You are a manager now.
Welcome aboard.
The first course in Manager Foundations, taken on the web after your manager compliance courses. It covers the change from doing the work to managing it, five ideas that make a manager effective, what Vanderbilt will ask of you in year one and who handles each task, and Yukl’s four categories of manager behavior with the six behaviors Vanderbilt looks for. Then come the supporting micro modules in Oracle Learning: Systems and Vanderbilt & Nashville by Day 30, People and Processes by Day 60.
Narration is on. Every page is read as it turns. Tap Auto to turn it off, or Listen to replay a page.
- Turn pages with the arrows, your keyboard, or a swipe
- Each page: a short read or video, then one activity
- Progress, top right, tracks each activity you finish
The mission · Next: topic 1, what changed
The missionDefine the great university of the 21st century, and be it.
What you will learnThe vision, how we operate, and your part in it.
Why it mattersThe mission is achieved team by team. Yours is one of them.
Vanderbilt operates at uncommon speed, agility, and scale. Three areas of focus.
Areas of focusWith speed, agility and scale, Vanderbilt will distinguish itself with innovative and impactful capabilities to ensure that we have the talent, resources and reputation necessary to deliver on our vision.
With “exceptional core operations” as our fuel, Vanderbilt will pursue increasingly bold initiatives that enable and enhance the reach and impact of our education and research mission.
Through strategic advocacy efforts and modeling the role of an essential research university, Vanderbilt will stimulate industry change and combat existential threats to our education and research mission.
Vanderbilt now works from five cities. As we grow, help your team understand how Vanderbilt works, wherever they sit.
As a manager, it is your responsibility to embody this mission and to lead your team to achieve it.
- Embody it. Speed, agility, and scale start with how you work.
- Lead your team to achieve it. Connect the work to the mission and say the why.
- Stay in touch with your manager. Strategy, projects, priorities, anything else.
Topic 1 What changed · Next: what a manager is
What changedYour job used to be your work. Now it is the team’s work, and the people.
What you will learnThe one change that makes you a manager, and what a manager is not.
Why it mattersMost new managers keep doing the old job with a new title. The team waits for a manager who never shows up.
What matters this week, who does what, what waits.
Timecards, time off, expenses. You are responsible for your team, and accuracy is key. Timesheets, payroll, and every approval must be right.
Fair treatment, a safe place to speak up, a chance to grow.
When you want to just do it yourself, manage instead.
Warm and fair. The team needs a manager more than another friend.
You do not investigate, judge, or enforce. Report harassment, discrimination, injuries, or threats to the right office the same day. They handle it. You support your team.
Whose job is it now?
Six things from a normal month. Tap: yours, your team member’s, or another office.
0 of 6 sorted.
Topic 1 What a manager is · Next: topic 2, five ideas
What a manager isResponsible for the work, and for the people who do it.
What you will learnA one-line definition, three weekly questions, and who helps you at Vanderbilt.
Why it mattersYou do not have to know everything on day one. You do have to know the job and who to call.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. What changed, what is new, what a manager is not, who helps. About ninety seconds.
A manager is the person responsible for a team’s work, and for the people who do it.
Does everyone know what to do this week?
Is anyone stuck, struggling, or waiting on me?
What is coming that the team should hear from me first?
Stay in touch to stay aligned.
Strategy, projects, priorities, anything elseYour go-to in PCB for HR issues, concerns, and support.
The bigger people questions for your business unitIn most business units, for immediate HR issues.
Pay, hiring, performance, policy. First call when unsureTime off for health and family, and injuries at work.
Contact them the same day. FMLA requests go through Origami. Never ask for a diagnosisDiscrimination, harassment, and misconduct reports.
Report the same day. You report; you do not investigateTopic 2 Five ideas · Next: topic 3, your first year
Five ideasFive ideas every good manager relies on.
What you will learnSetting priorities, clear expectations, psychological safety, purpose, and the people work. What each is, how you apply it, the value it brings, and one moment to apply it.
Why it mattersYou do not need a theory of management. You need a few ideas that hold up, and each one turns into something you can do this week.
0 of 5 ideas. 0 of 5 moments.
Topic 3 Your first year · Next: who handles what
Your first yearWhat Vanderbilt will ask you to do, and when.
What you will learnAs a manager you now have many tasks. Here they are, sorted by how often they come up.
Why it mattersNothing here should surprise you when it lands. Know what is coming, and when.
0 of 4 groups opened.
Topic 3 Who handles what · Next: topic 4, the four categories
Who handles whatHandle it, ask, route it, or report it.
What you will learnA simple way to decide what to do when something lands on your desk: handle it, ask my HCM, send it to the leave office, or report it to EOA.
Why it mattersSome things are yours. Some have a process. Some must go to a specific office the same day. Getting this right protects your team, and you.
Time off, a timecard question, a 1:1, feedback.
Pay, hiring, a performance concern, anything unsure.
Never ask for a diagnosis.
You report; you do not investigate.
Something just landed on your desk. What now?
Pick a situation: the first move, who handles what, and what never to do.
What do you do first?
Five situations. Tap the first thing you do.
0 of 5 decided.
Topic 4 The four categories · Next: your call
Yukl’s four categoriesOne picture for the whole job: four categories of behavior.
What you will learnGary Yukl’s four categories of manager behavior and the fifteen behaviors inside them, which Vanderbilt looks for you to embody. Nothing new to memorize; it is the same work, sorted.
Why it mattersEvery manager does all four, every week. The skill is noticing which one this week needs. Each behavior below is marked with the Vanderbilt behavior it serves, and those six are what the survey asks you to rate.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. The four categories and the habits inside each. About ninety seconds.
The four categories and the fifteen behaviors are Gary Yukl’s taxonomy of effective leadership behavior (2012; summary). The words in italics are the plain version. These are the behaviors Vanderbilt looks for you to embody.
Is the team’s work getting done, and done well? You check it and unblock it; you do not do it yourself.
- Clarifying (say it)Create clarity
- Planning (plan it)Create clarity
- Monitoring operations (check it)Coach and develop
- Problem solving (fix it)Address issues
Are people growing, and staying?
- Supporting (listen and help)Build trust
- Developing (grow them)Coach and develop
- Recognizing (thank them)Build trust
- Empowering (trust them)Empower others
Is the team getting better at what it does?
- Advocating change (explain the why)Lead change
- Envisioning change (describe where you are going)Lead change
- Encouraging innovation (let people try)Empower others
- Facilitating collective learning (look back)Lead change
Does the team get what it needs from outside?
- Networking (know the people)Build trust
- External monitoring (watch for what is coming)Lead change
- Representing (speak up for your team)Address issues
0 of 4 categories opened.
Task-orientedGet the work done, through your team.
What you will learnFour behaviors, all about the team’s work rather than yours: clarifying, planning, monitoring operations, problem solving. In plain words, say it, plan it, check it, fix it.
Why it mattersWhen people are not sure what is expected, work comes in late or gets redone, and you find out on the due date.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. Why it matters, each habit on a Tuesday, what to stop, one thing this week. About ninety seconds.
Do this weekPick one person and confirm, out loud, what they own and by when.
Micro modules for this job: Performance Management Foundations for Managers, UKG for managers, Oracle Cloud exempt time off.
Relations-orientedTake care of your people.
What you will learnFour behaviors: supporting, developing, recognizing, empowering. In plain words, listen and help, grow them, thank them, trust them. And the line where helping becomes a duty to route.
Why it mattersPeople stay, and do their best work, for a manager who notices them.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. Why it matters, each habit on a Tuesday, what to stop, one thing this week. About ninety seconds.
Do this weekThank one person for one specific thing.
Micro modules for this job: FMLA, Giving feedback, Flexible work arrangements.
Change-orientedMake things better.
What you will learnFour behaviors: advocating change, envisioning change, encouraging innovation, facilitating collective learning. In plain words, explain the why, describe where you are going, let people try, look back.
Why it mattersVanderbilt is asking every team to move faster and improve. That happens in your team, in small ways, every week.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. Why it matters, each habit on a Tuesday, what to stop, one thing this week. About ninety seconds.
Do this weekHold one ten-minute look-back.
Micro modules for this job: The mission and the vision, Areas of focus.
ExternalConnect your team.
What you will learnThree behaviors: networking, external monitoring, representing. In plain words, know the people, watch for what is coming, speak up for your team. And one thing to know: the campus network.
Why it mattersYour team needs approvals, information, and a fair hearing from outside. New managers do this job least.
The video is being produced. The cards beside it teach the same thing.
Narrated, captions on. Why it matters, each habit on a Tuesday, what to stop, one thing this week. About ninety seconds.
Do this weekHave coffee with one person your team depends on.
Micro modules for this job: How we work together, Oracle Recruiting and Onboarding, Compensation cycle and merit basics.
Topic 4 Your call · Next: topic 5, your assessment
Your callFour situations, one per category.
What you will learnA report due Friday, a team member with a sick parent, a change the team hates, a request that would break your month.
Why it mattersTry all three responses in each. The consequences teach more than the right answer.
0 of 4 situations.
Topic 5 Your assessment · Next: a quick check
Your assessmentYour score, and where it should go.
What you will learnWhat your results email tells you, and what to do with it.
Why it mattersThe assessment measures how often you do the habits in this course. The aim, over this course and the ones after, is a higher score.
The Manager Effectiveness Assessment
Six statements you rate yourself on, from never to consistently, before Manager Voyage and again 90 days after you complete it: create clarity, coach and develop, build trust, empower others, address issues, lead change. The statements are informed by Yukl’s leadership-behavior framework, which this course teaches. Your score and feedback came by email. Search your inbox for the results message from the Futures Learning Hub.
Review it, or take the assessment.
Nothing here is shared.
A quick check · Five questions, one at a time · Next: your seven days
Quick checkFive questions.
0 of 5 answered.
Next steps · Next: keep learning
Next stepsWhat to do, and when.
What you will learnHow this course connects to your first 60 days, step by step, on My voyage.
Why it mattersNobody builds every habit at once. Pick one, attach it to something you already do every week, and let the rest come with the micro modules.
Clarifying, planning, monitoring operations, problem solving.
Supporting, developing, recognizing, empowering.
Advocating change, envisioning change, encouraging innovation, facilitating collective learning.
Networking, external monitoring, representing.
Mark this course complete on My voyage
My voyage is your home page for the first 60 days. Mark the Foundation course complete there, then open the first micro module it lists under Up next.
Practice one habit this week
Pick one habit from this course. Attach it to something you already do every week, such as your Monday 1:1s or your Friday wrap-up, and do it once, on purpose.
The Systems and Vanderbilt & Nashville modules
UKG and Oracle, and the mission: the micro modules in Oracle Learning that My voyage lists first.
Compliance courses, then the People and Processes modules
Your compliance courses by their deadlines, then the people obligations and the processes that run the role.
Take the assessment again
The same six statements, 90 days after you complete Manager Voyage. Compare with where you started. Once Day 60 is complete, the cohort invitation follows from Oracle.
Commitments kept in private fade. Copy this, fill in the date, and send it today. “I just finished the first Manager Foundations course. The habit I am practicing this week is [habit]. Ask me about it on [date].”
When you open this course from Oracle Learning, your completion is recorded automatically once every activity is done. Outside Oracle, progress stays in this browser.
Keep learning · The last page
Keep learningWhat to take next.
What you will learnYour micro modules in Oracle Learning, in the four tracks you take them in, plus a short chosen list: ten more courses, podcasts, videos, and a guide.
Why it mattersMicro modules first: Systems and Vanderbilt & Nashville by Day 30, People and Processes by Day 60. Then one item from the other tabs a month, on the habit you are working on.
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Now manage it the same way.
Four categories, six behaviors, one habit this week, and your micro modules next. Take the first one today.
Back to My voyageThe quality of Vanderbilt’s future depends on the quality of its managers today.