had to cancel last minute.  Instead, I could get valuable information when and where I wanted it.  The contents were designed well, and I particularly liked the review questions that required short answers.  They made me think and then gave me immediate feedback.  'Resolving Conflicts' and 'Essential Skills of Communicating' were two of my favorites.  They gave me additional points of view and specific procedures to follow, which I found very helpful when dealing with others.”

Brenda Shilts, CPA – Accounting Supervisor ♦ Packaging Corporation of America

“I am aspiring to become a supervisor and the information has been preparing me for the next step as well as helping me with my current job.  As a lead accountant in my department, I’ve been able to apply many of the tips and skills.  I’ve learned to pay more attention to my co-workers.  For example, the “Managing Complaints” course has shown me the importance of resolving minor issues NOW before they get out of hand.  I also like the way courses are laid out.  They have a nice mix of videos and exercises to keep you interested along the way.”

Lisa Mantei, CPA – Sr. Accountant ♦ Community Memorial Hospital

“As an experienced manager, I know how easy it is to let my people management skills slip, so I can always use tons of practice to keep me on track.  I took several of the supervisory courses, and really liked their convenience and standard format.  They were well-integrated, fluid and easy to follow. A major benefit for me was learning to be proactive when handling sensitive situations.  By following a series of basic principles outlined in the courses, I can remain professional, rather than personal or emotional, when dealing with employees.”

Kim Pritzl, CPA – Chief Financial Officer ♦ Professional Services and Community Impact Programs

Time Commitment   Top

These convenient courses can be taken at any time and are typically completed between 1-1/2 to 2 hours.  Each course provides a variety of practical tips, interactive exercises, and high quality videos.  While broadband connections allow for faster video streaming, our programs will work with dial-up.  We recommend that you complete your course within 30 days from the day you register so that you can receive your certificate of completion in a timely manner.  However, you will be entitled to one full year of access from the date you register, so you can return as often as you like during that period to refresh and practice your new skills.

Technical Requirements to Access and Participate   Top

  • Standard Internet Explorer or Netscape browsers, version 4.0 or higher

  • Internet connection at 56 Kbps or faster.  Broadband recommended (DSL, Cable)

  • Sound card and speakers to hear video

  • Flash Player plug-in (If you don't have it, a download message pops up  immediately when the first video shows up. On rare occasions your firewalls may prevent downloading.  Check with your IT folks to determine if you will have a firewall issues.)

  • Acrobat reader for PDF download of your certificate

  • Operating System:  Windows 95/98 Pentium and above, Unix Solaris or Linus, or MAC. 

12 Integrated Course Offerings   Top

Click on any course below to obtain a brief description and list of skill points and objectives.

2 CPE Credits ($79 ea.)

1.5 CPE Credits ($65 ea.)

Suggested Sequence

We suggest you begin with the two core courses:  Essential Skills of Leadership and Essential Skills of Communicating, as your foundation.  All other courses build from these two.  Then, pick and choose any elective that meets your needs.

Registration  Top

These courses are offered and billed by our learning partner, TheLearningEngine.org, a division of N. E. Fried and Associates, Inc.  You have 365 days' access for each course from the date you register.  If you cannot finish a course in one sitting, you have a "bookmark" option.  Just bookmark the course before logging out of the program.  Then, at your convenience,  log in again, click on your course, and you will be returned to the spot where you left off. 

After you’ve had a chance to review the course content below, just click the Registration link for the state society where you are a member.  It will take you to an auto-registration page where you'll provide contact information and create your user name and password.  Then, you'll receive a welcome letter where you'll be able to choose your course(s).  Next, you'll be directed to a secure e-commerce page where you’ll enter your credit card information.  All transactions will be in US dollars.  Upon confirmation of your payment,  you’ll immediately gain entry to the Vital Learning Campus so that you can begin to take your courses.  You'll have 365 days' access from the date you register to complete your course(s). Upon successful completion, you'll receive a downloadable certificate, and can return as often as you like to refresh and review your new skills during access period. Additionally, you’ll also receive a confirming email as your receipt of payment and a follow up welcome letter containing your user name and password as a reminder for return visits.  It's that easy! 

To register, click on the state where you are a member:

Refunds Top

Refunds are available only if you are unable to complete the course because of technical incompatibility with your system or system failure on our end.  Be advised that refunds must be requested within 30 days of registration. 

Privacy Top

We will not sell any of your contact information to any outside vendor.  Your information will be retained by N. E. Fried and Associates, Inc.

Course Detail

You can review a brief description of the skill points and objectives for each course below. 

 
 

Essential Skills of Leadership  Course List

Essential Skills of Leadership builds a foundation that enables team leaders to manage their team toward a shared goal: achieving the organization's strategic objectives. These are the primary skills that build rapport and teamwork. This module teaches you how to maintain everyone's self-esteem in a work interaction, how to actively listen to achieve consensus, and how to encourage others to commit themselves to common goals. Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·         Deal with team members on a day-to-day basis in such a way as to maintain and enhance their self- esteem.

 

·          Base discussions about performance and work habits on behavior rather than on personalities and attitudes.

 

·          Involve team members in goal setting, problem solving and decision-making. 

·          Maintain or Enhance Team Member Self-Esteem.

·          Focus on Behavior.

·          Encourage Team Member Participation.

 

Essential Skills of Communicating  Course List

This basic module describes the dynamics of effective communications. It shows active listening techniques, how to recognize nonverbal cues, how to probe for clarification, and how to confirm another person's understanding of the issues. Assuring that people understand each other is the fundamental challenge in organizations today. This module meets that challenge.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          See that communication is a two-way process.

·          Construct clear, concise messages in the interest of the listener.

·          Manage nonverbal behaviors to reinforce the intent of messages.

·          Listen actively to improve communication.

·          Create a climate of open communication, which increases   team members’ motivation and commitment.

·          Create a climate of open communication.

·          Design clear, concise messages.

·          Manage nonverbal behaviors effectively.

·          Listen to communicate.

 

  

Coaching Job Skills  Course List

Once a team member's performance has been assessed, the team leader identifies specific areas that need improvement. This module teaches you how to demonstrate the needed skills to the team member and how to motivate him or her to pursue them. The result can prove rewarding for everyone involved.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Understand what coaching is, why it is important, and how it supports individual and company goals.

·          Prepare for a coaching session by using observation and analysis to build a plan for a successful dialogue.

·          Hold a coaching conversation that improves an individual’s performance and increases productivity.

·          Use coaching as a way to build a valuable sense of teamwork between the team leader and team member through communication, shared goals and collaboration.

 

·          Observe and analyze performance.

·          Identify area of performance that needs improvement.

·          Demonstrate how task should be performed and ask team member for questions.

·          Have team member demonstrate and give team member feedback and performance.

·          Set up time for review.

Communicating Up  Course List

To communicate effectively with your manager, you have to understand the manager's style and environment. Some prefer brief overviews, while others demand detail. Since you cannot change your manager, you have to adapt your own style to fit his or hers.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Understand the importance of framing all communication with their manager in terms of his/her self-interest.

·          Enter meetings with their manager armed with a well-thought-out and clearly stated objective.

·          Clearly link their objective with facts that support their plans and goals.

·          Work with their manager to uncover any questions or reservations he/she may have concerning their message.

·          Move conversations toward agreement with questions that focus on the benefits to be gained when the objective is reached.

·          Clearly and concisely restate the decisions that result from Communicating Up and insure that those decisions are mutually understood.

·          State objective concisely in terms of the needs and interests of their manager.

·          Detail objective and support it with facts.

·          Ask for and/or respond to questions.

·          Probe for agreement.

·          Summarize and confirm conclusion.

 

Delegating  Course List

This module gives you valuable insight into and practice of the "Three W's" of effective delegation: When should team leaders delegate? Whom should they delegate to? and What explanation should they give to team members? This module also teaches how to use delegation as a motivational tool.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Understand the role of delegation in time management, resource utilization, job satisfaction and overall team productivity.

·          Use a delegation process that ensures team member participation, involvement, and success so that what needs to be done gets done – properly and on time.

·          Establish a team member’s responsibility and authority for a delegated task – creating a framework for accountability and personal growth.

·          Explain need for delegation.

·          Use delegation of task to motivate.

·          Explain task and ask team member’s view.

·          Specify responsibility and authority.

·          Confirm team member’s understanding and set up time for review. 

Developing Performance Standards and Goals  Course List

Unless managers and team leaders are successful in spelling out the organization's specific goals, your team members are not going to know how to meet those objectives. This module teaches how to establish specific, measurable, attainable, result-oriented and time-framed performance standards. It then illustrates the steps that gain team member agreement and commitment to those performance standards.   Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Define goals, objectives, and performance standards.

·          Identify and set performance standards that are specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time-framed, using concrete active language.

·          Establish time limits for all performance standards.

·          Involve team members in creating their own individual performance standards.

·          Negotiate to develop performance standards for team members that address both desired results and team members’ capabilities.

·          Monitor team members’ progress toward their goals by holding individual review meetings. 

·          State broad goal of the plan.

·          Ask team member's view of what his or her performance standards should be within the plan.

·          Negotiate by modifying unrealistically high or low performance standards.

·          Agree on a set of performance standards that are clear, specific, and measurable.

·          Confirm team member’s commitment and set up review.

 

Effective Discipline  Course List

This may seem like a contradiction in terms, but it doesn't have to be. Managers and team leaders will learn how to change unacceptable team member behavior without causing bruised and resentful egos.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Use the techniques of effective discipline to eliminate problem behavior.

·          Communicate concerns in terms of behavior rather than perception or opinion.

·          Minimize defensiveness and focus on solutions.

·          Reduce conflict avoidance behaviors that undermine team morale, impact perceived fairness and impede overall productivity.

·          Review performance to make sure the problem is resolved.

·          Recognize the importance of team member participation in defining the problems and solutions.

·         State performance problem.

·         Ask team member’s view.

·         Ask team member for a solution.

·         Agree on a plan.

 

 

Improving Work Habits  Course List

Absenteeism . . . Repeated tardiness . . . Drug and alcohol abuse . . . These are some of the issues managers and team leaders face today. Quoting company regulations to the reluctant worker won't solve the problem. The truly effective manager or team leader will translate the rules into codes of conduct that are meaningful to the team member and do it in a supportive, nonthreatening way. This module teaches you how it's done.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Recognize the difference between job performance and work habits.  Managers will understand that a work habits discussion is not coaching and requires different skills for successful resolution.

·          Understand that unsatisfactory work habits must be dealt with quickly and effectively before they require disciplinary action.

·          Explain clearly and specifically the nature of the team member’s unsatisfactory work habit while focusing on behaviors rather than attitude.

·         Use an action plan and ongoing reviews to help team members improve work habits and demonstrate personal accountability.

·          State problem clearly and specifically.

·          Ask team member’s view.

·          Ask team member for a solution.

·          Agree on a plan.

·          Set up time for review.

 

 

Managing Complaints  Course List

As the leaders on the front line, you are often the first to hear team member complaints. Though sometimes they may seem a barrage of whining, each complaint should be addressed and resolved. This module teaches how to resolve simple complaints and identify the "hidden agendas" that so often underlie chronic grievances.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Understand why all team member complaints must be dealt with rather than ignored or dismissed.

·          Be more sensitive to all the problems-minor or trivial, real or imagined-that can lie behind complaints.

·          Understand techniques used to determine underlying problems, which are not always the same as those the team member thinks are responsible for his/her difficulties.

·         Use various techniques to solve such problems while maintaining a positive relationship with the team member. 

·          Ask team member to detail the complaint.

·          Get agreement on substance of the complaint.

·          Ask team member for a solution.

·          Schedule time for investigation and agree on a action plan.

·          Set a date for a follow-up meeting.

 

Providing Performance Feedback  Course List

This module teaches the way an evaluation is done by the experts. First, relevant performance standards are established. Then, the team member's own performance evaluation is solicited. This accomplished, the stage is set for a summary evaluation that will be clear and credible to the team member.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Base assessments on facts and behavior.

·          Assess performance.

·          Use positive feedback to motivate team members.

·          Gain team member participation in the assessment.

·          Gain team member agreement with the assessment.

·          Gain team member commitment to the change needed to improve performance.

·          Ask for team member’s evaluation and give your evaluation of performance.

·          Identify what would help maintain or improve performance.

·          Ask team member to identify how improvement can be achieved.

·          Agree on a plan.

·          Get commitment and set up a review.

 

Resolving Conflicts  Course List

Whenever people work together, conflicts arise. They may be simple misunderstandings that you can clear up. Or they may reveal subtle, but pervasive, morale problems that threaten to tear the delicate fabric of your organization. This module teaches you how to explore a conflict and get to the heart of the problem to correct it before it's too late.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Accept conflict as an inevitable part of all work situations and deal with it in order to maintain individual and team focus and productivity.

·          Recognize the positive and negative impacts of conflicts and leverage conflict to everyone’s advantage.

·          Distinguish between the two major sources of conflict so that it can be resolved fairly and effectively.

·          Establish a cooperative atmosphere to resolve conflicts when they arise.

 

·          Ask each team member to state the problem.

·          Ask each team member to state other’s view of problem.

·          Ask each team member to confirm accuracy of other’s restatement.

·          Focus on objective facts, areas of mutual need or mutual goals.

·         Ask each to suggest solutions.

·         Bring both to agreement on specific steps to resolve conflict and set up a time for review. 

Supporting Change  Course List

As the link between management goals and the frontline labor force, the manger or team leader is the key to preparing for change. Dealing with the comfort level of team members and involving them in detailed discussions will facilitate their acceptance of new ways of doing things. This module teaches you how to introduce change without inducing defensive reactions.  Register me!

Objectives

Skill Points

·          Understand why change happens, how people react to it, and how to support team member’s struggles with change.

·          Involve team members in a change initiative by promoting their understanding and ownership of the change and its benefits.

·          Plan for individual or group follow-up sessions that support the change process and reinforce personal and organizational goals. 

·          Detail coming change and explain reason for it.

·          Let team member ask questions, express opinions and concerns.

·          Respond to team member’s questions and concerns.

·          Get commitment and set up time for review.