The Middle Manager Development Programme: Creating Future Leaders

Course details

Many middle professionals have a wealth of experience at handling day to day management issues and are now ready for a bigger challenge. Are there extra skills they need to acquire to prepare them for the next level of leadership? This programme is about exploring and mastering those skills and knowledge that will comfortably take you to the next level of competence - from professional to leader.

It will give you a real insight into what drives individual behaviour, how to pinpoint the cultural style of your organisation and understand its inherent cultural strengths and weaknesses. We'll explore team dynamics in the context of the culture, look at functional and dysfunctional behaviour and how dysfunctional behaviour can be reshaped. We'll explore how easy it is for the leader to unwittingly set people up for failure and how this can be avoided. We'll investigate motivation, reward and getting the best from the team.

Finally you will spend time planning action what you want to change when you return to your workplace.

• Make the transition from management to leadership
• Learn the tools of influence
• Understand behaviours at work
• Explore corporate culture
• Learn to lead and motivate your team

Objectives

By the end of this programme participants will have learned to make the transition from professional to leader by:

• Ensuring that you have all the core skills of effective management and leadership
• Understanding what drives individual behaviour and how to motivate and reward excellence
• Truly understanding the culture of your organisation
• Exploring team dynamics and discovering your own preferred team roles
• Having a framework for implementing successful change programmes

Training Methodology

We use a variety of accelerated learning techniques to help to embed learning and enhance recall where it really counts - back in the workplace. Any theory discussed will be grounded immediately in practical day to day work. Methods will include "freeze-frame" role plays, case studies and self-assessments, and other practical activities based around real working scenarios.. Learning will be enhanced through active involvement in exercises followed by review. Opportunities for self assessment will be provided and feedback on individual and group performance will be encouraged. Participants will have opportunities to work on their own individual team issues during the programme

Organisational Impact

The organisation will benefit from having middle managers who are:

• Motivated and confident to move up to the next level
• Able to avoid common pitfalls at the more senior level through greater understanding of corporate culture
• Equipped to make a significant contribution to moving the organisation in desired directions and steer teams through complex situations
• Thinking and acting like leaders

Personal Impact

Participants will:

• Gain new insights into their preferred leadership style and learn how to be flexible in both leadership and management
• Be able to "read" behaviour and use that understanding in creating a motivating environment for their staff
• Understand their own and others' preferred team roles
• Be able to influence upwards in the organisation with confidence
• Be able to plan and lead change

SEMINAR OUTLINE 

Core Skills Required For Managing a Team

• Delegating effectively
• Goal Setting - S.M.A.R.T. goals
• Performance Appraisals that work
• Introducing a new employee to the job
• Coaching and on-the-job training
• Giving Praise effectively
• Constructive Confrontation skills
• Saying 'No' skilfully
• Counselling for performance improvement
• Disciplinary Process
• Dealing with grievances
• Discipline procedures
• Dealing with difficult colleagues

Understanding People

• Individual characteristics that influence behaviour
• Personality styles and traits
• Attitudes and behaviour
• Perception in the workplace
• Attributing causes to behaviour
• Types of workplace behaviour

Organisational Culture

• The organisational cultural web
• Types Of organisational culture
• Developing organisational culture
• Managing organisational culture
• Changing organisational culture
• Group Think - How an unhealthy culture develops and how to prevent it
• Signs of a healthy organisational culture
• Effects of a healthy organisational culture

Team Dynamics

• Group Dynamics
• Team Roles - A Self Perception Inventory
• Team roles and complementarities
• Team formation and dynamics
• Functional and dysfunctional group behaviour
• The set up to fail syndrome
• Inter-team relationships

Getting The Best From Your Team

• What are people looking for in their jobs? Do their managers know?
• The basic motivational process
• Ironies of motivation
• Managing People - ten essential behaviours
• How do you rate on motivating?
• Motivation techniques for greater commitment & output
• Reward systems in high performance work systems
• How to reward and inspire your team
• Team rewards
• Creating energy in the team
• Knowledge workers and the psychological contract
• Receiving feedback and criticism
• Helpful hints for providing feedback and criticism

Influencing Upwards In The Organisation

• The Individuals Needs Framework
• The Six Key Weapons of Influence and how to use them

             - Constancy & Escalating Commitment

             - Reciprocation

             - Need to be like others

             - Warming to

             - Power

             - Short supply

• The Five Styles of Decision Makers and how to distinguish them:
• Charismatics
• Thinkers
• Controllers
• Skeptics
• Followers
• Selecting strategies and dialogues for each decision making style
• Matching Appropriate Influencing Principals to Decision Making Style
• The Trigger Words that appeal to each Decision Making Style

Leadership That Inspires

• The difference between Management & Leadership
• Leadership and emotional intelligence
• The effects of different leadership styles on organisational climate
• Comparing management with visionary leadership
• Characteristics of visionary leaders
• Characteristics of a good vision statement
• Communicating your vision
• Leaders who are effective at communicating their vision and inspiring people
• Ethical political behaviour
• Trust orientation profile

Managing Change Successfully

• Sources of resistance to change
• Preventing resistance and encouraging effectiveness in coping with change
• Choosing a strategy to implement change
• The steps in a successful change programme
• Membership of the team leading change
• Communicating change - the steps involved
• Mastering the art of speaking as a change leader
• Sustaining change efforts

Action Planning

• What have I learned about leadership that I want to apply back on the job?
• Can I paint a compelling picture of success?
• How should I go about implementing it?
• What barriers might I come up against and how might I overcome them?
• Who might be my allies and how do I build their commitment?
• When will I start and when will it be implemented?