What are the alternatives to Management Training?

Depending on what you need to learn there are a range of alternatives to attending the ubiquitous management training course. Firstly think about what it is you need to develop by asking yourself some simple questions, for example:

- To do all aspects of my current job well, what do I need to be better at?

- I would resolve an ongoing problem if I improved my skills and ability in the following areas?

- In my appraisals and other feedback (e.g. from my team) I have been told that I could improve the following?

- In my next likely roles I need to be good at?

Take the example of improving your self management and planning skills. Rather than going on a management training course on time management consider the following:

· Prepare a personal vision for yourself. Many people who struggle to manage their time because they are not clear about their own priorities. Your vision should be an expression of your preferred future, something you feel passionately about. Write it down and break it down into key goals and timings. Include a small activity each week in your diary to take you towards your vision.

· Use ‘To Do’ lists and prioritise the urgency and importance of the task. Cross tasks off once complete.

· Use a diary more effectively. Record your time for 2 weeks. What does this tell you? How much time did you spend reacting to events? How much time was spent on planned events? How can you plan your time differently?

· Demonstrate commitment to yourself and your development by making time for yourself every week to reflect on what you have learned and what you want to focus on next.

· Do not take responsibility for other people’s roles. Be clear with them what you are responsible for and what they are responsible for.

· Do not completely fill your diary keep slots free for unplanned events.

· Spend 5 minutes every day visualising yourself obtaining your goals.

· Be proactive. Listen to your language and the language of those around you.

- How often do you use or hear, ‘If only’, ‘I cannot’, or ‘I have to’?

- Work on ways of eliminating negativity from your language. Act as a role model to others.

· Read a book such as The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey or Self Defeating Behaviours by Cudney, Milton and Hardy.

By thinking more deeply about what it is you need to learn you will be able to identify some simple actions that you can take on a daily basis to improve your management skills. While a management training course may ultimately be the right approach, don’t simply assume that it is the answer to all your development needs.

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

Improving You Presentation Skills

Depending on what you need to learn the answer may be yes or no! What exactly do you need to learn and develop? Do you need to understand the fundamentals, develop your confidence or just brush up on a few skills?

The following are some examples of practical tips that you can try out and practice to improve your presentation skills.

· Before presenting, ensure that you understand as much about your audience as possible (what is their knowledge of the topic, what is their background, what will they be expecting?). Once understood, determine the approach you will take (what information to provide, what questions the presentation should answer, what tone should be adopted etc.). What questions might they ask?

· Outline your presentation by writing down all of the key points and in what order they should be presented.

· Make a video of yourself presenting to others. Critically review it with a colleague or friend.

· The best way to improve public speaking and develop confidence is through practice.

- Seek out opportunities that require you to make presentations to small groups, perhaps outside work with community or service organisations.

· To present opinions forcefully and directly, avoid phrases like ‘it seems to me’ or ‘it is likely that’. Use strong, ‘punchy’ verbs.

· Illustrate key points of your presentation with real life examples that your audience will understand.

· Examine the habits of an excellent speaker (for example, watch the weather presenters on TV). What is it that they do? What are their behaviours, body language etc? What can you learn from them? What are you prepared to try and do differently?

· Learn to read the reaction from the audience. Are they attentive throughout, do any look bored?

· Check your tone of voice and body language, is it consistent with your words? Ask others for feedback.

· Read the following books - Successful Presentation Skills by Andrew Bradbury, You’ve Got to Be Believed to Be Heard by Bert Decker, and The Definitive Book of Body Language, A&B Pease.

While the above is not meant to be an exhaustive list of tips to improve one’s presentation skills, it does serve as an example that a management training course may not be the answer to develop your presentation skills.

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

The Role of Leadership Assessment

How can an organisation identify its future leaders today?

Identifying future leadership potential is a complex issue; however there are a number of steps an organisation can take to improve its ability to identify its future leaders. The first step in the process is to define the characteristics needed by future successful leaders.

Some of this information may be collected by looking at the characteristics of successful leaders in the organisation. These characteristics may include:

- Thinking style, capability and intelligence

- Personality trails

- Behaviour and interactions with others

- Experience

- Self motivation

- Ability to learn.

Once the characteristics have been identified a number of different techniques and activities can subsequently be used to assess them, for example:

- Critical thinking, numerical and verbal reasoning tests can be used to ascertain an individuals thinking capability and potential. The results from these tests can be benchmarked against other successful leaders.

- Psychometric profiling instruments can identify an individual’s personality traits, likely communicating and leadership styles. How do these fit with what the organisation needs?

- 360° feedback tools are valuable for assessing an individual’s performance and behaviour in the workplace. While not a guarantee, historic performance behaviour will be a guide to how the individual is likely to perform in the future.

- Assessment Centres during which an individual undertakes a range of group and individual leadership tasks can provide a good deal of information about an individual’s personal motivation and how they lead themselves.

- Personal challenges, for example by leading a business improvement project or charity/fund raising activity that will take the individual outside of their comfort zone and give the organisation a view of how they handle new and unfamiliar challenges.

While the above techniques will not guarantee identification of the leaders with the greatest potential, they will provide the organisation with a good deal of objective information on which decisions about leadership potential and leadership training and development can be based.

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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 – How much should you budget for?

Many researches have proven the benefits of management training and development over the years and the impact that the right programmes can have on an organisation’s performance. However, the key question is often, how much time and money should I invest? As many organisations are currently in the process of preparing their budgets, this is an important question to answer.

Ultimately the investment needed depends on what you are trying to achieve and the current level of capability in the organisation. However, at budget time, what needs to be delivered is not always clear and so all you may be able to is prepare a ‘best guess’.

Good practice suggests that managers should have around 10-12 development days per year, with about 50% of the time spent on ‘externally directed’ development (training courses, coaching, mentoring etc), and 50% on ‘personally directed’ development (reading, research, project work etc). At around £250 per day, this equates to an average of about £1200 per manager per year. However, It should be noted that averages can mask a wide range of spend, particularly where 1:1 coaching is concerned, which can bump up the investment needed to £3000-4000 per person per year.

In 2004 the Chartered Management Institute undertook some research on the investment companies make in Management Training & Development, a summary of which is provided below.

Investment in Management Training & Development*
	UK	France	Germany	Spain
Number of Days	10	7	8	13
Spend - €	1625	2674	4438	1803
Investment/person per day - €	163	382	554	138

* Developing Managers: A European Perspective, Chartered Management Institute, 2004.

Clearly the amount that an organisation budgets for their Management Training and Development will be dependent upon what it can afford. Ironically, organisations that are struggling probably need to invest more in the development of their managers (and staff), to enable them to turn business round. During tough times those responsible for training and development need to be as creative as possible and ask themselves some searching questions such as:

1) Who are the key people whose performance disproportionately affects the performance of the organisation?

2) What do these people need to do to add real value to their performance?

3) How many different ways can I support these people to develop what they need without spending any money?

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