Arena Academy 201: Management Skills Recap

Strong management changes lives and wins campaigns.

From June 27-29 we held Arena Academy 201: Management Skills. A virtual training designed to help current and aspiring managers be effective, strategic, and values-driven leaders as Election Day nears.

Too often, new managers on campaigns find themselves in positions of leadership without support or formal training. Well-intentioned and passionate practitioners often feel in the dark about best practices and guessing how to run their teams and programs. This can lead to poor team culture and misguided strategy. The stakes are too high this election for our leaders to be unprepared.

That’s where Arena comes in. At Arena Academy 201 we support new and aspiring leaders as they step into people and program management roles on campaigns. We give them a community to lean on as they make the transition and a road map of how to be an authentic leader. Our participants leave equiped to be strategic, people-centered leaders.

During Arena Academy 201: Management Skills we held sessions that allowed participants to build community, self reflect, ask hard questions, and grow. Sessions included: a Leadership Self Assessment, Hiring and Managing Equitably, Candidate Management, Giving Feedback, Budgeting, Performance Plans and Termination and more!

Arena Academy 201 Recap

OUR PARTICIPANTS

Participants of Academy 201 joined us from 23 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Texas, and Florida where they will take the skills learned from this training to help deliver victories for Democrats.
Of our participants, 60% already hold leadership positions in politics and are ready to put what they have learned at Arena Academy 201 into action today. The other 40% are actively seeking opportunities to make a difference this cycle.

States represented by Academy 201 participants

If you’re hiring, check out our Talent Bank or email careers@arena.run to get connected to your next star hire.

The experience

Here’s some of what our participants had to say:

It’s really exciting to be in a group of like-minded folks who share these leaderships values and are committed to improving our practices as leaders.
Thanks to the Arena talent bank, I’m about to start a role as an Organizing Director and this training truly helped some of my anxieties over this massive undertaking.
The Arena team did a great job at fostering community even through a Zoom screen, which is a very hard thing to do! There was a solid structure, and we stayed on task, but there was room to have fun with our zoom backgrounds, emojis, and silly icebreakers.
One of my main takeaways from today is, bring humanity and intention to your work. Just because a past manager did something a certain way doesn’t mean that I have to do it that way too! I can forge my own path and bring to this work what I believe is needed.
As someone who doesn’t thrive in large, collaborative groups, I’m glad to say Team Arena made me feel comfortable and supportive, while the breakout sessions were mini spaces to grow. This was a wonderful experience that provided me with tools that I’ll use in my work, even outside of managing people. Thank you, Team Arena!

THE CAREERS FAIR

At Arena we ensure our community has the skills and networks they need to land high impact jobs. During Arena Academy 201 we hosted a virtual careers fair to connect our community to employers hiring right now. During the career fair, 25 employers joined us and 357 job seekers signed up to attend.

Building community online

Arena specializes in creating virtual environments that feel connected, fun, and allow participants to build lasting relationships. Here are a few photos from our time together

A hearty thank you to our sponsors

Arena is incredibly grateful for the support of our sponsors who are leaders in fundraising and technology. We were proud to showcase their organizations, products, brands, and services to our community and help them build lasting connections with key decision-makers across the country. Their generous support made Arena Academy 201 possible.