We are aware of the animal studies than show the differences in behavior between males and females that have characterized females as being more nurturing and of males classically exhibiting aggressive, dominant “A”€ type behavior -€“ but how far do these results transfer across to management roles in organizations?

We also know that there are differences in some physical performance aspects of men and women which have to be taken account – especially in occupations where physical strength and stamina is important e g The Army, The Fire Brigade

When we look at some of the more sophisticated Psychometric tests measuring personality characteristics such as 16pf, we do know that there are some gender differences which are significant enough for us to use different norm tables for men or women in order to normalize any comparative results.

So if we accept that there are some gender based differences in managerial style and approach should we then provide different forms of management development training for man and women?

I think that the answer is probably no – because there are other factors that are even more important to consider when we look at the role of a manager, their styles, approaches and when we consider the people that they are managing or dealing with as customers and clients.

The sorts of factors that are more important to consider are these:-

- What are the gender types and likely responses of the customer set for your product or service?

- How good at your managers at understanding personality differences and gender styles in this customer set? Can they deal effectively with diverse types?

- What makes a successful manager in your business from a competency point of view?

- What are the different learning styles of your participants on any training program and how well are you delivering your program to reach and appeal to these different styles of activist, pragmatist, reflector etc?

- What is the culture and style of your organization that you are looking to reinforce and encourage – whether it is adopted my male or female managers is less relevant.

In conclusion whilst accepting that differences do exist in the styles of individual managers, there is a broad spectrum of styles and approaches produced by individual differences rather than by simple gender stereotyping and that there are other factors outlined above which are more significant.

The peer-to-peer coaching approach is a highly effective method of management & leadership skills development used in wide range of organizations around the world.

Short piece on new emerging business paradigm. Interview with Jeff Dunn, Richard Hawkes, Dawna Markova and Richard Barrett, in Costa Rica at the CEO Leadership Summit. Looking at business as a platform for solving global issues. Produced by Growth River.

Product Description

The coauthor of the international bestseller Execution has created the how-to guide for solving today’s toughest business challenge: creating profitable growth that is organic, differentiated, and sustainable.

For many, growth is about “home runs”—the big bold idea, the next new thing, the product that will revolutionize the marketplace. While obviously attractive and lucrative, home runs don’t happen every day and frequently come in cycles. … More >>

Profitable Growth Is Everyone’s Business: 9 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning

The manager is responsible for the performance, or non-performance of all staff – despite the fact that, as often as not, the manager has had promotion thrust upon them, pulled, like Macbeth, into a web of forces beyond their control.  This, then, is where management development comes in.  Management development allows companies to train their (often reluctant) managers – giving them the tools to make their lives a lot easier and company productivity a lot better.

Management development, like most work-related training programs, can be undertaken with minimal disruption to the daily running of an office or store.  Good management development courses are tailored to the needs of the company in question – so one management development model might be on-site training for store managers, while another might involve single-day seminars for mid-level office management.  In all cases, management development training focuses on a Sun Tzu-esque single-minded issue – teaching normal people to lead.

Leadership is the holy grail of good management and the cornerstone of all management development training.  If a person can be taught the art, or secrets, of good leadership, he or she will be well fitted to manage any team, in any situation.  So we find that all stripes, variations and lengths of management development course revel in titles like “fundamentals of leadership”, “right track to leadership” – and so on.  The problems outlined in the first paragraph of this article – uneven performance, employee behavior – are all controllable, and resolvable, by recourse to strong leadership.  Management development makes this happen – which makes management development as indispensable for every business as having managers in the first place.

Think about it this way.  At some point, every manager was a non-manager, just like every king or queen was once a little boy or girl.  Kings and queens have the luxury of being slowly trained into their position – taught bearing; manners; morals; and conduct.  Managers have their greatness thrust upon them, often with no preliminary warning or coaching – and businesses, by definition, are too busy to help them.  Management development courses, run by companies who know what they are doing, give new management all that preliminary coaching in a scientifically-developed, easy to swallow form.  Transforming them, in days or a few weeks, into the leaders every business needs to pull its trade forward.

• ISBN13: 9781400051526
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• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
The coauthor of the international bestseller Execution has created the how-to guide for solving today’s toughest business challenge: creating profitable growth that is organic, differentiated, and sustainable.

For many, growth is about “home runs” – the big bold idea, the next new thing, the product that will revolutionize the marketplace. While obviously attractive and lucrative, home runs don’t happen every day and frequently come in cycles.

… More >>

Profitable Growth Is Everyone’s Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning

The biggest problem with growing a business is neither the lack of desire or planning.

It’s finding and implementing the right strategies. There simply are too few sound strategies that owners can easily and effectively apply in their own businesses.

The Good I.D.E.A.

One of the best approaches to planning business growth is the I.D.E.A. concept: Identify Develop, Evaluate, Act.

Instead of re-inventing the growth-strategies wheel, I offer the following outline of the approach.

IDENTIFY—Specifically What Would You Like to Achieve?

Like all planning processes, this one starts with identification.

Specifically you start by identifying the growth you want: increased clients, revenue per client, sales volume etc. Regardless of what you plan to increase, it’s important to establish a clear measure for this improvement.

Identify the growth as measurable amounts such as “10%” or “15 over last year”. This yields an objective measure against which you can evaluate the results of your growth strategies.

DEVELOP—When & How Will You Achieve These Results?

In pursuing new growth, specific targets or milestones will help you along the way. Once you have set your long range target, develop mid-term and short-term objectives.

Ensure that these interim objectives lead to the next level, en route to achieving your long- term goal.

In and of themselves, having goals and evaluation criteria do not guarantee success.

You must also develop a clear process for what you are going to do, when you are going to do it, how you are going to do it, and most importantly, who will be responsible for each activity.

EVALUATE—How Are You Progressing?

As you move forward, it’s important to continuously evaluate your progress.

Be careful not to adjust your expectations to keep them in line with results.

When you are driving a motor vehicle, it’s important to keep your eye on the traffic around you; likewise when implementing your growth plan, you must also keep your eye on the big picture—your direction and what’s happening around you.

You may also evaluate your level of commitment to your growth strategies. It’s also critical to include your people in the process. To ensure their continued momentum, they need your encouragement and enthusiasm.

ACT—How Will You Avoid Paralysis By Analysis?

Your ongoing evaluations may point out the need to take action to adjust your plans.

These adjustments should not take the form of constantly tweaking your plan. Too much tweaking will limit your ability to know for sure what did or did not work.

Taking action may also involve ending initiatives that do not help you achieve you the results you are seeking.

Unlike natural growth, business growth is not an automatic process. Growth is not something that happens to your business: it is something that you initiate, plan and monitor.

To achieve your growth goals, you need effective growth strategies. The I.D.E.A. approach is a good way to effectively organize and manage your growth strategies.

Sound growth strategies will help you renew and grow your business.

Take the time to revisit and refine your business growth strategies.

Soon you will start to enjoy results of your growth goals.

Seems like a good idea to me.

Pre World War II there was a man named Kurt Lewin who worked at the University of Michigan and experimented with a collaborative change process with training groups. These training groups were not like an actual company organization, they were groups of people who met for experimental purposes without a set agenda. They would be given a hypothetical scenario and asked to respond in a natural way based on what was labeled as, the here and now.

Lewin died in 1947 however the department continued the work on based on the three stage process of implementing collaborative change; planning, taking action and measuring results. The training simulation would work by reviewing individual group member reactions to any given scenario and identifying the problems. These problems included leadership, self serving, communication, status and group structure.

The action stages were to train group members in listening, observing others, focusing on a common goal as opposed to personalities and other techniques that would lead to effective group functionality. The groups were based on strangers so certain difficulties were faced when trying to introduce the technique to an established organization such as a family. The training groups were seen as relatively safe and controlled environments with group members having no history or feelings of any magnitude toward each other.

Management development is an important part of organizational development. A case study of a medical centre showed the three tier system in pointing toward the need for management development. The entire organization was assessed by a consultant acting as a change agent who collected data from every member of the organization. The data in the form of surveys and competency evaluations was then analyzed and the results relayed.

The data showed three major problems with the route cause being a management issue. The manager was shying away from making large decisions leaving inaction and confusion between administrative staff causing them to blame and resent their fellow colleagues. Management development is not only the identification of this problem but to affect positive change on the individual.

This can come in the form of a psychometric test where an individual completes an assessment of their personality and the results are analyzed to establish where their strengths lie. Also in a competency survey then positive change can be affected by retraining or sometimes just highlighting the issue in question. The three stages of management development are sometimes known as unfreezing, changing and refreezing.

Nevertheless many people do face the thought of management training with caution. There really is no need to. So what is involved in management training and what can it teach you?

There are a number of different management training programs available and a wide variety of training providers offer management training. Typically this type of training will be based around a specific area of interest but many providers can develop a training program that is bespoke to your specific business and your specific needs.

Some of the areas that management training can cover are absence management, change management, discipline and grievance, feedback skills, first time development management, generic interviewing, managing performance, motivation in the workplace, senior management development, middle management development, team leader development and team-building training. These training programs obviously deal with specific areas of the organization but they are of course dependent on the size of the organization. So if you feel like none of these options suit your needs then it is worth talking to your chosen training provider to produce something that best suits you.

Most training provider provides a variety of ways in which you can receive the training that they offer. In many cases they will be able to provide training in short weekly seminars where they can visit your company and provide a lesson and leave you with tasks to complete for the following week. This is a great option for those busy managers that can’t afford to take a large chunk of time off in one chunk for training.

Another popular option is for the training provider to visit the business for a full day at a time. This can be an extremely effective way of dissipating a large amount of information from the course and can provide results quickly. It is often also possible that the people receiving training can visit the training providers own venues to receive training. This can especially effective as it means that the people receiving training can do so in dedicated surroundings. This can be a great way of making sure that you can focus on what is being taught without any distractions.

The effective of having well trained management can be incredible. You will find that your staff will respond really well to a manager that takes their needs into account and is aware of the theories that surround management. Better still if your management staff know how to apply these theories into real, tangible practices then you are likely to benefit from an increased level of motivation and the service that you offer your clients or customers will improve. It is also likely to lead to an increase level of productivity.

Gerard Burke of Cranfield School of Business Management leads you through 10 steps to creating business growth.

Part 1 of a series of 5.