Management Skills for New Managers

Course Overview

Juggling the multiple demands on you as a manager, whilst ensuring that you maintain the focus of both your and your team's efforts is a complex task. Most teams are made up of a combination of very different personalities, skills and abilities - all of whom require sophisticated handling to ensure you maximise their full potential.

Successfully achieving your objectives requires you to effectively integrate excellent planning and organisational skills with the "people" skills of communicating expectations, motivating, delegating, coaching and leading your team. This course will arm you with a portfolio of management techniques, reinforce your strengths as a manager, and help you to identify areas where you can improve both your efficiency and your working relationships.

Audience

This programme has been specifically designed for those managers responsible for groups of staff and will provide you with the key management skills you need in order to secure commitment and obtain superior performance from the people you manage.

Skills Gained

THIS COURSE WILL ENABLE YOU TO:

• Critically evaluate and develop your own management and leadership style
• Effectively manage different personalities and different behavioural needs
• Increase your personal power base and your influencing skills
• Effectively plan and structure your own and your team's priorities
• Implement new techniques in measuring and managing personal and team performances
• Acquire superior leadership and motivational skills
• Create and maintain a highly motivated and successful team
• Secure commitment and maximise your results through first class coaching and delegation

Course Outline

THE SECRETS OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT

• identifying the key criteria for "good" management
• what new skills do you need to achieve maximum effect in modern organisational structures?
• evaluating alternative management styles
• what mistakes do all new managers make and how can you avoid them?
• Interactive discussion

WINNING LEADERSHIP STYLES

• identifying your own leadership style
• identifying your leadership "blind spots"
• focusing on your strengths to improve the performance of yourself and others
• adapting your behaviour to achieve maximum effect
• Exercise: "Identifying your preferred leadership style"
• Exercise: "Group leadership"

MANAGEMENT PLANNING: ORGANISING FOR SUCCESS

• evaluating management planning tools
• integrating company, personal and team goals
• idefining objectives & balancing priorities
• setting realistic and measurable targets for your staff
• Exercise: Preparing an individual action plan for use in your workplace
• Exercise: "Delegation"

ACHIEVING YOUR OBJECTIVES AND MAINTAINING CONTROL: TIME, PRIORITIES AND DELEGATION

• 10 common time management failings in managers
• helping your staff to manage their time effectively
• applying a "critical path" approach to ensure you focus attention where most needed
• identifying the vital, yet frequently downgraded tasks for which you need to reserve time
• how to delegate effectively to motivate staff and ensure exceptional performance
• Exercise: A time analysis to use in your workplace

EFFECTIVE DECISION-MAKING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

• the role of procrastination in management decision-making
• learning how to read the political map
• overcoming the barriers to effective decision-making
• applying a rational model to problem solving
• stimulating creative thinking
• Exercise: "Group problem solving"

USING THE 5 "EGO STATES" OF THE MIND TO BUILD A POWERFUL COMMUNICATION MODEL

• differentiating between "power" and "authority"
• increasing your personal impact through building confidence, credibility and capability
• understanding the implications for managers of the aggressive - passive- assertive circle
• ensuring clear and effective communication strategies
• Exercise: Your preferred style of communicating
• Exercise: Communicating in difficult situations

BEHAVIOUR VERSATILITY: APPLYING PROVEN STRATEGIES IN MANAGING DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES

• recognising different personality types and behavioural styles
• curbing the tendency to "react to" rather than "manage" others' behaviour
• identifying how to best manage and control different behavioural needs
• adapting your behavioural style to achieve productive relationships
• Exercise: Assessing the behavioural needs of others

BUILDING AND MOTIVATING A HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM

• what constitutes a good team?
• achieving the right balance of personalities and expertise
• creating productive working relationships
• identifying and addressing key motivational factors for individual team members
• when should you lead, and when manage?
• Exercise: Team profiling

ACHIEVING CONTINUING PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT THROUGH COACHING AND COUNSELLING

• measuring team and individual performance
• performance counselling
• effective coaching for improved performance
• encouraging your staff to achieve through realistic target-setting
• Exercise: Coaching