Open-enrollment, live online program will run September 3–October 15, 2024

March 12, 2024

PHILADELPHIA, PA: Are all managers adequately prepared to do their jobs? Unfortunately, no, statistics indicate. “Across organizations of all types, manager training is broken,” asserts a 2023 Forbes article, which notes that 59 percent of those supervising one to two people, and 41 percent of those supervising three to five people, receive no training at all. LSA Global reports that 60 percent of new people managers underperform in their first year, and only 25 percent of employees surveyed believe their companies are good at helping individuals transition into supervisory roles.

A new Wharton Executive Education program aims to close this competency gap. People Management for Emerging Leaders, a live online program running September 3–October 15, 2024, provides those who are or will be managing direct reports with the critical preparation they need for success. Through weekly live online sessions with accompanying self-paced content, this program offers a practical, guided, personalized approach to both the timeless and timely basics and the more challenging aspects of assuming a supervisory position.

“How are you going to advance to the next level if your employer's not providing you opportunities to learn how to be a manager—if there's nothing inside your company that's going to help you?” says the program’s academic director, Peter Cappelli, who is also the director of the Wharton Center for Human Resources. He points out that a lack of management training, in addition to holding back individuals, has a negative impact on today’s companies: “Bad supervising really hurts the organization because employees aren’t just going to take it—they’re going to leave. It’s a tight labor market now, so people can quit if they want.”

The program helps participants understand the paradigm shift from individual contributor to manager—from achieving personal success to succeeding through a team. It guides them through every aspect of that transformation: psychological, interpersonal, and practical. The nuts and bolts of management are also covered, including hiring and retention, legal and ethical issues, and motivating your people day to day. The program puts a special emphasis on managing performance problems and difficult employees, leveraging methods such as peer coaching and feedback, role playing, and self-assessments.

Program sessions will be led by prominent Wharton faculty and management thought leaders, including Peter Cappelli, Amy Wrzesniewski, Jennifer Feldman, and Lisa Warshaw. Participants will have the unique opportunity to directly engage with each faculty member as well as peers during weekly live online sessions.

Sessions include Stepping Up: The Imperatives, Succeeding Through Others, Out of Trouble: Legal Boundaries, Managing a Distributed and Diverse Team, Exploring the Key Pillars of Projects’ Success, Communication Strategies for Challenging Situations, and Reflection and Integration.
Existing, new, and aspiring managers in all sectors can gain invaluable supervisory preparation, boosting their skills and confidence. So can managers in a variety of other situations—for example, existing managers transitioning to a new team or to a new balance of in-person versus remote work. Entrepreneurs expanding their businesses can benefit as well.

“This program is for first-time managers for sure, but it’s not limited to that,” Cappelli says. “It's for anybody who is trying to get better at managing people.”

People Management for Emerging Leaders is now accepting applications. Prospective participants can learn more and apply at executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu.

About Wharton Executive Education

Wharton Executive Education has served as the global leader in executive development for 35 years. Steeped in the heritage and analytical insights of the Wharton School, with an eye toward shaping the future of business, Wharton Executive Education’s individual, online, and custom programs prepare over 100,000 professionals a year to transform their careers and organizations. For more information on Wharton Executive Education’s practical business solutions, visit executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu.

About the Wharton School

Founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With a faculty of more than 235 renowned professors, Wharton has 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 100,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education’s individual, company-customized, and online programs, and thousands of pre-collegiate students explore business concepts through Wharton’s www.wharton.upenn.edu.

Media Contact

Sarah SchwabDirector of Communications Aresty Institute of Executive Education
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania execed-pr@wharton.upenn.edu