The Confident Manager Series

The Confident Manager Series is a modular management skills programme focused on people management excellence, where participants shape their learning journeys around key areas relevant to their role and context.  

You can tailor your learning by signing up to individual modules, do one or many, and complete them in any order. This means that you can focus on what matters most to you at any given time, and continuously strengthen your people management knowledge, skills, and practice by: 

• Developing core people management capabilities, focusing on developing yourself as manager at the University of Oxford, and in the changing world of work 
• Maximising your impact as a People Manager, enhancing the effectiveness of your team, and supporting your team members’ personal development
• Practising what matters in a safe environment and through learning from peers across the University

If you are managing a team for the first time whether in your career or for the first time at Oxford, ‘Managing at Oxford’ is a great place to start.

The core modules are:

To supplement the modules, we will also be offering several short online Masterclasses with subject matter experts.

Each module includes a mix of presentation, peer discussions, hands-on exercises, and time for critical reflection. Keeping in mind most learning happens within your own working environment, we will encourage you to reflect on how you can transfer your new knowledge there, embed new working practices and how to involve your manager in helping you do this.

We expect all participants to discuss and agree their training needs with their line manager prior to booking.

Masterclasses will run online and be approximately 90 minutes in duration.

We aim to run 2 sessions of each module per term and add further sessions should demand be high. 

Our intention is for the programme to be accessible to all those who wish to attend. It includes options to attend in person sessions at Littlegate House, and online Masterclasses. The programme provides access to POD’s online resources and signposts managers to external resources. 

If you participated in either of the original strands of the programme (‘You as the Manager’ or ‘Reaching your Potential’) during the academic year 2022-2023 please see attached guidance on which modules to consider attending. 

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How to manage your booking(s)

We ask you to please manage your booking(s) carefully and plan in advance. Sessions will run multiple times per term across the year so there is the opportunity to sign up for a session that best fits your development needs, at a time that suits you best across the year.

Booking a place

• Once you have discussed and agreed your training needs with your line manager you can book a place on any of The Confident Manager sessions via CoSy. The dashboard at the bottom of this webpage links directly to CoSy for booking.
• We ask you to please only book a place on a session if you are genuinely committed to attending it. We want as many managers from across the University to access the sessions, and cancellations mean we might end up running a session that isn’t at maximum capacity.
• Please note that cancellations and no-shows will be monitored.

Cancelling a place

If, due to unforeseen circumstances, you need to cancel your place please do so via CoSy as soon as you can (and ideally at least 3 working days prior to the start of the session) so that your place can be allocated to someone else.

Waiting list

We operate waiting lists for each session:

• You can add your name to the waiting list if a session is fully booked.
• If you have a place on the waiting list, please hold the time in your diary and work on the basis that you might be given a place.
• If you can no longer hold the time, please cancel your place on the waiting list as soon as possible. This will ensure that places are given to those who are able to attend the session.