Looking for additional leadership opportunities for your new supervisors and aspiring and emerging leaders? Want to bring training to your team? Join us for our GROW classes, indicted on our Classes & Training page by the icon at left. These affordable courses are designed to help you improve your skills in areas like conflict management, emotional intelligence, delegation, communication, performance management, and more.
Overview
Your first step in leadership development
Taking on new supervisory responsibilities is a great opportunity and challenge. Many in supervisory roles have learned either by trial and error or by following what was done by their predecessor. In most cases, this is not a very effective strategy. This course will start you in the right direction with fundamental leadership skills and ideas for how to continue your growth as a supervisor and leader.
Who should attend?
- Newly promoted or hired supervisors
- Small business owners starting to supervise employees
- Candidates for upcoming supervisory positions
Benefits of attending this program:
- Reduced stress associated with supervision
- Increased confidence in your leadership ability
- Improved team performance
- Focus on the most important things as a supervisor/leader
- Plan for continued training and development to build skills and knowledge over time
Key topics addressed:
- New role = new mindset
- Basic supervisory responsibilities
- Dealing with co-workers in your new role
- Improving communication in your team
- Effective delegation
- Recognizing and motivating team members
- Planning your future leadership development
Course Objectives:
- Distinguish specific leadership behaviors
- Practice specific behaviors correlated with exemplary leadership performance
- Integrate specific leadership habits into their daily activities
- Evaluate their progress in developing as a leader
- Understand strategies to help others develop their leadership behaviors
- Design a personal action plan for developing their own leadership behaviors
Registration for Fall 2025
Location: Grainger Hall, Wisconsin School of Business, UW-Madison
Date: October 8, 2025
Time: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Fee: $289
Register here for Fall 2025 or call 608-262-2451 to register. BONUS: Place 2 or more paid leadership courses in your cart, and use discount code SBDC10 for 10% off. Classes must be purchased in the same transaction.
Registration Deadlines
| Registration type | Date | Fee |
| Earlybird | Earlybird closes: 9/17/2025 | Earlybird Registration Fee: $260.00 |
| Late Registration | Late Registration begins: 9/30/2025 | Late Registration Fee: $318.00 |
| Course registration closes | October 8, 2025 | — |
Registration & Cancellation policies
- Payment will be required at time of registration. You must have either a credit card or valid UW-Madison funding string to be able to register.
- Cancelations at least 24 hours before the program begins will incur a $25 cancellation fee. Cancelations less than 24 hours before the start of the program will incur the full program fee. To cancel, call registration at 608-262-2451. Please note that in the case of a cancellation (by either the participant or the SBDC), participants can only be transferred one time into a new course.
Disability Statement: Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact the UW-Madison SBDC office at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu to request accommodations.
The Small Business Development Center at UW Madison is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
[For me, the most valuable aspects of the course were]:
Sales & Marketing Manager, Fortune Favors | 2025 Launch into Leadership participant
1. Reflecting on personal experience of when we felt we were a great leader and listing our own personal leadership values
2. Getting concrete examples of good vs. bad leadership characteristics
3. Receiving a template for one-on-ones and the SBI (Situation-Behavior-Impact) Feedback Model
4. Discussion and validation with peers
[This class taught me] to rethink what leadership is really about!
Operations Manager, White Rhino Company | 2025 Launch into Leadership participant
Great presentation cemented by discussion and interaction. [This course] was great! I have actionable steps to take.
Executive Director, Hope & A Future III Inc. | 2025 Launch into Leadership participant
[It was helpful] understanding how everyone perceives communication and how to use efficient communication/feedback. Great examples to consider.
President, Encore Cleaning Systems, LLC, | 2024 Launch into Leadership participant
I loved how simple and clear Sarah explained each point of the training, and the activities and videos that she used. She was very professional.
Owner, Boost Healthy Nutrition | 2023 Launch into Leadership participant
[I loved] hearing other real experiences from attendees. Sarah was very prepared and free-flowing. Not sure how long she's been doing this, but she seems very natural!
2023 Launch into Leadership participant
[I liked] that [the course] was interactive and it made you think of the management that you have had in the past and what you want when you are in a management role yourself.
James Ragland, Gunderson Funeral Home | 2023 Launch into Leadership participant
[This class taught me] the idea of a “win file” and the different types of leadership styles, along with how leadership connects with culture.
VP-Finance, Captains RE Management, Inc. | 2023 Launch into Leadership participant
Sarah brought the energy! She had relevant, real-life experience for every point. She was approachable and daftly answered all questions. [The session] was short but jam-packed, including tactical strategies and tips, and chock-full of [leadership] mindset.
Amanda, Mid-West Family, Madison | 2022 Launch into Leadership participant
Sarah was glorious! Adored the energy, content, and authenticity. She was prepared, honest/transparent, and did a great navigating many kinds of personalities. She had great connection-making skills and outstanding energy.
2022 Launch into Leadership participant
I liked that [this course] was interactive, and we were able to learn that other teams have similar struggles to ours. The instructor was wonderfully open, approachable and kind! She made it easy to pay attention for a whole day.
Sustainable Food Group - Junior Project Manager
The course offered good perspective on cultivating awareness of how my decisions and behavior impact other team members.
Jason Gates, Estimating Manager, Paul Davis of South Central WI
[This course] gave me more to consider as a manager and how my investment in myself cycles back to employees/staff and how I can do more to bring us together as a whole team.
Carly, Retail Specialist, Goodwill SCWI
Instructor
SARAH SMYRK, MA, CLF®, RCC™, CCMP®
Senior Director | Field Performance Enablement & Consulting
Sarah’s career is driven by her desire to understand and relate to people. Throughout her career, she has worked in many roles to help business leaders drive product and program strategies that are rooted in strong relationships, made by data-driven decisions, and centered around the holistic customer experience. She is passionate about working closely with individuals to help them achieve top levels of success and take their business to the next level while providing an outstanding client experience. Using her leadership skills and experience as a Registered Corporate Coach™ (RCC), she helps teams build and implement programs that strengthen and reinforce goals and top priorities.
Sarah joined Northwestern Mutual in 2016 and has held several leadership roles across the organization. In her current role, Sarah leads Enablement and Consulting for the Field Performance Team, where she is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing field leader consulting practices. She focuses on helping enterprise teams effectively execute on multi-year strategy initiatives and ensuring alignment on change readiness plans across business partners and the organization.
Previously, Sarah was with Trustage (formerly CUNA Mutual Group) in Madison, WI (2007-2016), where she was responsible for leading the strategy and execution of training initiatives for CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc. (CBSI). In addition, she also led the training strategy for the Annuity Product Sales Team. While at Trustage, she developed and led CBSI’s Women of Distinction program, a group of the company’s top female financial advisors. The group focused on mentoring advisors who were either new to the organization or to the industry.
Sarah currently holds several industry designations including FINRA Registrations Series 7, 63, 9, and 10 and her Chartered Leadership Fellow (CLF®) through the American College. She is certified through PROSCI as a Change Management Professional (CCMP®) and LaMarsh Global as a Certified Change Practitioner. In December 2023, Sarah graduated from The University of Alabama with her master’s degree in organizational leadership.
Sarah lives in Madison, WI with her husband Sam and dog Andy. She was recognized by Madison’s InBusiness Magazine as “40 Under 40”, is a competitive bodybuilder, enjoys working out, and always being active.
The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin.
It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The Wisconsin SBDC at UW-Madison helps entrepreneurs succeed at any stage. We offer no-cost, confidential consulting and business education across a wide region, primarily serving Dane, Sauk, and Columbia counties. SBDC services are provided in a nondiscriminatory way to all legal residents and citizens in the US.
Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.