I believe that one of the biggest risks facing many organisations is having the right talent to enable them to compete in the future.
The reality for many business today is that a large majority of its key executives will probably retire in the next 5-10 years. While this may not have been an issues 10 or 15 years ago, pressure have been such that businesses have had to reorganise and resize themselves to a point where the talent pool that would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or not there.
I don’t think this issue is just affects large organisations either. A couple of years ago the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) undertook a study which showed that 30 per cent of small-business closures take place because of the lack of an effective succession plan, as many owners do not make sufficient arrangements in the event of their retirement.
To address this issue, I believe that companies need to integrate their talent and succession planning with their strategic business plans and view talent management as a long-term, continuous process. I therefore propose the following:
1. Think strategically. Talent management requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What ‘type’ of managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?
2. Understand key roles. Which functions and roles in the organisation drive the majority of the business’s value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, specialist technical roles such as product development may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these could retire in the next 5-10 years? How many of these roles have ‘ready now’ successors?
3. Identify the requirements of the key roles. Effective talent management requires clarity on technical and behavioural requirements for the roles as well as specific experience, such as international or specific market experience. All key roles should have the necessary components and characteristics for superior performance clearly defined. These requirements can then be used as a basis to assess people, either internally via a promotion or externally via recruitment.
4. Understand who your talent is. Use assessment centres to identify talent internally.
5. Agree your succession strategy. Once the organisation knows who is likely to retire, and who the potential talent is, objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future. Does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?
6. Define career paths for internal promotions Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier. Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.
5. Link talent management with performance management. Talent management and succession planning should become a part of the organisation’s performance management and career development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how potential successors have performed. In addition, the discussions also provide the opportunity for managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.
6. Provide ongoing development. Managers need to support the ongoing development of their talent to ensure that make the necessary progress.
7. Monitor readiness and prepare a succession plan. Senior managers should meet at least annually to initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the successors will not ‘make the grade’? If not what needs to be done?
8. Ensure ownership . Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful.
What I have described may at first to appear a cumbersome process, but none of the above steps needs to be made overly complex. If your business does not focus on talent management and succession planning then the availability of talent for your key roles will be left to the fickle finger of fate. Surely the future success of your organisation is too important for that?
Friday, 28 January 2011
The Importance of Talent Management
I believe that one of the biggest risks facing many organisations is having the right talent to enable them to compete in the future.
The reality for many business today is that a large majority of its key executives will probably retire in the next 5-10 years. While this may not have been an issues 10 or 15 years ago, pressure have been such that businesses have had to reorganise and resize themselves to a point where the talent pool that would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or not there.
I don’t think this issue is just affects large organisations either. A couple of years ago the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) undertook a study which showed that 30 per cent of small-business closures take place because of the lack of an effective succession plan, as many owners do not make sufficient arrangements in the event of their retirement.
To address this issue, I believe that companies need to integrate their talent and succession planning with their strategic business plans and view talent management as a long-term, continuous process. I therefore propose the following:
1. Think strategically. Talent management requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What ‘type’ of managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?
2. Understand key roles. Which functions and roles in the organisation drive the majority of the business’s value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, specialist technical roles such as product development may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these could retire in the next 5-10 years? How many of these roles have ‘ready now’ successors?
3. Identify the requirements of the key roles. Effective talent management requires clarity on technical and behavioural requirements for the roles as well as specific experience, such as international or specific market experience. All key roles should have the necessary components and characteristics for superior performance clearly defined. These requirements can then be used as a basis to assess people, either internally via a promotion or externally via recruitment.
4. Understand who your talent is. Use assessment centres to identify talent internally.
5. Agree your succession strategy. Once the organisation knows who is likely to retire, and who the potential talent is, objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future. Does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?
6. Define career paths for internal promotions Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier. Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.
7. Link talent management with performance management. Talent management and succession planning should become a part of the organisation’s performance management and career development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how potential successors have performed. In addition, the discussions also provide the opportunity for managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.
8. Provide ongoing development. Managers need to support the ongoing development of their talent to ensure that make the necessary progress.
9. Monitor readiness and prepare a succession plan. Senior managers should meet at least annually to initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the successors will not ‘make the grade’? If not what needs to be done?
10. Ensure ownership . Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful.
What I have described may at first to appear a cumbersome process, but none of the above steps needs to be made overly complex. If your business does not focus on talent management and succession planning then the availability of talent for your key roles will be left to the fickle finger of fate. Surely the future success of your organisation is too important for that?
The reality for many business today is that a large majority of its key executives will probably retire in the next 5-10 years. While this may not have been an issues 10 or 15 years ago, pressure have been such that businesses have had to reorganise and resize themselves to a point where the talent pool that would have been ready to step up into key roles are either not ready or not there.
I don’t think this issue is just affects large organisations either. A couple of years ago the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) undertook a study which showed that 30 per cent of small-business closures take place because of the lack of an effective succession plan, as many owners do not make sufficient arrangements in the event of their retirement.
To address this issue, I believe that companies need to integrate their talent and succession planning with their strategic business plans and view talent management as a long-term, continuous process. I therefore propose the following:
1. Think strategically. Talent management requires a strategic perspective. What are the things that might impact your organisation in the future? Will it grow and acquire other businesses, or is the market shrinking and therefore a different leadership approach may be needed? What ‘type’ of managers and business leaders will be needed in the future?
2. Understand key roles. Which functions and roles in the organisation drive the majority of the business’s value? Think broadly, and not just about traditional leadership roles, specialist technical roles such as product development may be as equally important. Once this is complete it is a straightforward task to examine the age profiles of those currently in the key roles. How many of these could retire in the next 5-10 years? How many of these roles have ‘ready now’ successors?
3. Identify the requirements of the key roles. Effective talent management requires clarity on technical and behavioural requirements for the roles as well as specific experience, such as international or specific market experience. All key roles should have the necessary components and characteristics for superior performance clearly defined. These requirements can then be used as a basis to assess people, either internally via a promotion or externally via recruitment.
4. Understand who your talent is. Use assessment centres to identify talent internally.
5. Agree your succession strategy. Once the organisation knows who is likely to retire, and who the potential talent is, objective decisions can be made about how the key roles will be filled in the future. Does the business need to actively recruit and bring in new blood or can all the key roles be filled from within? Should the strategy be a balance of recruiting externally as well as promoting internally?
6. Define career paths for internal promotions Once your succession strategy is clear, establishing career paths and the ability to describe the requirements for pursuing the path becomes easier. Creating effective career paths requires two components, knowing the requirements for the next level and creating clear plan of how to gain the necessary skills, behaviours and experience.
7. Link talent management with performance management. Talent management and succession planning should become a part of the organisation’s performance management and career development processes. Regular performance discussions are important to collect evidence of how potential successors have performed. In addition, the discussions also provide the opportunity for managers to coach talent to ensure ongoing development and readiness.
8. Provide ongoing development. Managers need to support the ongoing development of their talent to ensure that make the necessary progress.
9. Monitor readiness and prepare a succession plan. Senior managers should meet at least annually to initially agree who the potential successors are for the key roles and to subsequently monitor their progress. Who is ready now to move to their next role? Is their evidence to suggest that any of the successors will not ‘make the grade’? If not what needs to be done?
10. Ensure ownership . Succession planning needs to be owned by line managers and needs to be actively led by the Chief Executive or owner of the business for it to be successful.
What I have described may at first to appear a cumbersome process, but none of the above steps needs to be made overly complex. If your business does not focus on talent management and succession planning then the availability of talent for your key roles will be left to the fickle finger of fate. Surely the future success of your organisation is too important for that?
Friday, 21 January 2011
Improve your effectiveness as a manager
In my dim and distant days at University, I was always the queen of taking on everybody else’s problems. A hard-hitting example of this is a girl that I befriended on the internet through a common interest in theatre. She regaled me with stories about how her boyfriend was abusing her, ultimately culminating in her telling me that he had shot her in the arm. Full of concern, I opened my heart and my door to her, and invited her to come and stay with my in my University hall of residence. To cut a long story short, she turned out to be quite seriously psychotic – her trip ended up with her threatening me at knife point, and ultimately with her deportation by the American Embassy – not something that me or my family will forget in a hurry!
It is often the case that managers find themselves spending a lot of time dealing with the problems of their team, rather than encouraging the team to solve their problems themselves.
Consider the following exchange, taking place between a manager and their directly-reporting supervisor:
“Hi John, I wonder if you can have a word with Fred. I have spoken to him a number of times about wearing his safety goggles in the lab and he still doesn’t wear them. I thought if you had a word with him he might take it more seriously from you?”
What happens if John accepts this problem from his direct report? He will become burdened with a task that is not his responsibility, and also his actions will ultimately undermine the authority of his supervisor, because the next time an incident occurs, Fred will not do anything until his bosses boss tells him to do so.
So what should a manager do?
The following is paraphrased from Orcken and Wass’ article in the Harvard Business Review (January 1990) and sums the issue up nicely.
‘At no time while you help someone with their problem must you let it become your problem. The instant their problem becomes yours, they will no longer have a problem and you will have one more than you had before. If you have 10 staff and you let them each give you a new problem to resolve every week, then in three months you will have over 100!’
To minimise “problem collection” managers should follow some simple guidelines:
1. Don’t accept responsibility for the problems of your team members. This doesn’t mean that you won’t or don’t help them - it just means that the responsibility for their own problem stays with them.
2. Meet with them to discuss the issue, preferably at the appointed time and to agree any resulting action.
3. Help them to deal with the problem, so that they can resolve it themselves.
4. Agree what action they will take and when you will review it with them. Follow up is vital to ensure that the problem is resolved satisfactorily.
It is also important to ensure that the individual understands the level of initiative they are expected to use. For example, the issue may be serious enough to warrant a “please look into it and come back with your recommendation before taking action”. Alternatively, the issue may warrant the following response “act on your own and tell me when it has been resolved”.
To prevent managers from being overworked and their staff becoming paralysed due to indecision, managers must ensure that they don’t become burdened with problems that aren’t theirs.
It is often the case that managers find themselves spending a lot of time dealing with the problems of their team, rather than encouraging the team to solve their problems themselves.
Consider the following exchange, taking place between a manager and their directly-reporting supervisor:
“Hi John, I wonder if you can have a word with Fred. I have spoken to him a number of times about wearing his safety goggles in the lab and he still doesn’t wear them. I thought if you had a word with him he might take it more seriously from you?”
What happens if John accepts this problem from his direct report? He will become burdened with a task that is not his responsibility, and also his actions will ultimately undermine the authority of his supervisor, because the next time an incident occurs, Fred will not do anything until his bosses boss tells him to do so.
So what should a manager do?
The following is paraphrased from Orcken and Wass’ article in the Harvard Business Review (January 1990) and sums the issue up nicely.
‘At no time while you help someone with their problem must you let it become your problem. The instant their problem becomes yours, they will no longer have a problem and you will have one more than you had before. If you have 10 staff and you let them each give you a new problem to resolve every week, then in three months you will have over 100!’
To minimise “problem collection” managers should follow some simple guidelines:
1. Don’t accept responsibility for the problems of your team members. This doesn’t mean that you won’t or don’t help them - it just means that the responsibility for their own problem stays with them.
2. Meet with them to discuss the issue, preferably at the appointed time and to agree any resulting action.
3. Help them to deal with the problem, so that they can resolve it themselves.
4. Agree what action they will take and when you will review it with them. Follow up is vital to ensure that the problem is resolved satisfactorily.
It is also important to ensure that the individual understands the level of initiative they are expected to use. For example, the issue may be serious enough to warrant a “please look into it and come back with your recommendation before taking action”. Alternatively, the issue may warrant the following response “act on your own and tell me when it has been resolved”.
To prevent managers from being overworked and their staff becoming paralysed due to indecision, managers must ensure that they don’t become burdened with problems that aren’t theirs.
Friday, 14 January 2011
My views on managing and leading ...
by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Limited
Here is a quick exercise for you -- which of the following words and phrases would you associate with management and which ones with leadership?
Giving responsibility to others.
reporting,
monitoring,
team-building,
having courage,
budgeting,
control,
determining direction,
developing strategy,
measuring,
applying rules and policies,
discipline,
inspiring others
You may have come up with a list that looks like the following.
Management related words and phrases:
control
reporting
monitoring
budgeting
measuring
discipline
applying rules and policies
Leadership related words and phrases:
team-building
having courage
giving responsibility to others
determining direction
development
inspiring others
My own views and experiences are that management is concerned with the here and now, the day to day operation of a businesses or organisation. I have seen great managers and they are concerned with people and processes and getting things done efficiently and effectively in order to meet the current requirements of customers, and other stakeholders. Management activities are therefore associated with words such as reporting, monitoring, budgeting, measuring, and control.
I believe leadership is slightly different. It is about today's business in part but it is particularly about tomorrow's business and how the business must develop and change to meet the changing needs of the marketplace, customers and employees.
The best leaders I have seen don’t just wait passively for circumstances to force them to react. They think proactively and act effectively before a change becomes too pressing. I have seen great leaders who communicate, consult with and involve their people in the development of change to ensure their understanding, buy in and commitment. This required them to take risks, be creative and courageous and be decisive. The words I would therefore associate with leadership are words such as having courage, giving responsibility to others, determining direction, and inspiring others.
As can be seen by the different words we associate with each role, the approach and the skills required by a leader are quite different from the skills of day to day management. For managers to graduate and become leaders takes time, patience, and the appropriate leadership development support.
Here is a quick exercise for you -- which of the following words and phrases would you associate with management and which ones with leadership?
Giving responsibility to others.
reporting,
monitoring,
team-building,
having courage,
budgeting,
control,
determining direction,
developing strategy,
measuring,
applying rules and policies,
discipline,
inspiring others
You may have come up with a list that looks like the following.
Management related words and phrases:
control
reporting
monitoring
budgeting
measuring
discipline
applying rules and policies
Leadership related words and phrases:
team-building
having courage
giving responsibility to others
determining direction
development
inspiring others
My own views and experiences are that management is concerned with the here and now, the day to day operation of a businesses or organisation. I have seen great managers and they are concerned with people and processes and getting things done efficiently and effectively in order to meet the current requirements of customers, and other stakeholders. Management activities are therefore associated with words such as reporting, monitoring, budgeting, measuring, and control.
I believe leadership is slightly different. It is about today's business in part but it is particularly about tomorrow's business and how the business must develop and change to meet the changing needs of the marketplace, customers and employees.
The best leaders I have seen don’t just wait passively for circumstances to force them to react. They think proactively and act effectively before a change becomes too pressing. I have seen great leaders who communicate, consult with and involve their people in the development of change to ensure their understanding, buy in and commitment. This required them to take risks, be creative and courageous and be decisive. The words I would therefore associate with leadership are words such as having courage, giving responsibility to others, determining direction, and inspiring others.
As can be seen by the different words we associate with each role, the approach and the skills required by a leader are quite different from the skills of day to day management. For managers to graduate and become leaders takes time, patience, and the appropriate leadership development support.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Management Development - Building better working relationships
by Lucy Cadman @ Developing People Ltd
I have said it hundreds of times before, but I am blessed with a manager who has read the rulebook. Not only that, but he puts it into practise daily too!
He expresses an interest in my hobbies (despite being a self-confessed “two-left-footer” when it comes to dancing!) to the point of letting me talk him to death about the technicalities of each performance on Strictly Come Dancing every Monday morning, and even to the point of letting me bring my entire collection of spiders into the office for a couple of days so that his children could meet them! He takes a daily interest in everything that I am working on (and is always willing to learn new things), has a smile, has a smile for everyone no matter what stressful events may be unfolding, and is always the first one to say sorry if something goes pear-shaped. As a result, his team pulls out all the stops for him, and will happily go the extra mile whenever it is required.
Whilst it is of course very important for a manager to have a wide range of appropriate technical expertise relating to their role and the roles of their staff, it is also critical that a good manager is capable of building solid relationships with their team, because as a manager, you must be able to rely on the support of others in achieving team goals and objectives.
If you have poor working relationships with your peers or your team, it is unlikely that they will support your ideas, or that you will support theirs. If you don’t support each other, disunity will grow and fester, and the team will begin to disintegrate and disengage with each other. A disengaged team will produce poor and lacklustre work, because no one’s heart is in what they are doing.
It is important for a manager to set the tone for relationships within the team, and the most important key to creating and improving relationships with others is to be able to see yourself how others see you, and to be able to understand the impact that your behaviour has on others. For example, while humour is an important aspect of working life, continual sarcasm can be hurtful and may alienate people causing you to loose their support.
Feedback on your personal style as a manager can be gained in a number of ways, for example by:
* Asking a trusted colleague of their impressions of your style and impact in different situations.
* Collecting feedback from staff during performance appraisal interviews.
* Using a more formal feedback instrument such as 360 degree feedback
Once you have some evidence about how your behaviour impacts others, you can begin to alter it to build better and more productive relationships. The following tips may help:
* Take an active interest in others, for example in their tastes and interests.
* Be friendly and positive when you meet someone for the first time.
* Use open body gestures and smile more.
* Ask people directly how work / home / college etc is going for them.
* Listen to the answers that people give when you ask a questions.
* Focus on people’s positive points rather than their weaknesses.
* Apologise if you make a mistake.
* Be less judgemental in your day to day dealings with people.
* Spend more time listening and talking to people over coffee, lunch etc.
* Help other people when they are in difficulty or struggling with someone.
Finally, and probably the most importantly, is to check that you are being courteous to others at all times. How often do you greet people when you see them, even in passing? How often do you say thank you?
Following these simple tips will help you build better relationships both inside and outside work. And if your relationships with each member of your team are good, then their relationships with each other are also likely to be productive, as people will follow the example that they are set.
If you would like more information about developing your skills as a Manager, then please telephone Developing People Limited on 0845 409 2346 or send an email to markevenden@developingpeople.co.uk.
I have said it hundreds of times before, but I am blessed with a manager who has read the rulebook. Not only that, but he puts it into practise daily too!
He expresses an interest in my hobbies (despite being a self-confessed “two-left-footer” when it comes to dancing!) to the point of letting me talk him to death about the technicalities of each performance on Strictly Come Dancing every Monday morning, and even to the point of letting me bring my entire collection of spiders into the office for a couple of days so that his children could meet them! He takes a daily interest in everything that I am working on (and is always willing to learn new things), has a smile, has a smile for everyone no matter what stressful events may be unfolding, and is always the first one to say sorry if something goes pear-shaped. As a result, his team pulls out all the stops for him, and will happily go the extra mile whenever it is required.
Whilst it is of course very important for a manager to have a wide range of appropriate technical expertise relating to their role and the roles of their staff, it is also critical that a good manager is capable of building solid relationships with their team, because as a manager, you must be able to rely on the support of others in achieving team goals and objectives.
If you have poor working relationships with your peers or your team, it is unlikely that they will support your ideas, or that you will support theirs. If you don’t support each other, disunity will grow and fester, and the team will begin to disintegrate and disengage with each other. A disengaged team will produce poor and lacklustre work, because no one’s heart is in what they are doing.
It is important for a manager to set the tone for relationships within the team, and the most important key to creating and improving relationships with others is to be able to see yourself how others see you, and to be able to understand the impact that your behaviour has on others. For example, while humour is an important aspect of working life, continual sarcasm can be hurtful and may alienate people causing you to loose their support.
Feedback on your personal style as a manager can be gained in a number of ways, for example by:
* Asking a trusted colleague of their impressions of your style and impact in different situations.
* Collecting feedback from staff during performance appraisal interviews.
* Using a more formal feedback instrument such as 360 degree feedback
Once you have some evidence about how your behaviour impacts others, you can begin to alter it to build better and more productive relationships. The following tips may help:
* Take an active interest in others, for example in their tastes and interests.
* Be friendly and positive when you meet someone for the first time.
* Use open body gestures and smile more.
* Ask people directly how work / home / college etc is going for them.
* Listen to the answers that people give when you ask a questions.
* Focus on people’s positive points rather than their weaknesses.
* Apologise if you make a mistake.
* Be less judgemental in your day to day dealings with people.
* Spend more time listening and talking to people over coffee, lunch etc.
* Help other people when they are in difficulty or struggling with someone.
Finally, and probably the most importantly, is to check that you are being courteous to others at all times. How often do you greet people when you see them, even in passing? How often do you say thank you?
Following these simple tips will help you build better relationships both inside and outside work. And if your relationships with each member of your team are good, then their relationships with each other are also likely to be productive, as people will follow the example that they are set.
If you would like more information about developing your skills as a Manager, then please telephone Developing People Limited on 0845 409 2346 or send an email to markevenden@developingpeople.co.uk.
Monday, 3 January 2011
Management Development and Training - How do you ensure it is effective?
by Mark Evenden @ Developing People Ltd.
Have you or a colleague attended a management training or development programme but failed to take anything away from it?
Does the management training and development you have in your organisation deliver the results you want, or is it just a waste of time and money?
I have attended numerous management development and training sessions over the years, some very successful and others less so, and my experiences have lead me to a number of conclusions about how organisations can get the most from their management training and development.
1) Be clear about the purpose of your management training and development programme. For example, what is it that your staff need to do differently as a result of their management training and development? What new knowledge, skills or behaviours do they need to learn, develop and subsequently exhibit?
2) Prepare your staff in advance. It is vital that they know what is expected of them as a result of the training, and why they should attend.
3) Strongly sponsor their learning and development. What I mean by that is you need to demonstrate interest and support for their learning as well as regularly review what they have learned and put into practice.
4) Ensure that the management training is relevant. We remember things better when they matter to us, and we will pay more attention to a trainer or a topic when we can apply.
5) Make sure the learning can be used immediately. We forget things that we don’t regularly practice. For example, send your staff on a finance training course just before you need them to prepare budgets or cash flow statements and not 12 months before hand!
6) Ensure your trainers keep the learning interactive. This sounds simple, but sometimes trainers are unaware of how much they "talk at" rather than "talk with” their participants. Ensure your trainers make the training participative, and use creative role plays, case studies, exercises and discussions.
7) Spread out you training interventions over a number of months. Very little is learned by cramming things in. Make sure that after a training session your staff have an appropriate amount of time to put into practice what they have learned before embarking on the next piece of learning.
8) Use ‘group work’ to solve business problems and reinforce learning. Your staff will benefit from working together to solve particular problems, and it will help to build team spirit too.
9) Encourage your staff to read around the subjects that are being taught. . Provide them with additional reading materials, books, articles, internet reference sites etc to enable your staff to further their development.
10) Finally, measure change. Assess the change in performance and behaviour of your staff. What are they doing now they didn’t before? How have they improved their performance and how has it benefitted the organisation?
Most of my observations are really common sense, but it amazes me how infrequently organisations don’t follow these principles and don’t get the results they want. The next time you wish to run a management training and development programme, stop and think how you will ensure that your organisation gets the right return for its investment in management training and development.
Have you or a colleague attended a management training or development programme but failed to take anything away from it?
Does the management training and development you have in your organisation deliver the results you want, or is it just a waste of time and money?
I have attended numerous management development and training sessions over the years, some very successful and others less so, and my experiences have lead me to a number of conclusions about how organisations can get the most from their management training and development.
1) Be clear about the purpose of your management training and development programme. For example, what is it that your staff need to do differently as a result of their management training and development? What new knowledge, skills or behaviours do they need to learn, develop and subsequently exhibit?
2) Prepare your staff in advance. It is vital that they know what is expected of them as a result of the training, and why they should attend.
3) Strongly sponsor their learning and development. What I mean by that is you need to demonstrate interest and support for their learning as well as regularly review what they have learned and put into practice.
4) Ensure that the management training is relevant. We remember things better when they matter to us, and we will pay more attention to a trainer or a topic when we can apply.
5) Make sure the learning can be used immediately. We forget things that we don’t regularly practice. For example, send your staff on a finance training course just before you need them to prepare budgets or cash flow statements and not 12 months before hand!
6) Ensure your trainers keep the learning interactive. This sounds simple, but sometimes trainers are unaware of how much they "talk at" rather than "talk with” their participants. Ensure your trainers make the training participative, and use creative role plays, case studies, exercises and discussions.
7) Spread out you training interventions over a number of months. Very little is learned by cramming things in. Make sure that after a training session your staff have an appropriate amount of time to put into practice what they have learned before embarking on the next piece of learning.
8) Use ‘group work’ to solve business problems and reinforce learning. Your staff will benefit from working together to solve particular problems, and it will help to build team spirit too.
9) Encourage your staff to read around the subjects that are being taught. . Provide them with additional reading materials, books, articles, internet reference sites etc to enable your staff to further their development.
10) Finally, measure change. Assess the change in performance and behaviour of your staff. What are they doing now they didn’t before? How have they improved their performance and how has it benefitted the organisation?
Most of my observations are really common sense, but it amazes me how infrequently organisations don’t follow these principles and don’t get the results they want. The next time you wish to run a management training and development programme, stop and think how you will ensure that your organisation gets the right return for its investment in management training and development.
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