Senior Management & Function Ownership

The Advanced tier of the Management & Leadership track at The Works Academy.

13Modules
118Lessons
AdvancedLevel

Outcomes

What you will learn

  1. From Team Lead to Function Owner: The Senior Manager Operating System
  2. Strategy Execution and OKRs: Turning Group Direction Into a Departmental Plan
  3. Owning a P&L: Reading, Building, and Defending Your Department's Numbers
  4. Budgeting, Forecasting, and Resource Allocation for a Function
  5. Hiring and Building the Team: Recruiting, Onboarding, and Emiratisation
  6. Coaching for Performance: Developing People and Driving Results Through Them
  7. Performance Management, Recognition, and Managing Out
  8. Leading Change: Taking Your Function Through Transitions Without Losing People
  9. and 5 more modules, listed below

Syllabus

13 modules, 118 lessons

Prefer to take it one module at a time? Each module below can be taken on its own at the price shown. Taking the full course saves you AED 550 against buying every module separately.

01From Team Lead to Function Owner: The Senior Manager Operating SystemAED 400

The step up from running a team to owning a whole function is a change of job, not a promotion of the old one. This module gives you the operating system a department head runs on: owning outcomes not tasks, leading through other leaders, controlling your calendar, building the reporting and cadence that keeps a function honest, and carrying the legal and financial accountability that now sits with you under UAE law.

1.1What Actually Changes When You Own a FunctionLocked
1.2Outcomes, Not Tasks: Changing What You Are Measured OnLocked
1.3Leading Through Leaders: The Manager-of-Managers ShiftLocked
1.4Owning the Numbers: Your Function's Financial RealityLocked
1.5Building Your Operating CadenceLocked
1.6The Reporting You Owe Up and the Reporting You Demand DownLocked
1.7The Accountability You Now Carry: People, Compliance and RiskLocked
1.8Your First 90 Days as a Function OwnerLocked
02Strategy Execution and OKRs: Turning Group Direction Into a Departmental PlanAED 400

A practical, UAE-grounded playbook for a senior manager who owns a function: how to take a vague group direction from the holding company or MD and convert it into a sharp departmental plan with objectives, measurable key results, a quarterly cadence, and honest scoring, so your team actually moves the numbers that matter instead of staying busy.

2.1Why Strategy Dies Between the Boardroom and the Sales FloorLocked
2.2Reading the Group's Direction: Intent, Constraints and What Is Really Being AskedLocked
2.3Objectives vs Key Results vs Tasks: Getting the Grammar RightLocked
2.4Cascading Group OKRs Into a Departmental PlanLocked
2.5Writing Key Results That Are Measurable, Owned and HonestLocked
2.6Sequencing and Prioritisation: You Cannot Chase Nine Things at OnceLocked
2.7The Execution Cadence: Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly RhythmLocked
2.8Scoring, Learning and Resetting at Quarter EndLocked
03Owning a P&L: Reading, Building, and Defending Your Department's NumbersAED 500

A practical, UAE-grounded course that takes a senior manager from reading a departmental P&L line by line to building it, controlling it monthly, and defending it in front of the leadership team, using real brokerage and Academy numbers and the 2025-26 tax and cost rules.

3.1What a P&L Actually Is and Why It Is Now Your JobLocked
3.2Reading the Revenue Lines Without Fooling YourselfLocked
3.3Fixed, Variable and Semi-Variable CostsLocked
3.4Gross Margin, Contribution and the Break-Even PointLocked
3.5The Fully Loaded Cost of a Person in the UAELocked
3.6Building Your Department Budget From ZeroLocked
3.7Budget vs Actual: Reading Variances Like a ManagerLocked
3.8Cash Is Not Profit: Managing the Timing GapLocked
3.9Cost Discipline Without Killing GrowthLocked
3.10Defending Your Numbers in the Leadership RoomLocked
04Budgeting, Forecasting, and Resource Allocation for a FunctionAED 400

A practical playbook for the senior manager who owns a function's budget in a UAE brokerage or group entity: build a defensible annual budget from drivers, run a rolling forecast that survives contact with reality, allocate headcount and marketing spend against return, manage cash and commission timing under the 2025-26 rules, and defend the numbers in front of finance.

4.1Budget versus forecast versus plan: what you actually ownLocked
4.2Building the revenue budget from drivers, not last year plus ten percentLocked
4.3Costing the function: fixed, variable, and the commission lineLocked
4.4The rolling forecast: keeping the number honest every monthLocked
4.5Allocating headcount: the most expensive decision you makeLocked
4.6Allocating marketing and lead spend against returnLocked
4.7Cash flow and commission timing: the trap that sinks profitable desksLocked
4.8Variance analysis: explaining the gap between plan and actualLocked
4.9Defending the budget: the finance conversation and the reforecast askLocked
05Hiring and Building the Team: Recruiting, Onboarding, and EmiratisationAED 450

A senior manager's practical playbook for building a compliant, high-performing brokerage team in the UAE: defining costed roles, running a real recruiting funnel, interviewing and reference-checking rigorously, structuring compliant fixed-term offers and commission, onboarding to first deal, meeting Emiratisation obligations through Nafis, and getting visa, WPS, and insurance mechanics right.

5.1Owning Headcount: From Vacancy to a Defined RoleLocked
5.2Building a Recruiting Funnel That Actually Fills SeatsLocked
5.3Writing Job Ads and Screening Without DiscriminatingLocked
5.4Interviewing to Predict Performance, Not CharmLocked
5.5Reference and Background Checks That Protect the FirmLocked
5.6Compliant Offers, Fixed-Term Contracts, and Commission StructuresLocked
5.7Onboarding to First Deal: The First 90 DaysLocked
5.8Emiratisation and Nafis: Meeting Your Tawteen ObligationLocked
5.9Visas, WPS, Insurance, and the Compliant Hire MechanicsLocked
5.10Building the Team, Not Just Filling Seats: Culture, Diversity, and RetentionLocked
06Coaching for Performance: Developing People and Driving Results Through ThemAED 450

A practical coaching system for senior managers who own a function: how to shift from directing to developing, run structured coaching conversations, build skill on the sales floor, and turn individual growth into departmental results, all grounded in UAE brokerage reality.

6.1Why Coaching Is the Highest-Leverage Thing You DoLocked
6.2Coaching vs Managing vs Mentoring vs DirectingLocked
6.3The GROW Model as Your Default Conversation StructureFree preview
6.4Asking Questions That Do the WorkLocked
6.5Diagnosing the Real Gap: Skill, Will, or SystemLocked
6.6Coaching on the Sales Floor: Live Skill-BuildingLocked
6.7Giving Feedback That Builds Rather Than BruisesLocked
6.8Building Individual Development Plans That Get UsedLocked
6.9Coaching Different Levels: Underperformers, Solid Core, and StarsLocked
6.10Turning Coaching Into Results: Rhythm, Metrics, and CultureLocked
07Performance Management, Recognition, and Managing OutAED 400

A senior manager's operating manual for running a fair, documented performance system in a UAE brokerage: setting standards, rating honestly, recognising the right behaviours, running a lawful PIP, and exiting people cleanly under Federal Decree-Law 33/2021 without landing a MOHRE claim.

7.1Building the Performance Management System You Actually OwnLocked
7.2Setting Standards and Calibrating Ratings Across the TeamLocked
7.3Recognition That Drives the Behaviour You WantLocked
7.4Diagnosing Underperformance Before You ActLocked
7.5Running a Fair, Documented Performance Improvement PlanLocked
7.6The Decision Point: Turnaround, Redeploy, or ExitLocked
7.7Exiting an Employee Lawfully Under UAE Labour LawLocked
7.8Conducting the Termination Conversation With DignityLocked
7.9After the Exit: Team, Record, and LearningLocked
08Leading Change: Taking Your Function Through Transitions Without Losing PeopleAED 450

A practical nine-lesson module on leading your department through change in a UAE brokerage or holdings function: diagnosing the change, building a case people believe, sequencing the rollout, handling resistance and the people you might lose, communicating relentlessly, and locking the change in so it survives you.

8.1Why Change Fails in a Function Like YoursLocked
8.2Diagnosing the Change: Type, Scope and Who It HitsLocked
8.3Building the Case for Change People Actually BelieveLocked
8.4The Coalition: You Cannot Carry Change AloneLocked
8.5Sequencing the Rollout: Pilots, Phases and Early WinsLocked
8.6Understanding and Working With ResistanceLocked
8.7Communicating Through Change: Cadence and HonestyLocked
8.8The People You Might Lose: Managing Exits With Dignity and ComplianceLocked
8.9Anchoring the Change So It Survives YouLocked
09Cross-Functional Collaboration in a Multi-Entity GroupAED 450

How a senior manager gets work done across departments and legal entities in a UAE group: mapping the operating model, negotiating shared services and internal SLAs, running transfer pricing and inter-company charges compliantly under Corporate Tax, aligning on data and compliance, and leading through influence rather than authority.

9.1Map the group before you try to work across itLocked
9.2Influence without authority: getting things done across lines you don't controlLocked
9.3Shared services and internal SLAs: turning goodwill into a reliable arrangementLocked
9.4Inter-company charges and transfer pricing under UAE Corporate TaxLocked
9.5One version of the truth: shared data, CRM, and reporting across entitiesLocked
9.6Running a cross-functional initiative: RACI, cadence, and a single ownerLocked
9.7Compliance and risk as a shared responsibility, not someone else's jobLocked
9.8Managing conflicting priorities between functionsLocked
9.9Building durable relationships across the groupLocked
10Difficult Conversations and Conflict ManagementAED 500

A practical operating manual for senior managers on preparing, opening, steering, and closing the hard conversations that come with owning a function: underperformance, conflict between team members, pay and promotion disputes, misconduct, and cross-entity friction, grounded in UAE reality and clean process.

10.1Why Managers Avoid Hard Conversations and What It Costs the FunctionLocked
10.2Prepare Before You Speak: Facts, Outcome, and the Opening LineLocked
10.3Opening and Steering: Structure, Silence, and Staying on PurposeLocked
10.4De-escalation: Handling Anger, Tears, and Defensiveness in the RoomLocked
10.5Conflict Between Team Members: Mediating Without Taking SidesLocked
10.6Pay, Promotion, and Commission Disputes: The Highest-Heat ConversationsLocked
10.7Misconduct and Investigations: Fair Process the Law RequiresLocked
10.8Cross-Functional and Cross-Entity Conflict in the GroupLocked
10.9Closing, Documenting, and Following Up So It Actually SticksLocked
11Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prioritisation Under PressureAED 400

A senior manager's operating toolkit for making sound calls fast: framing decisions, sizing reversibility, structured problem-solving, prioritising under load, using data without drowning in it, deciding with incomplete information, avoiding cognitive traps, and building a decision record your function can trust.

11.1Frame the decision before you solve itLocked
11.2Reversibility: match the process to the stakesLocked
11.3A structured problem-solving loop you can run in an hourLocked
11.4Prioritise when everything is urgentLocked
11.5Use data without drowning in itLocked
11.6Deciding with incomplete informationLocked
11.7Spot and defuse your own cognitive trapsLocked
11.8Decide under real pressure without losing your headLocked
11.9Build a decision record your function can trustLocked
12Operational Excellence: Running the Function Day to DayAED 450

A senior manager's operating discipline for running a UAE brokerage function day to day: the rhythm of standard work, dashboards and leading indicators, SLAs and process design, RERA and AML operational controls, WPS and payroll operations, capacity and coverage planning, incident handling, continuous improvement, and building an operations manual that survives your absence.

12.1The Operating Rhythm: Daily, Weekly, Monthly Standard WorkLocked
12.2Dashboards and Leading Indicators You Actually WatchLocked
12.3Service Levels and Process DesignLocked
12.4Operational Compliance Controls: RERA, AML and AdvertisingLocked
12.5Payroll and Commission Operations: WPS Run DisciplineLocked
12.6Capacity, Coverage and SchedulingLocked
12.7Incident and Escalation ManagementLocked
12.8Continuous Improvement and the RetrospectiveLocked
12.9The Operations Manual: Making the Function Run Without YouLocked
13Leading Yourself: Executive Presence, Resilience, and Sustainable PerformanceAED 450

A nine-lesson capstone on the discipline that underwrites every other management skill: managing your own presence, energy, credibility, and resilience so you can carry a function for years without burning out or losing the room. Grounded in Dubai brokerage reality, with worked routines, scripts, and volatility flagged per the 2025-26 UAE register.

13.1What Executive Presence Actually Is (and Is Not)Locked
13.2Managing Your State Under PressureLocked
13.3Energy Management: The Real Constraint on Senior PerformanceLocked
13.4Building Resilience: Recovering From Setbacks FastLocked
13.5Sustainable Performance and Preventing BurnoutLocked
13.6Time and Attention: Protecting Your Highest-Value WorkLocked
13.7Credibility, Integrity, and the Long GameLocked
13.8Continuous Growth: Feedback, Reflection, and LearningLocked
13.9Your Personal Leadership Operating SystemLocked

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