The Accredited Business Specialist (ABS™) credential is designed for professionals aiming to display their expertise across critical business functions, including Leadership, Performance Management, Innovation & Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, and Managing Organizational Goals. Holding the ABS™ certification demonstrates that the individual possesses a well-rounded skill set essential for driving organizational success and adapting to dynamic business environments.
To earn the ABS™ credential, candidates must complete five core ABS™ professional courses and pass the corresponding assessments in the following areas:
- Leadership – Develop the ability to inspire, influence, and guide teams toward achieving strategic goals.
- Performance Management – Learn how to set, monitor, and optimize individual and team performance for organizational growth.
- Managing Innovation & Creativity – Gain skills to foster a culture of innovation, generate creative solutions, and manage change effectively.
- Emotional Intelligence – Enhance interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and emotional regulation to build stronger professional relationships.
- Managing Organizational Goals – Master strategic planning, goal setting, and execution to align business operations with long-term objectives.
Leadership
Performance management
Managing Innovation & Creativity
Managing Organizational Goals
Emotional intelligence
Leadership
Duration: 24 Hours
Overview
Up to this point in your career, you have been a successful employee or individual contributor, or have recently been promoted to manager. You have developed skills to be successful in your field. In this course, you will learn the practical skills you need to be an effective leader in your organization. Leadership enhances the skills employees at all levels need to be truly successful. When you learn practical leadership skills, you will have the ability to motivate, coach, communicate with, and teach employees in such a way that they are more effective in their jobs and, as a result, you become more effective in your job.
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will learn practical leadership skills. You will:
- Describe the transition from your role of individual contributor to that of a leader.
- Develop an effective team.
- Identify techniques for leading diverse groups to achieve business results.
- Identify skills required to focus and lead your team to achieve business results.
Performance management
Duration: 24 Hours
Overview
Performance management is a style of management designed to improve the performance levels of employees by creating and implementing performance management plans and through coaching and feedback. As a manger, you will want employees to perform at satisfactory and above satisfactory levels. One way to achieve this is through performance management. By implementing the strategies and practices of performance management, you will encourage desired performance levels and maintain a relationship with employees to sustain the desired performance levels.
New managers want to be able to step forward and assume their new responsibilities with confidence. You want to be able to lead the individuals on your team effectively by conducting ongoing performance appraisals; delivering helpful and instructive feedback, training, and coaching; and designing and implementing performance standards. You also want to develop talent within your team by employing effective performance-management strategies on the job. This course will give new managers essential performance-management skills.
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will explore basic performance-management techniques. You will identify methods of developing talent, harnessing the engagement of team members, and offering train- ing and coaching to individual team members through performance-management strategies. You will develop and implement performance standards, conduct performance appraisal conversations, and give appropriate feedback and coaching to individuals for their edification and the benefit of the team, department, and company. You will:
- Plan ways of effectively harnessing engagement with the individuals on your team. You will identify methods of becoming a manager of choice within your workplace by establishing your reputation as a manager who invests time, energy, and effort in the team members and in committing to performance-management strategies on the job.
- Plan strategies for aligning the performance management goals for the individuals on your team with the established needs of your business. You will work with your team members to optimize their behavior in order to yield better results for the company, collaborate with team members to establish performance goals, ensure those goals are in alignment with business needs, discuss performance appraisals with your team members, and deliver coaching and feedback as necessary.
- Learn strategies for creating performance and development plans for individuals. You will create creative, instructive development plans for team members seeking career growth and strategic development plans to help team members who are seriously struggling to meet their job requirements.
Managing Innovation & Creativity
Duration: 12 Hours
Overview
Businesses are constantly looking for innovative ideas that will put them one step ahead of their competitors. In order to arrive at a truly new idea, a team leader or manager must under- stand how to manage the innovation process. This course offers effective managerial strategies that address the organizational aspects of managing a creative team, supporting that creativity, moving an idea to implementation, and troubleshooting ideas to help guide a team through the innovation process. Managing innovation will not only make you a more valuable manager but will also help successfully navigate your team to implementing the new innovation. A manager or team leader needs to understand the creative process and effectively allow for creativity to happen if he wants his team to create something that will set the company apart from the competition.
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will identify how a creative team works and what your role is as team leader. You will explore how to lead a creative team from idea to implementation and how to troubleshoot problems in the innovative process. You will:
- Manage the creative environment.
- Examine the process of moving from idea to implementation.
Managing Organizational Goals
Duration: 18 Hours
Overview
As a manager, you are responsible for setting the goals for your team and for managing their work. Organizational goals can often get lost in layers of management and not get communicated to the individual contributors. In the absence of goals, employees can feel unmotivated or can even set their own goals for achievement, which will result in poor and conflicting team performance. In this course, you will develop skills needed to establish tactical goals for your team based on organizational directives and general goals from your manager and create and manage action plans to achieve these goals. Aligning your team goals with the organization’s goals and achieving them will enable you to contribute effectively in an organization. As a manager, you lead a team that is expected to contribute to the organization and you are ultimately held responsible for their performance. Your diligence in clarifying and achieving your team goals, and in sharing what you learn with your management, will help your organization evolve in a positive way. By setting goals and coaching team members to achieve these goals, you can help your team and ultimately, your organization, to succeed.
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will develop skills needed to establish tactical goals for your team based on organizational directives and general goals from your manager, and create and manage an action plan to achieve these goals. You will:
- Refine goals for your team.
- Develop action plans and contingency plans for achieving your team goals.
- Manage your team and work with stakeholders in your organization to achieve the action plan.
Emotional intelligence
Duration: 12 Hours
Overview
In this course, you will assess your current emotional intelligence capabilities, determine your strengths, and identify areas for improvement. You will examine how emotions affect behavior and how those behaviors impact your relationships with others. You will also develop strategies for managing the emotional energy in yourself and others. This course will assist you in improving your business relationships by developing your aware- ness of the emotional components at play in typical business interactions. With increased awareness you can apply emotional intelligence strategies so that you and your team can work together to improve overall productivity.
Learning Objectives
In this course, you will evaluate your current emotional intelligence abilities and apply strategies to improve your emotional intelligence. You will:
- Evaluate your emotional intelligence.
- Develop strategies for effectively applying emotional intelligence in the workplace.
