Some people believe that leaders are born, not made. Others, however, think leadership skills can be developed and honed, just like any other ability.
Throughout September on the blog, we are taking a look at the different skills required for managers and leaders to successfully fulfil their duties, and how to get them.
We’re going to start at the beginning of the management journey, with skills for new managers.
Being promoted to manager for the first time is both exciting and challenging. It takes a lot of hard work and reliability to move up the corporate ladder but transitioning into your new role means mastering a new skill set. No matter what kind of business or field you work in, these 6 workshops will give you the skills to navigate the new, undiscovered managerial waters.
Improving your Personal Impact
The ability to understand how you are being perceived - and to manage your interactions based upon both this perception and the communication style of the other person - is vital to building effective relationships. Learn how to build your brand, become more assertive, and handle conflict effectively.
Effective Communication
Having effective communication skills is vital for any individual - even more so for new managers who are internally promoted and will have to learn how to adjust their communication style to fit their new role and responsibilities.
Handling Difficult People & Situations
Not all situations that come before the new manager will be easy to deal with. A main responsibility and obligation as a manager are to address and confront difficult and uncomfortable issues in a professional and confident manner. Improve your assertiveness, the ability to use effective questions and active listening skills.
Negotiating with Confidence
As a new manager, you may be tasked with negotiating with individuals internally and externally. Entering negotiations confidently to ensure that win-win results are obtained. Equip yourself with the ability to reduce the number of negotiations by justifying your position and reducing unnecessary discounting.
Time Management
For all people within the business, time management skills are crucial to delivering results. As a manager, you are now responsible to coordinate the work from a team of people. Learn how to plan and prioritise your workload, eliminate time stealers and manage your new work environment.
If you’re looking for a formal qualification to help you start your journey, why not try the ILM Level 3 Award in Leadership & Management. The Level 3 qualification provides a foundation of managerial skills for new managers, by developing the skills and knowledge to lead, organise and motivate teams. Throughout the programme, you will learn key leadership styles, how to confidently solve problems and make decisions more effectively.
For more information on how we can assist you on your management journey, call Dawn on 01332 836638
Love to learn? We’re back with another amazing offer to make learning more likely – receive 2-for-1 on Leadership & Management courses taking place throughout September.
Why not take this opportunity to try out some of our highly commended courses, whilst gaining the practical skills, knowledge and confidence to make the transition from your current role to business leader quickly and effectively. With our range of instant impact courses, apply your new skills in the workplace immediately through the practical nature of each course.
5th Inspirational Leadership
6th An Introduction to Project Management
11th Building Resilience for Success
13th Effective Communication
17th & 18th Coaching & Mentoring
25th Handling Difficult People & Situations
It’s easy to book online, simply add the courses to your basket and use 24U code at check out. Any issues? We're here to help - call us on 01332 836638 or contact us via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We also have the following compliance courses available throughout September, that are designed to develop your personal skills and where appropriate meet legislative requirements. To understand the importance of compliance training, click here.
13th Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering
14th Level 2 Award in Health & Safety in the Workplace
17th & 18th & 19th Level 3 Award in Full First Aid at Work
24th & 25th Level 3 Award in Refresher First Aid at Work
To see our full list of upcoming courses in 2018/19, click here
Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest - @RHThinking
PRINCE2 is back, and has been revised to offer an updated edition of the worlds more practiced method for project management.
PRINCE2 2017, offers updated guidance and new Foundation and Practitioner examinations. Modernised through a collaborative approach involving over 100 Practitioners, trainers, consultants and global feedback. The fundamentals of PRINCE2 remain, but the emphasis within these have shifted to recognise the evolving demands of today’s business environment.
The course is 5 days, and aims to educate participants on how to fully apply the 7 PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments) principles to the running and management of projects. The course will take you from beginner level all the way through to a registered PRINCE2 Practitioner through expert tuition and coaching.
As an internationally recognised award, PRINCE2 develops your project management theory and ability to manage a project of any scale with success. The practical application of guidance, real-life examples and tips provide you with the confidence to adapt the PRINCE2 method to your own organisation and projects.
The qualification is ideal for Project Managers, aspiring Project Managers and any staff involved in the creation and conveyance of projects.
If you would like any further information including upcoming dates, please do not hesitate to contact us via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Don’t forget to follow @Rhthinking for the latest news and updates!
Management development is important to businesses who want to take a proactive approach to growth. Training opportunities increase employee retention and motivate employees, resulting in a knowledge and driven workforce. If your business is to grow, you need to invest in the most asset, your employees, and upskilling is an essential growth strategy which can be successfully initiated with our help.
Develop a culture of innovation
Your managers have a thorough knowledge of your business and they are some of the best-placed people to be suggested new products, services or improvements. With training and confidence, you can develop a team of innovation managers, which will ultimately lead the way in business improvement and product development.
Retain your best employees
Employees want to feel as though they are progressing in their chosen career path and improving their skill-set. Ensure you invest in your employee’s professional development. If you fail to do so, this could lead to your employees leaving in search for other opportunities. After all, if employees feel you are investing in their future, they will be more willing to remain where they are, ultimately reducing your costs.
Gain competitive advantage
Maintaining a competitive advantage against your competition is vital. Ensure your managers are equipped with the essential skill sin order to distinguish your business from competition. Whether it is a short intervention to instantly improve an individual or a company-wide training programme, we are able to successful development your managers.
Management success
Management succession planning allows a business to keep moving forward when the inevitable occurs. Succession planning encourages staff development and makes employees aware that you are serious about developing people. Having a successor from within the company can also save time and expenses as well as aiding continuity.
Pattonair is a leading global Aerospace and Defence supply chain service provider – working with a wide range of customers across the world with over 40 years of experience in the industry. With its headquarter in Derby, the company employs around 1,000 people in the UK, USA, Singapore, France and Italy.
Having grown significantly over the past four years and invested heavily in the development of processes and procedures, Pattonair identified the need to develop leadership and management skills across the company.
Pattonair has a policy of promoting from within the company and recognised that a training programme was required to support senior managers whether they were recently in post or had been in that position for longer periods of time.
Although the company supports staff with practical training through apprenticeships and higher education support and whilst senior managers were promoted on the strength of their ability to do the job – there was widespread recognition that the softer skills of people management and team motivation often needed to be addressed.
The company also recognised that, in a competitive recruitment market, it was important to clearly demonstrate to applicants that Pattonair is a company that values and invests in its workforce.
Pattonair worked with us to develop the bespoke PILOT programme – focusing on the ‘softer skills’ linked to relationship building, such as communication, personality profiling, delegation and conflict resolution.
The objective was to support senior managers in their role and to give them the ability to better manage and disseminate skills across their teams to increase efficiency, raise standards and boost productivity.
The company therefore brought together 70 managers from across the company for a series of monthly training sessions over 12 months.
The programme is unique in a number of ways.
It is bespoke to the company with all theoretical training directly linked back to the company ethos and practice.
PILOT was developed in line with the company’s core values and behaviours which are at the heart of the company’s operations:
- Building with integrity, fairness and trust
- Challenge and innovate
- Always putting outstanding service first
- Making ambition work
PILOT was totally inclusive and open to all senior managers regardless of their previous qualifications and training with graduates working alongside vocationally-trained former shopfloor workers who had worked their way up into management roles.
Managers from across the business were divided into groups – enabling them to work with colleagues from different aspects of the business.
Training was classroom based our associates travelling to the USA and Singapore to deliver training there and then European managers travelling to Derby College for the majority of training.
The final sessions, focusing on Pattonair’s financial and achieving zero defects models, were held in- house.
The programme concludes with each team completing a community project which has so far included refurbishment work at a homeless charity’s premises, maintenance projects at an animal sanctuary and dry stone walling in the Derbyshire Dales.
Due to the positive feedback received so far, Pattonair has already returned to us to launch Co-Pilot, which is aimed at section leaders and is planning Auto Pilot as a follow up with the management teams to embed further learning into the workforce development programme.
Pattonair will also be working with Derby College to allocate its employer apprenticeship levy on the expansion of its apprenticeship programme (for young apprentices and for existing staff). This will continue the shopfloor training programmes including warehousing and business improvement techniques and expand into new customer service and administration apprenticeships.
Have you ever considered your own leadership style? According to findings, there are four fundamental leadership styles, these being Pragmatist, Idealist, Steward and Diplomat. Leaders can be effective or ineffective with each of these four styles, and there are vast amounts of subtle variations which can determine what kind of a leader a person is.
We take a look at the defining features of all four categories – Can you identify your leadership style?
The Pragmatist
• High standards and expect themselves and their employees to meet those
• Driven and competitive
• Bold thinkers
• Least common of all leadership styles.
The Idealist
• High-energy achievers
• Believe in the positive potential of everyone
• Want to learn and grow
• Charismatic
• Open minded
• Prize creativity from themselves and others.
The Steward
• Dependable
• Loyal and helpful
• Values rules, process and cooperation
• Stabilising and calming.
The Diplomat
• Kind, social and giving
• Typically develop deep personal bonds with their employees
• Resolve conflicts peacefully
• Socially adept.
There isn’t a correct style of leadership and it certainly cannot be defined into a specific role. Often leaders today take defining features from each style in order to develop their own leadership style and capabilities. It’s incredibly important to understand your own style as you can then start to think about how to develop this further to achieve even greater results.
For more helpful tips, follow @RHThinking!
Sources
www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2015/07/09which-of-the-4-leadership-styles-is-yours/#405020f411a2
Time Management is like losing weight – we all know how to do it but we slip into bad habits!!
Here are my top tips for managing your time.