Effective Manager Programme

Effective managers are essential for organizational success, providing guidance and leadership, motivating employees to reach goals, and ensuring operations run smoothly. Effective managers are key to keeping employees engaged in their work, and ultimately to the success of the organization.

This comprehensive six-module programme led by experienced faculty looks at the fundamentals of  productivity, wellbeing, technology and AI, persuasion and influence, problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership.

Become a more effective manager, gain the knowledge and skill you need to reach organizational success, and to motivate and engage your employees.

This programme offers participants the opportunity to hone essential abilities necessary for succeeding in the modern workplace. Participants will:

• Gain Leadership, Problem-solving, Decision-making and Self-management skills to deal with day-to-day tasks efficiently.
• Be equipped with the tools needed to think strategically.
• Develop skills how to improve personal well-being, identify and achieve goals.
• Make difference in your employee well-being.
• Acquire tactics to effectively present, negotiate and close deals.
• Learn how to utilize automation opportunities for practical application.
• Learn how to reduce tedious work  to focus on more inspiring and motivating tasks.
• Take control of your productivity at work.
• Acquire skills and practical tools to understand the stages of team formation and their challenges.
• Learn how to enhance organizational alignment by creating a shared vision.
• Recognize the essential characteristics of high-performing teams and develop strategies to build team success.

• Develop the skills required to lead in the age of technology and AI
• Gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest technologies and AI developments
• Enhance problem-solving skills by understanding AI usage for decision-making and process optimization

• Understand how to use AI to its fullest potential

• Develop a strategic mindset to approach problems and access multiple elements

• Create new solutions and think holistically

• Develop personal mastery, resilience, and high energy

• Create an atmosphere of well-being through individual purpose

• Acquire skills to persuade and influence others

• Identify the best team members and understand the stages of team formation

• Understand the characteristics of high-performing teams

• Address development gaps of the team

• Identify leadership styles that form high-performing teams

• Gain coaching skills for team success

Effective Manager Programme is ideal for entry-level managers, team leaders and ambitious high potential employees looking to expand their professional skillset and grow in their roles.

Our faculty members are the cornerstone of the Effective Manager Programme. They are highly qualified, with extensive knowledge and expertise in their fields, and have a close connection to SSE Riga. All of them have international experience, both in the academic and business worlds and are actively engaged in their respective industries, bringing the most up-to-date trends and developments into the classroom.

Anastasija Danu-Žubule

Anastasija Danu-Žubule is a Strength-based and Systemic Supervisor and Coach with over 9 years of corporate business experience in managerial and cross-country leadership roles across the Baltics and Eastern Europe, including at Unilever. Now fully certified in coaching and supervision, she partners with individuals, groups, and teams to expand awareness and growth through strength-based and systemic approaches.

Authenticity, care, and experimentation with creative techniques are at the heart of her practice. Guided by her purpose "To plant spring in people’s lives," Anastasija sees herself as a catalyst for awakening environments that liberate the unique potential within each person.

Guntars Logins

With over 12 years of experience in sales and sales leadership across the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and the Baltics, Guntars Logins is professional consultant in the field with expertise in B2B and B2C sales.  Guntars is helping companies design strategic sales plans and improve their overall sales process. He specializes in breaking down complex sales processes into manageable and achievable steps. In addition to his consulting work, Guntars currently teaches a Sales course at the SSE Riga Bachelor's Program and works with many leading organizations across a variety of industries.

Inga Gleizdāne

Inga Gleizdāne has a variety of roles in which she helps organizations and individuals reach their goals in an enjoyable way. Inga works to develop great ideas and has consulted with management teams of over 100 companies from a variety of countries, cultures, sizes, structures and strategies. Her expertise lies in compensation system, reward management, performance management, function and organization structure analysis and development.

Edvins Elferts

Edvins is a technical team lead working across the digital landscape. He is focusing on consulting and development of BI, Low Code, intelligent automation and AI solutions for clients in the Nordics. Edvins has 10 years of international experience in project management and digitalization, and with a deep understanding of operational excellence and change management in sectors such as healthcare, supply chain, FMCG, and education. Before recently returning to Latvia, he spent 7 years working in Australia & New Zealand with Siemens Healthineers being responsible for deployment of digital health platform, delivering digitalization and supply chain projects.

Edvins holds a BSc in Economics & Business from SSE Riga as well as numerious technical certifications related to data, analytics and AI domains.

Rihards Garančs

Rihards Garancs has a double degree MBA from HEC Paris & National University of Singapore and is the Director of Executive Education at SSE Riga. He is also the Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis course at SSE Riga. Furthermore, he runs a consulting company developing Business Intelligence solutions, helping companies advance in business analytics and enabling effective Digital Transformation.

Peter Zashev

Peter Zashev is an academic, business trainer and high-energy speaker on leadership, change and strategy. Peter has 18 years of executive education experience working with the management of big companies across Europe and mainly in the Nordic countries, the Baltic States and Russia. His combination of skills and experience features:

Academia - holding a MSc degree from the St Petersburg State University in Russia and a PhD from Hanken School of Economics in Finland, currently Peter is a Professor (adjunct) at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a Program Director at Hanken&SSE Executive Education in Finland.

Business - Peter is a board member and investor. His consulting experience features many projects in leadership development and international business strategy for both private and public sectors.

Multi-cultural - Peter is Bulgarian by origin, Finnish by nationality, Estonian by residence, half Swedish by workplace and with an extensive Russian experience. He speaks English, Russian, Bulgarian and Finnish.

The programme consists of six modules, delivered over seven full-day sessions (9:00–17:00) on-site at SSE Riga. In addition, we’ll kick things off with a half-day welcome event — a chance to get to know your fellow participants, meet the faculty, and launch the learning journey together. Coaching sessions with Anastasija will also be included as part of the experience.

You can choose to enrol in the full programme or purchase individual modules separately — see more details in our Open Courses section.

September 26 (9:00 – 17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

This course is designed to provide participants with practical, research and science based knowledge on wellbeing and hands-on tools that can be applied by participants in both professional and personal areas.

Topics covered:

• The history and science of wellbeing
• The significance of well-being in a professional context
• Mental and emotional wellbeing
• The intersection of neuroscience and well-being: understanding how our brain influences wellbeing
• Cognitive distortions
• Stress management
• Tools for developing mental capacity and emotional awareness
• Purposeful wellbeing
• Development based on values and strengths

Introduction to Wellbeing, Emotional & Mental Wellbeing.
The proven correlation between wellbeing and key business metrics like engagement, productivity, and performance underscores the critical role it plays in organizational success.
Our module focus begins with the introduction to the Wellbeing and further deep dive into Mental & Emotional Wellbeing, which describes our capacity to leverage cognitive abilities for targeted focus and emotional mastery.
By delving into cutting-edge neuroscience findings, we'll translate these insights into actionable strategies to optimize your mental and emotional states, thereby enhancing overall performance and productivity.

Purposeful Wellbeing.
Individuals are as unique as their fingerprints. Recognizing and embracing your distinctiveness, coupled with understanding your unique contribution to the world, can profoundly impact both your life and those around you. This journey, which we term the discovery of purpose, is grounded in your values, innate talents developed into strengths, personal interests, and experiences. Hence, it differs a lot from person to person.
Research consistently demonstrates that individuals with a clear sense of purpose tend to lead happier, healthier, and even wealthier lives. Our program equips you with tools to discover your personal purpose.

October 29 (09:00 – 17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

How to be a manager who is effective at influencing and persuading others? It's a skill that every manager should work on developing and sharpening. The reason is simple – a team's success depends on whether a manager can sell his/her ideas to the team and whether the team members have clearly understood what is expected of them.

This module focuses on principles and techniques of persuasive communication and influence. It covers the psychological processes behind persuasion, helping managers to understand how to use the tools of persuasion in their professional and personal lives.

Topics covered:

• How do people perceive and "buy" ideas?
• When people "buy" an idea?
• What is the "influencing cycle"?
• 3 levels of selling ideas/convincing people
• How to persuade and present ideas and information to people?
• How to work with resistance and objections?
• How to convince and "close" people?
• How to solidify people's decisions?
• How to effectively negotiate if needed?

November 11 (09:00 – 17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

Are you productive or just busy? Or perhaps you find yourself with spare time but struggle to channel it into purposeful actions because you are lacking the direction and motivation needed to create something truly impactful?

Topics covered:

• How to plan and prioritize tasks
• Address common productivity obstacles
• How to maintain focus and motivation
• Goal setting
• Time and task management
• Tools and techniques for productivity tracking
• Strategies for developing better habits and eliminating distractions

November 25 (09:00 – 17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

In today's tech-driven world, emerging tech solutions can reduce tedious work and free employees to focus on more inspiring and motivating tasks. This module covers the practical use of automation tools in daily work.

The module will provide participants with the knowledge and skills required to lead their organizations in the age of technology and AI. It will look into principles on how to assess technologies, how to ensure that it is part of productivity and not a distraction, and finally, how to strategically approach technological change with emergence of AI.

Topics covered:

• Understanding the latest developments in technologies and AI
• Best practices for adopting new technologies and integrating them into operations
• Using AI tools effectively
• Building a culture of innovation and continuous learning

December 2 (09:00 – 17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

Sound decision-making is essential for successful organizations. This module covers key components like navigating info, critical thinking, synthesizing new info, and making decisions based on data.

Through practical examples, simulations, case studies, and reflection, the participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of effective decision making and how to apply them in day-to-day work.

Topics covered:

• Data-driven decision making
  - Reading data critically
  - Business decision making
  - Dealing with “noise”
  - Implementing data-driven decision-making in your organization
• Problem solving
  - Problem-solving approaches
  - Structured problem solving
  - Dealing with complexity and ambiguity
  - Creating new solutions

December 8 – 9, 2025 (9:00 –17:00)
onsite at SSE Riga
EUR 890 + VAT

As we build our professional careers, we often grow from experts to managers and leaders. In this journey many /but not all/ will not have any formal management or leadership training – a sorry fact that multiplies many challenges, prevents successful collaboration and ultimately slows down professional careers.

Topics covered:

• How management and leadership differ?
• How good leadership helps managers be more effective in reaching their objectives and key results?
• How one manages to build and motivate a high performing team?
• Where do great leaders find the energy to lead with passion and drive?

Tuition fee for the entire programme and all 6 modules, kick-off event, and individual coaching sessions provide greater benefits and lower price (in addition, a discount applies if several participants are from one company):

EUR 2900 + VAT, if 1 participant

EUR 6900 + VAT, if 3 participants from one company

EUR 11500 + VAT, if 5 participants from one company

You can also purchase each module separately or combine multiple modules:

Module #1: Wellbeing and Purpose
EUR 490 + VAT

Module #2: Personal Productivity
EUR 490 + VAT

Module #3: Leading with Technology and AI
EUR 490 + VAT

Module #4: Persuasion and Influence
EUR 490 + VAT

Module #5: Effective Problem-Solving and Decision Making
EUR 490 + VAT

Module #6: Building and Leading High-Performing Teams
EUR 890 + VAT

What is included in the price:

• Guided learning path through the personal development plan.
• Case studies.
• Learning from the experts in their field and the opportunity to expand your network.
• Lifetime access to all the materials and learning resources used during the programme.
• Coffee breaks and lunch during onsite sessions.
• One-to-one coaching sessions with a certified coach.
• SSE Riga certificate of completion.

• Discounted pricing available when multiple participants from the same company sign up.