Training is perceived as an expensive luxury, and often the first cost to be cut when cash flow gets tough. The familiar phrase Training is a Luxury Not a Necessity may strike a chord with many business owners who have seen staff return from the latest fad course, pumped up from the great stuff they’ve learned, only to end up in the routine drudgery of their day job – finding nothing has changed in the business and the training manual lost for ever in the dust of the bottom shelf.
Many of you will relate to the inevitable promotion of the most productive worker to Manager, only to see the team’s performance drop through the floor and the newly appointed Manager’s motivation swiftly follows. Just because a worker has the best output of the group, doesn’t mean they’re a natural choice for Management. They may not have a clue how to lead their teams, and here in the UK we are notoriously poor at training our future managers and executives. Management is a skill that can, and SHOULD be trained. Leadership CAN be developed and nurtured.
The true definition of a Manager is someone who gets things done through other people, requiring a structured approach to delegating, monitoring, and nurturing staff to make sure their work meets the company’s overall objectives. This implicitly depends on the appointed manager having the technical capabilities and sound leadership skills to get the best possible performance from their human resource.
Worryingly however, a 2017 survey carried out by the Chartered Institute for Professional Development (CIPD) concluded that “UK Managers are ill-equipped to lead and get the best from their people”. The survey highlighted that one in five candidates lack planning and communication skills, as well as not having the functional capabilities for their job. Performance Management and People Management skills were voted the “top leadership behaviours” needed in the next 3 years, yet 53% said leaders’ performance management skills were ineffective, and 44% considered that leaders fail in people management.
I wholeheartedly concur with these findings based on first hand experience and many hours of observations in the work place interviewing and talking to supervisors and managers about their techniques. When asked how they manage their teams, too often the response is “they know what they have to do, and I just let them get on with it” or “they don’t like to be micro-managed so I tend not to bother them much”. This then begs the question why we need a manager at all, and little wonder the UK has fallen behind our G7 counterparts in the productivity stakes.
Alluxi Consulting strives to address this skills shortage, and offers a complete Leadership & Management Development Programme for anyone in a supervisory to executive leadership position, or business owners needing to develop their own skills to grow their organisations. The programme is recognised by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) as meeting National Occupational Standards. Participants attending the course, will not only experience a management mindset re-boot, but will benefit from a wide range of support from the CMI, including one year’s Affiliate Membership of the CMI and access to the CMI’s Management Direct online library and resource centre.
If you would like further details or are interested in registering for the next course, commencing in September 2017, please contact Linda Garcia by email at linda@alluxi.co.uk or call 07717 221368.