The American Supply Association’s ASA University recently released a new course in its Essentials-branded course library: “Essentials of Leadership for Wholesaler-Distributors.”

This five-part course is designed specifically for wholesale-distribution and offers pointed insight into the leadership and management aspects within the industry.

The course provides five in-depth modules that cover aligning team direction, continuous coaching, localized strategic planning, manpower planning and performance reviews. Each audio-visual module tackles a specific skillset that will ultimately ensure the success of the functional manager in evolving his/her team to the next level of profitability and performance.

“Essentials of Leadership for Wholesaler-Distributors” provides a comprehensive toolkit for success in leading a high-performing team, with detailed how-to descriptions of localizing and applying a company’s broader strategic plan into actionable strategies that yield positive results in day-to-day business, ASA University noted.

“With the workforce shortage our industry is facing, the need for strong leaders and effective teams within our companies will be more important than ever,” said Chris Fasano, president of the ASA Education Foundation and president/COO of Torrco in Waterbury, Connecticut. “We realized ASA University could help support this transitional time by providing education and training geared specifically for current leaders and developing our leaders of tomorrow.”

Learners will learn what fuels employee engagement by identifying, communicating, and implementing a continuous improvement process designed to reward accountability and ownership by employees. Discover strategies designed to help attract new talent to a business, while simultaneously assessing and filling manpower gaps along the way. Learners will learn how to instill the value of accountability among team members by rewarding a culture of ownership and problem-solving, while diving deeper into the mechanics of employee performance benchmarks to ensure the team is consistently “hitting the mark” and aligning with strategic initiatives in order to enhance profitability, ASA University noted.

Several self-reflection exercises enable the learner to reflect on their current leadership skillset and help identify areas for improvement. Course enrollees can demonstrate their mastery of the course content by completing a short post-module assessment after each section. A certificate of completion is provided to each learner who successfully completes all modules.

For more information, visit www.asa.net/essentialsofleadership. For questions about this or other ASA-U courses, please contact the ASA-U team at 630-467-0000 or by email at info@asa.net.