Management Training – Making it stick!

How often have you been on a Management Training course and failed to implement what you were taught?

Many organisations struggle with the same issue – there is no point spending time and money on Management Training and Development if the participants don’t put into practice what was learned.

But how can you encourage your managers to ACT?

The key to ensuring Management Training is successful is quite simply to:

1. Make it relevant and useful.
2. Provide appropriate sponsorship, follow up and support.

Make it relevant
It is vital to make the Management Training relevant to the participants by ensuring that they can apply what they have learned immediately when they return to work.

For example, you may send someone on an advanced Excel course so that they can learn how to build complex spreadsheets. However, when they return if they don’t have an opportunity to apply their learning immediately, they will soon forget it. Habits are only formed by people continually practicing what they learn.

Sponsorship
The second element to ensuring success of a Management Training programme is sponsorship. To gain commitment from managers to use their learning, it is essential that Senior Managers sponsor the Management Training effectively. For example, senior managers should:

• Demonstrate public commitment to Management Training and the benefits it will deliver to the organisation.
• Regularly review with participants how they have applied their learning.
• Sanction any inappropriate behaviour from the participants (e.g. participants not turning up to training sessions).
• Regularly sell the benefits of training and development.
• Target and hold their managers accountable for delivering improved performance.
• Accept the significance of their role in the success of any Management Training.

By ensuring that Management Training programmes are sponsored appropriately by Senior Management and the content is relevant and useful to the participants, will ensure that the participants THINK and ACT differently as a result of their learning.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

Management Training – Measuring the Benefits

How does your organisation measure the impact of the investment it makes in Management Training and Development?
How much money was spent this year on Management Training and Development and what were the benefits?

To be able to measure the benefits from any Management Training and Development it is important to first be clear about what the objectives of the programme are and what particular people issues need to be resolved by the programme. For example, do managers need to:

• Have a greater impact on the performance of the business?
• Improve motivation and retention to reduce staff turnover?
• Be more proactive in developing their successors?
• Reduce the number of poor hires that they make?

Once the organisation is clear about what issues that need to be resolved, the benefits can be more easily measured. Evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of Management Training and Development programmes and interventions can be achieved in a number of ways.

‘Hard’ measures

The impact Management Training has on the performance of the Business, Function or Team can be readily measured using a range of ‘hard’ operational or financial performance measures such as:

• EBIT
• Staff turnover costs
• Recruitment costs
• Opportunity costs
• Customer service
• Business growth

Benchmarks should be set at the start of the training so that improvements can be easily tracked.

‘Soft’ measures

The impact that the interventions have had on behaviour and culture within the organisation can be assessed through a range of ‘soft’ or more subjective measures. For example:

• The impact the interventions have had on an individual manager’s behaviour can be assessed from observations and feedback from others (for example via a 360 degree leadership questionnaire) as well as on their ability to achieve their personal targets.

• The impact the training has had on teams, functions and the organisation’s culture, relationships, cohesiveness, morale etc can be assessed by using team analysis tools, and cultural and staff surveys and customer questionnaires.

Whatever Management Training and Development your organisation undertakes it is vital that the outcomes are clearly defined at the start and measures put in place to ensure that your investment pays off.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

How long does it take to coach someone?

When I first meet with a prospective coachee or their sponsor one of the key areas to address is the timing and duration of the coaching sessions that I plan to provide for them.

I will tell them that ideally I would like to provide 6 x 2-3 hour coaching sessions spread over 6 – 9 months – unless there is a specific development area that could be focused on in a more concentrated time frame.
The minimum number of sessions that I will offer is 4.
This is because of the following factors:-

- it takes the first session to get to know the background, circumstances, general goals, objectives, issues and opportunities of the coachee

- it takes one or two sessions for me to establish the necessary rapport and relationship understanding required for success between us and to get a sense of their personality

- it takes the first 1 or 2 sessions for the coachee to trust and respect me, understand the COACH process and our respective roles and to fell confident to talk honestly and openly with me about themselves and their real issues

- it takes 2, 3, 4, or more sessions for the coachee to fully and effectively to explore their thoughts and feelings about the important issues that effect them and for them to explore their options and to commit to taking ACTION to improve their satisfaction, performance and effectiveness

- it can then take a number of sessions for them to work deeply and successfully on their issues, skills, relationships, plans and opportunities
Coaching is not a one off activity where a person’s effectiveness, behaviours and performance can be transformed in one or two brief sessions.
It also therefore follows that the timing and duration of these coaching sessions is going to be longer, 2 -3 hours, than shorter, one hour or less, and spaced out over time 6 – 12 moths, to ensure action, implementation, monitoring and review rather than completed in a short timeframe e g one month.

There are of course exceptions to these timing guidelines for example:-
• the development need is very specific e g improve presentation skills
• the need is a short term one e g prepare for a launch, a reorganisation
• the work is part of a capability or disciplinary process with a specific timeframe
• Some of the people that I coach are very busy and quick thinking and for coaching to work effectively for them they want to get straight down to the point of the work and they are very clear and decisive about their issues and solutions – so I find a way to work efficiently and quickly with them to get to their bottom line

So overall my coaching approach is about offering a number of face to face sessions to clients over a 6-12 month period but with the prospect of flexibility where it makes sense and where the integrity of my coaching work can be upheld.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

Coaching - is it better face to face or by telephone?

When I first meet with a prospective coachee or with the line management or HR sponsor for this work, the conversation inevitably gets round to the coaching approach that I will take.
My response to this question is based on my preference to coach people face to face in a number of coaching sessions 4 - 6, spread out over time 4 - 12 months. This gives me and the coachee adequate time to establish the necessary relationship, rapport and understanding for them to do the necessary thinking that in turn leads to them ACTING in a new, more confident, focused and decisive way in the areas of work and life that are really important to them.

In my experience that can be done best through this series of face to face meetings, possibly supplemented by e mails or telephone conversations, rather than by telephone coaching conversations alone.

This face to face approach is the way that I learned to coach people 15 years ago and I think that it offers all of the communication benefits of this type of relationship that are not available over the telephone. However I have to recognise that in recent years telephone coaching has risen rapidly in popularity and that it forms the cornerstone of the life coaching industry and of the training courses offered to people who are new to coaching and learning about how to do it.

The potential benefits of telephone coaching are these:-
- no travel time or cost
- it can take place anywhere in the world, day or night
- it provides a concentrated, focused approach
- it avoids other visual distractions
- it provides for a level of personal safety and security.
The drawbacks to telephone coaching are these:-
- it may provide a shield for a person
- all of the body language signals are absent and therefore more than 50% of the meaning & understanding may not be available and transmitted to you as a coach
- some of the key signals between coach and coachee are missed
- the rapport established is different at best and much less effective at worst.
So when I hold these initial, preparatory conversations with prospective coachees, I explain what I do and how I coach i.e. face to face, and I describe how I think that telephone coaching differs from and compares to my approach and I let the prospective coachee or sponsor decide. I do not overtly criticise telephone coaching - but it is not the sole coaching experience that I am prepared to provide

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

Linking Competencies to Personal Development Needs

A competency is best described as "the underlying characteristics of a person that cause effective or superior performance in a job”. Competency is about an ability to do something and as such comprises a combination of skills, knowledge and personal motivation that result in particular behaviours (or outcomes) at work. For example, during a person’s life they have an increasing ability to communicate with their fellow human beings:

Increasing levels of ability to communicate

Behaviour
-> Baby gurgling
-> A child speaking their first few words.
-> Is able to read and write.
-> Articulate in discussing simple subjects.
-> Capable of explaining complex or difficult concepts to a wide range of people.

Competencies can therefore set expectations about how managers and staff should behave on a day to day basis in an organisation. Competencies can be set around a range of different areas such as: leadership, team working, strategic thinking, communication etc.

Organisations can readily use the statements to identify how managers and staff currently behave and what their strengths and weaknesses are. However, while development needs might be fairly easy to identify, many managers and organisations struggle to identify what actions they or their staff should take to develop, (without advocating the proverbial training course!). In reality there are many other practical actions that an individual can take to learn and develop. To close this loop for managers and staff, development actions need to be aligned to each competency.

The following is an example of this, for the competency ‘Strategic Thinking’ and development ideas have been set out under four headings:

-Personal actions that the individual can take.
-Coaching/mentoring actions that the individual can take in conjunction with others.
-Reading materials and web resources that would improve the individual’s knowledge.
-Internal and external courses.

The development ideas presented below are not meant to be exhaustive but as an example of what actions could be taken to develop the competence ‘Strategic Thinking’.

Competency - Strategic Thinking

Development Ideas – Strategic Planning Skills

Personal Actions
-Read the business pages of a quality newspaper such as The Times, Financial Times, Telegraph etc. Alternatively subscribe to the Harvard Business Review. Learn about strategies and actions that other organisations have taken to improve their performance. Determine which ones of these would work well within your business.
-Prepare a ‘strategic perspective’ for your business/function. Research what the likely key trends and changes will be in the next 3-5 years? For example changes in technology, applications, competition, legislation, demographics, etc. What opportunities and threats does this provide?
-Research your major competitors and develop a detailed profile of each competitor. What can you learn from them?
-Analyse your customer’s needs. What is it they need and want in your products applications and services now and in the future?
-Volunteer to work on a cross functional business project.
-Learn to play chess.

Coaching Actions
-Discuss with a trusted colleague or your coach your ability to strategize and see the ‘big picture’. Identify weaknesses or blind spots. Discuss ideas to force yourself to move from details to the ‘big picture’ to gain a broader prospective.
-Seek someone who could act as a mentor (either internally or externally) and could guide you through a strategic planning process.
-Discuss with your manager your ability to make sound judgements and business decisions. What feedback can they give you about your effectiveness? What decisions could you have made differently?
-Identify the most important decision that you have to make in the next 3-6 months. Discuss with your manager or colleague the key steps to making the decision and likely information you will need. Start gathering the relevant information.

Reading Materials
-Applied Strategic Planning – Goldstein, Nolan and Pfeiffer. McGraw – Hill.
-Competing for the Future – Hamel and Champy. Harper Business.
-Competitive Strategy – Porter. The Free Press.

External Courses
-Take a course or formal qualification (e.g. MBA) to help you to:
-Formulate and execute strategic plans
-Detect the opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses that drive a strategic plan
-Identify strategies to better position your organisation for long-term competitive advantage.

Internal Courses
-Attend our Strategic Leadership programme. Contact Fred Smith 0044 123 456.

Such a document can be provided in hard copy format, for example as a ‘Development Guide’, or alternatively via the business’ intranet site. In this way the link is clearly made between the standards expected from an employee and the actions that they can take to develop themselves.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training

Setting Performance Standards Using Competencies

It is vital that managers and staff know what’s expected of them if they are to maximise their own and the businesses performance. Most organisations set expectations, in terms of what managers are responsible for through job descriptions and by setting personal objectives and targets.

However, it is also important to set expectations about how job responsibilities should be discharged and targets delivered as it is unacceptable for staff to deliver these at ‘any cost’.

Setting behavioural expectations or ‘competencies’ are an intrinsic part of managing the performance managers and staff. By setting these expectations the business clearly communicates how managers and staff should behave on a day to day basis. Competencies can be set around a range of different areas such as:

• Leadership
• Team working
• Developing people
• Communication
• Ownership
• Improving results
• Customer focus
• Diversity.

In addition, competencies can have different ‘levels’ that set expectations for different hierarchy of management responsibility within an organisation. For example, an organisation may wish to set three different levels of competence that apply to:

• Front line managers and team leaders.
• Department managers and functional heads.
• Senior managers and directors.

To help to communicate competencies clearly, they can be set in terms of what’s not expected as well as what is expected. As an illustration the following statements are from a competency describing effective team working:

We expect you to:
• Promote tolerance and respect.
• Take time to understand others cultural norms, perspectives and rules.
• Work effectively across countries and cultures.
• Develop and maintain effective internal and external working relationships.

We don’t expect you to:
• Ignore cultural norms, values and approaches.
• Take a narrow personal view.
• Stereotype the views and contributions of others.
• Put others down.

By defining the competencies likely to produce success in a particular role, the organisation clearly communicates the standards that are expected for successful performance within the business. In addition, competencies provide a means of objectively assessing an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and as such form the basis of personal development.

Management Training Course, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching Developing People offer first class management training and development, with a business training course for every level of personnel, helping you increase productivity through employee training, leadership training