This is the eBook version of the printed book.“The premiere writer of management textbooks has sifted through the research to extract the truths every manager should know.

This book is an antidote for the unsupported opinions handed out in many popular management books.” Kenneth W. Thomas, Professor of Management, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, author of Intrinsic Motivation at Work   “A prolific scholar and writer, Robbins cuts through the research and theory to deli

List Price: $ 20.99 

www.globalchange.com How to make things happen – change management, motivating people, leadership styles – motivational speech by Patrick Dixon.

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.

There’s one aspect of influencing that might help you prepare your influencing strategy more effectively, and that’s to look at the whole arena in terms of overt or covert influencing.

Here’s how we define the difference.

In overt influencing both you and ‘influencee’ know what’s happening; both of you are conscious of what’s going on. It’s like flirting: you know your doing it and the recipient knows as well.

In the case of influencing it’s as though everyone’s cards are on the table: everyone knows what hand the other ‘holds’.

There tends to be a free exchange of useful information that will be mutually beneficial and all parties prefer things to be transparent. Along with that, agendas and goals are also clear and agreed and the influencing ‘play’ if you will is about how to ‘get there’.

When the influencing is covert, you are conscious of what’s going on and your own behaviour, but the other party/ies will usually be unaware that you are trying to influence them. In this situation you need lead by example: you need to have a clear strategy in your head and have an end goal to aim for. Not only that, you may both have completely different agendas (not necessarily conflicting, just different), so it’s up to you to involve them as though were helping you create the strategy.

As well, you need to understand what they want and need and accommodate your personal style to better suit their needs. Now by this we don’t mean twist yourself into knots and become someone you aren’t. Rather, it’s about understanding what part of your own personality fits theirs and ‘turning up the volume’ on that one part.

For instance, perhaps most of the time you’re a straight-forward, no-nonsense person with a quick mind who makes decision really fast. But you’re trying to influence someone who doesn’t think in the speedy way you do and likes to consider things very carefully.

In this case, you won’t get very far on the influencing stakes if you show impatience or try to talk them into seeing things your way. This is a time when you could turn up the volume on your listening skills to demonstrate that you are considered as well (you may very well be considered it’s just your quick-wittedness may not look like it to other people).

Once you define whether an influencing situation is overt or covert, you can adjust your behaviour accordingly to get a result you’ll all be happy with.

Management development can be used to improve poor management practices and leadership development at any point in the employee lifecycle.  By keeping a record of your employees’€™ talents, skills and preferences, you will be able to help your managers become better managers.  Management development will also help you effectively manage, motivate and retain your talent.

With objective, quantifiable data about individual employees, you can make the best possible employee development and training decisions. By identifying employees who need improvement, the areas in which they need further development and the progress they have made toward improving the necessary skills, you can set your organization up for future success.  Management development works in three parts:

First, is an extensive evaluation that is used to provide managers with multi-rater feedback from those who observe their performance: their bosses, subordinates, and peers. This is an important process because increased awareness motivates managers to change the way they do their jobs.

The second part is an analysis that alerts top management to potential managerial problems that can develop when managers’ goals are not in alignment with the goals of the organization. Having this information encourages leadership development on an individual level as well as across the enterprise. This information will also strengthens communication and builds stronger organizations.

The third is an organized management development program that addresses specific leadership skills identified in the survey as requiring improvement, enabling managers to pursue self-improvement in the areas most essential to improving their job performance. Consisting of 18 modules, managers create and complete a customized management development plan using modules. Unlike many courses and seminars, management training activities are integrated into a manager’s daily tasks.

Management development is mainly used for professional training and evaluation of a manager’s job performance, but will also help your organization solve the following challenges:

-  Ineffective management practices
-  Poor management performance,
-  Poor communication
-  Inadequate leadership
-  Distrust of management
-  Inability to delegate
-  Low motivation
-  Lack of commitment
-  Stagnation of ideas and status quo
-  Low performance standards
-  Workplace conflicts

Management development measures the following competencies:
-  Communication
-  Leadership
-  Adaptability
-  Relationships
-  Task management
-  Production
-  Development of others
-  Personal development
-  Listening to others
-  Processing information
-  Communicating effectively
-  Instilling trust
-  Building personal relationships
-  Delegating responsibility
-  Adjusting to circumstances
-  Thinking creatively
-  Providing direction
-  Facilitating team success
-  Working efficiently
-  Working competently
-  Taking action
-  Achieving results
-  Cultivating individual talents
-  Motivating successfully
-  Displaying commitment
-  Seeking improvement

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
• Condition: NEW
• 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

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.

A key skill for any employees is the ability to manage their own work and control their career path. Highly motivated and self-directed individuals can gain a massive amount of learning and other benefits for their organization by implementing an aggressive management development program.

Management development refers to the process of training and developing managerial talent within a company or organization.

But why do I need to waste time on training and development? Why not just hire the people I need when the time comes?

Nurturing in-house management talent may not seem important, but it is one of the most important aspects of the development of any organization. This is the case for several reasons, some of which are listed below:

1. In-house management development programs give employees the chance to utilize special leadership skills that may posses. These employees will certainly bring an enhanced perspective to management as they will know the working of the company from the ground up as opposed to managerial talent that is brought in from outside the company.

2. Employees will feel more loyal towards the company as they will see that the company is also invested in promoting their career growth and progress.

3. Finally, the overall cost of developing management talent in-house as opposed to trying to recruit talent from the outside world will be much less. A good management development program may cost during the initial setting up phase, but will not cost much more after that. Individuals who have risen up from the management development program will be happy to volunteer their time and mentor other employees. In general, a good management development program will save a lot of money for any organization.

Management development is a process that begins paying for itself very rapidly. You will begin to see the creation of a core team of individuals who are committed to the growth and progress of your organization. In the long run, this can only mean increased efficiency and profitability as the management talent in your organization grows stronger and stronger.