Management Development Training Course - 2 Days

Management is a set of six key skills that allow you to get the best performance from yourself and others. These skills are: goal setting, clear communication, time management (managers are responsible for planning, prioritisation, prevention and delegating), conflict management (performance management), positive mental attitude and inspiring the team.

The principles of management are universal, but your style is personal. We will ask you, “How do you want to be perceived by others?” and we will discuss how you can develop your own unique style as you deliver on the key fundamental skills.

Your team exists to achieve goals, so the skills of goal setting, planning and communication are high on our list.

You can set goals by means of our goal setting formula, eight-part SMART. We will give you access to our online tools that will help you to communicate your goals to everyone who needs to know.

We will show you how to elaborate the goal setting formula into a series of eight questions, that allow you to clarify the details of the goal.

It is good to have a decent sense of humour. But humour is not a universal good. We will look at the correct and the incorrect ways to use humour. And we will look at how “the Smiling Assassin” can cause trouble in your team.

Managers must make themselves clearly understood, with no ambiguity and no confusion. Easier said than done. We will show you how to find the words to express your exact meaning, both verbally and written.

Many managers make the common mistake of talking in negation. They talk for too long about what they don't want, but it remains unclear what they do want. We will help you to eliminate this common error, by showing you how to express your instructions and requests, in positive terms.

In your team you may have some cynical people, who can put a damper on every idea for improvement or change. We will show you how to manage this situation and transform your negative cynics, into problem solvers.

As human beings we are all susceptible to the power of suggestion. Many managers accidentally give negative suggestions, and unwittingly demotivate their team. We will show you how to avoid this common error and instead, purposefully inspire your team.

Conflict is inevitable and you must know how to resolve it quickly. There are four ways you can try, but only one of them works. The four ways are: reason, anger, upset and evasion.

We advocate that you do not get angry, upset nor evade. Instead, use the power of reason to resolve conflict.

Never attack a person's character, comment only on their behaviour. We will show you how to word your message so that you use behavioural statements, not character assassination statements.

When in conflict it is important to take the heat out of the situation. You do that by using objective language. We will show you the difference between emotionally charged, subjective language and non-emotional, objective language. We will show you how to use rational, logical, objective language.

You will have the opportunity to practice your new skills, by scripting how you would handle five common conflicts that you may experience at work.

There is a big difference between a 'reason' and an 'excuse' for not doing something. We will ask you to determine the difference. We then explore why you should give concessions only to those who offer you reasons, and never to excuse givers.

We discuss why you should never argue about the past, if necessary only argue about the future!

We will show you how to short circuit many arguments, by directing the conversation onto the future.

Part of managing conflict is knowing when you should give ground and find a compromise, and when to stand firm and hold the line. We show you how to get this element of your conflict management skills right.

It is not just what you say that is important, you must look and sound right too. Pointing fingers, shouting and the wrong kind of eye contact can cause unpleasantness. We will help you get your nonverbal communication right. We will show you how to be assertive, not aggressive.

We all need to feel appreciated. Sadly, some managers forget to give thanks and appreciation for good work. They think that money is enough motivation. We discuss the use of social motivators, such as appreciation, thanks and praise. They are free to give, but costly if you do not.

We will finish the day's training on the importance of positive social motivators, and how you can use them to inspire the team.

At the end of the day you will explore how you will you put the principles learned, into practice.

Managers need to manage tasks, people and time. In order to do that, they need to prioritise.

You prioritise on the basis of two key criteria; value and deadline.
These two qualities allow you to draw a grid that breaks the problem into four sets:

Time management is about doing the right task in the right order. Many people make the mistake of doing the busy work (Q3), before they do productive work (Q2). As a result, they suffer; 'busy but non-productive days'.

As a manager you should not be busy, but more productive. That means, get out of the Q3 busy zone, and get into the Q2 productive zone.

We will emphasise the Q2 productive work list: prioritisation, planning, preparation, prevention, the longer you are in the Q2 productive work, the fewer Q1 crises you suffer.

Prevention is better than cure.
Planning is better than winging it.
Proactive is better than reactive.

Even though you want to be in high value, productive work, events will conspire to drag you into low value, busy work. We will look at these time wasters and we will draw up plans against them.

Sometimes, it is our own bad habits that are the problem. We will do a self-analysis and mark-out where we might improve our own time management habits. We will identify the weakness and replace it with strength.

Delegation is the art of entrusting a task to another. A manager should not try to do everything for everyone. The manager is responsible for getting things done. That means giving the right task to the right person, at the right time, in the right way.

We will show you how.

Prioritisation is the art of putting tasks into order of value and logical sequence. You must prioritise, since you have a limited time to do an unlimited amount of work. We will show you our unique prioritisation method, which you can download onto your phone.

You are paid for your ability to make the right decision. There are five types of decisions you need to master. We will discuss each one.

1. Yes / no?
2. Which one / what kind?
3. Priority order
4. Problem cause solution
5. Problem implication countermeasure

You are presumably peppered with interruptions during your working day. You need to successfully manage interruptions so that you are getting the maximum value, in the minimum time.

The 80/20 rules states that, in any complex system, most of the value is to be found in the minority of the tasks. Which means, things are not equal. There is always a small number of tasks, that outweigh all the others. You need to know how to identify the high value 20% that will account for 80% or more of the value. We will show you how to do this.

We discuss how you will apply all this information and how you can put these ideas into practice.

Emotions strongly affect people. So, if you want to manage people, you need to know how to manage emotions. You will learn how to reduce negative emotions (such as anxiety and worry), and replace them with positive emotions (such as optimism and confidence).

This may be the most important lesson you will ever learn, on any course.

Your emotions are caused by a combination of the facts and your beliefs about their meaning. If you cannot change the facts, you can always change what they mean. Managers must become masters of meaning.

Thoughts affect your feelings, which affect your actions, which affect the result. Managers must be constantly aware that the words they use, should create and sustain a positive attitude, in every member of the team.

Your role as a manager includes becoming a source of emotional strength to the others, and not being a source of anxiety, worry, anger or fear. We will show you the art of leadership.

You will learn how to take control of counter-productive, pessimistic conversations and redirect them onto a more fruitful path.

Success is not single event. Nor is it a matter of luck. Success has causes, and the causes are easily understood and applied. The cause of success is a five part success formula: purpose, plan action, feedback change.

Managers must successfully manage change. Change is inevitable, but the average person resists change. We will teach you how to manage change on a strategic level, but also, how to manage change on an emotional level.

Feedback is a key concept on this course. Feedback is part of the success formula. Feedback comes in many forms: positive, negative, constructive, destructive, encouraging or crushing. You will learn how to give constructive feedback in ways that will encourage others to keep moving forward.

In this session you will have learned how to manage your own emotions; to eliminate anxiety and stress, and replace it with optimism and confidence. You also learned how to pass on this optimism and influence others towards the positive.

You decide how you plan to apply these powerful techniques. Then share with us what you intend to do with your newly acquired knowledge.