6 Best People Management Courses Online for Team Leads (2023)

Looking for ways to motivate your team and guide them to success? Here are the best people management courses online.

Learning people management skills is essential to building a cohesive workforce.

Here are 6 of the best people management courses online for individuals in leadership positions who want to learn how to help others learn, engage, and grow at work.

These courses provide a deep dive into practical strategies for coaching employees and offering constructive feedback, while also resolving conflicts and helping employees navigate different work styles.

The employee side of the business is a critically important side of the business, and these people management classes are designed to support both first time-managers and seasoned managers in effectively fulfilling their roles and responsibilities.

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

What are the Best People Management Courses?

Here are the best people management courses to enroll in online this year:

1. The New Manager Toolkit (IUx)

There is never a second chance to make a first impression, so getting off to a good start is an essential element of an exceptional manager's journey.

The New Manager's Toolkit is a professional certificate offered on edX by Indiana University (IUx), to help first-time managers effectively transition into their new role.

Learners will discover how to handle some of the most common management challenges including establishing credibility and trust with team members, running productive meetings, giving constructive feedback, overcoming resistance, and more.

Through examples and illustrations from managers in real jobs and situations, you'll get to see what it means to become a leader who inspires people to be their best.

The program is composed of 3 main skill-building courses:

Becoming a People Manager: Taking Charge with Care
Effective Management and Communication
Developing Your Personal Leadership Style

The New Manager Toolkit is different from other people management classes because the class segments are short and mission critical - focusing not on theories and concepts but on practical skills that you can apply immediately.

It's delivered in a highly visual way and the goal is for participants to leave each course with a set of tools that is directly transferable to their day-to-day management context.

Length: 3 Months
Effort: 2-3 hours per week
Course Type: Self-paced on your time
Professional Certificate Included

=> Enroll in The New Manager's Toolkit program on edX here.

2. How to Manage a Remote Team (GitLab)

What people management skills come into play when managing a successful remote team?

This popular course on Coursera is designed for current managers, executives, and human resources professionals who want to learn how to build, manage, and scale a remote team.

The course is offered by GitLab, a software development platform and one of the world's largest all-remote organizations.

You'll get to hear from experts throughout the company as they guide you through in-depth lessons that will help you lay the right organizational foundations for remote work.

You will learn how to:

Lead in a remote environment
Build a remote organizational culture and practices
Assess teams’ and managers’ readiness and preparation for remote work
Create a foundational strategy for executing a remote transformation

Course Syllabus:

Week 1: Remote Work Best Practices
Week 2: Managing Remote Teams
Week 3: Remote Adaptation Processes for Organizations
Week 4: Culture and Values for Distributed Teams
Week 5: Final Assignment: Outline Your Remote Transition Plan

In the final assessment for the course, you will assess an organization's infrastructure, resource needs, and remote maturity and create a strategic plan to transition its workforce to remote operation.

Key course features:

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance with your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

You should have at least one year of management experience before taking this course. No remote experience is required.

Approx. 11 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish

=> Enroll in the "How to Manage a Remote Team" course here.

3. People Management (IIMBx)

Have you ever asked yourself any of the following questions:

Where did I go wrong in managing this particular employee?
How should I give feedback to my subordinates?
How do I handle potential assessments?
How should I motivate people who report to me?

This online course on edX explores the answers to these questions, by taking you through the journey from being an individual contributor to becoming a people manager.

First, you'll gain an overview of the different aspects of people management - including both the rewards and challenges faced by a first time manager.

Then you'll reflect on your own managerial experiences and build a personal development plan for yourself.

Program Syllabus

Week: Introduction to People Management
Week 2: Getting Work Done Through Others
Week 3: Assessment and Evaluation
Week 4: Building Peer Networks
Week 5: Essentials of Communication
Week 6: Managing Self

Overall, this course is designed to provide learners with an enhanced understanding of people management in an organizational context.

It is ideal for newly appointed people managers, but aspiring and seasoned managers will also benefit from the material.

Key course features:

Length: 6 Weeks
Level: Introductory
Effort: 2-4 hours per week
Course Type: Self-paced on your time
Certificate available upon completion

=> Enroll in the edX People Management course here.

4. Managing People from a Global Perspective (ASUx)

What are the best strategies for managing people in a complex, volatile global context?

In this course, you will learn how to achieve organizational success through growth-focused employee management.

First, you'll start by learning how to implement more effective tasks and processes. Then, you'll discover the common characteristics of high performing teams and how to positively shape behaviour through reward design.

You will also learn:

Best management practices for today’s global business environment
How to build and maintain top-notch teams
How to raise the performance bar through coaching, goals and tools
How to apply grounding concepts and strategies for observing and reading culture
How to graph the relationship between workplace generosity and productivity

This people management course is unique to others on this list in that it highlights cultural and location-based perspectives on people management.

From this vantage point, you will explore strategies for balancing generosity and productivity, as well as how to avert, evaluate and overcome conflict among employees. It's an interesting and unique approach!

Key course features:

Length: 6 Weeks
Level: Intermediate
Effort: 10-12 hours per week
Course Type: Instructor-led on a course schedule
Certificate available upon completion

=> Enroll in the Managing People From a Global Perspective course.

5. The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (University of London)

If you're looking for a general course on managing people at work, this one by the University of London is a great option.

The course focuses on helping you develop four core skills: decision making, leadership, management and performance management.

In addition, you will learn about a few HR theories and see how they translate into everyday working life.

Program 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

Key course features:

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance with your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion.

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Approx. 29 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: Arabic, French, Portuguese (European), Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish

=> Enroll in the Manager's Toolkit course on Coursera here.

6. Stepping Up: Leading Others (Queen Mary University of London)

Stepping Up: Leading Others is a course that is designed for leaders who have five to six years experience and are beginning to manage teams, customers and clients more regularly or directly.

The course is part of the Leadership Out of the Box specialization on Coursera, a four-part program that provides you with a robust set of tools, skills and frameworks to enable you to step up and lead more effectively.

In this course, learners will study team dynamics, the differences between work groups and teams, the nature of remote teams, and cross-cultural implications of leading teams.

Course Syllabus:

Week 1: Team Dynamics
Week 2: Leading Your Peers
Week 3: The Leader as Guide
Week 4: Important Conversations

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

Describe strategies for leading peers, dealing with blockers and disruptors
Implement the key elements of coaching and mentoring as a leader
Understand best practices for goal-setting and delegation
Hold important, challenging conversations with your team

Highlights of the course include discussions about the stages of team development, looking at how teams change through time, and considering the opportunities and challenges presented by remote and hybrid team structures.

Key course features:

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance with your schedule.

Shareable Certificate

Earn a Certificate upon completion.

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Advanced Level

Approx. 19 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: English

=> Enroll in the Stepping Up: Leading Others course here.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for checking out this post on the best people management courses online. Hopefully you've found a course (or two) that meets your needs and learning requirements.

Ultimately, people management plays a pivotal role in driving better hiring processes, increased productivity, and an improved work environment, so it's an important skill area to develop.

By becoming a better people manager, you'll strengthen your relationships with your team members and be more equipped to provide them with motivation and support they need to perform at their best.

Happy learning!