Capstone Project — Taking Charge of a Team — The Manager's Logbook
- Objective: build, level by level, your manager roadmap for a team (real or fictional) — from day-to-day to strategy, through performance and development.
- Materials: the manager's toolkit below (templates and reference points to reuse).
- Method: one mission per level, grounded in concrete situations. Management is not read: it is practiced.
⬇️ Download the Manager's Toolkit (TXT)
Stage 0 · Level 0 — Laying the Foundations (L0)
Clarify your role (organizing, leading, deciding, controlling) and your manager/leader balance. Identify your dominant style and where to adapt it (directive, persuasive, participative, delegating).
Stage 1 · Level 1 — Managing Day-to-Day (L1)
Set shared SMART/OKR goals, delegate a task with clear instructions, activate a motivation lever (including recognition), practice active listening and establish a one-to-one.
Stage 2 · Level 2 — Developing Team Performance (L2)
Adapt your leadership to each person's autonomy (Hersey-Blanchard), give feedback (DESC), defuse a disagreement, locate your team (Tuckman) and protect its time.
Stage 3 · Level 3 — Stepping Back (L3)
Formulate vision/mission/values for your scope, conduct a SWOT, describe the business model (Canvas), map a process and prepare to lead a change.
Stage 4 · Level 4 — Steering Operations (L4)
Read a balance sheet and an income statement, build a budget with a break-even point, create a dashboard (5–8 KPIs), integrate customer focus and an HR development plan.
Stage 5 · Level 5 — Specializing and Growing (L5)
Adapt your management to remote/hybrid and cross-cultural contexts, develop your emotional intelligence and team wellbeing, integrate CSR, and build YOUR managerial development plan.
Success Criteria
- Management role and style clarified and adapted to context.
- Shared SMART/OKR goals, delegation, motivation, active listening and rituals (one-to-one) in place.
- Leadership adapted to autonomy, DESC feedback, conflicts managed, team cohesion and time protected.
- Strategic perspective (vision, SWOT, business model, change) and operational steering mastered (finance, budget, KPIs, HR) + personal development plan.