Management Training and Development - if the hat fits ...

Its been nearly a year since I first joined the team at Developing People. Looking back over the year with my manager recently, it was quite a surprise to us both to see how much things have changed and developed since I first arrived here.

Mark noted on my first interview form that I seemed “very shy and reserved”. He was not wrong on that, but the one thing that I was absolutely and vociferously adamant about, even as a terribly nervous interviewee, was that I was not ever EVER going to indulge in anything that could be vaguely considered to resemble the area of sales or marketing. Point blank. End of story.

Fast forward to a week ago, when I sat down to a review of my progress. 90% of my current objectives are based around the Online Marketing Strategy for the business, and I even sat there and pleaded to be allowed to take total responsibility for the marketing strategy, and asked to increase my hours to enable me to do this! It afforded us both a wry smile to see what a journey I had been on, and indeed how much the business had adjusted to both require and accommodate this change in myself.

It is not enough in today’s fast-paced business world to recruit someone who will simply ‘fit the job’ … and leave them to it. The hat that may fit so perfectly to begin with may not fit for long, because businesses and organisations have to continually change, develop and ‘move with the times’. It is essential, therefore, that their staff need to be developed to enable them to ‘move with the times’ as well.

So what should you do as an employer to ensure that the hat remains a good fit for all the members of your staff?

Here is Developing People’s guide to making the most out of your team:

• Make training and development and issue at Board level. The Board should be able to clearly articulate the strategy of the business and where it is going, and therefore define the types of skills, behaviours and people the business will need in the future.

• Do you know who the potential leaders of the business in the next 5, 10 or 15 years are? Has the business a mechanism to identify the leaders of tomorrow? What leadership training and development is being provided to support your in-house talent?

• Be clear with your managers and staff about what it is they need to learn. Don’t just assume that they should work on their weaknesses, but ask what is it that will add the greatest value to their performance?

• Provide ‘on the job’ opportunities for your talent to flourish. Generally people will raise their performance to what is being requested of them. If you never ask someone to step outside their comfort zone, then neither you or they will ever find out what they are capable of achieving!

• Don’t assume that management training alone is the answer to all you development needs. Provide a range of options to help managers and staff learn. Would they benefit from coaching, mentoring, project work or a secondment?

• Job adverts often state that candidates must be ‘self starters’. However you won’t get that from conventional management training. Management Training should really be about an individual’s ‘development’, and therefore provide opportunities for self direction and self learning.

• Ensure that there is a business case for any management training and development. It is important that the organisation is clear about the objectives of any management training and development. Ultimately you should ask yourself, ‘What is it that I want to see happening differently with this person or group of people?’ In this way it is possible to monitor the impact of training on individual performance and of course also on the company's bottom line. You will get much greater support from the Board if there is a clear business case!

Ultimately the competitive edge of your business resides with the abilities of your staff, managers and leaders in the business. Surely, management training and development is far too an important business issue to be left to chance?

To plan your Management Training and Development for 2011, contact Developing People Limited. You can telephone us on 0845 409 2346, or send an email to markevenden@developingpeople.co.uk.