June 2015 was a really diverse and interesting month; I completed projects ranging from writing & developing a global Service Advisor programme, management & leadership training, in-dealership coaching through to formal sales training for teams. The topic I’m focussing on for today’s blog is management & leadership.
I conducted several courses in June on this subject and the delegates were really diverse in terms of their individual backgrounds and levels of experience; however, one thing bound them all together in terms of a common theme. I asked all of them a simple question: ‘How many of you had a conversation with your line manager prior to this course to discuss your learning goals and how these goals can be translated into the workplace when you return?’ The answer was none.
So, in summary, every manager who lost a member of their team for 2 or 3 days during the week to attend the training had no idea what the outputs of the learning looked like. Making the assumption that most managers understand that the definition of a manager is to ‘achieve organisational objectives with and through the efforts of other people’, that is astonishing. Put simply, those managers are being paid to deliver results in their business area without having any real idea about how the skills and knowledge of their team members are being developed.
Part of the course content looks at what makes a great leader. We explored lots of areas including integrity, inspiring trust, clear communication of corporate strategy etc. The topic area that really interested me was the one relating to consistency. Many businesses make bold proclamations about how much they value their people above everything else and that their staff are their greatest asset whilst at the same time referring to them as an ‘expense’ or a ‘cost centre’. Well, they can’t be both!
If you are a manager and leader of people and you’ve read up to this point then promise me one thing: that you will take a genuine and proactive interest in the learning and development of your team from this point onwards because this will unlock the acceleration of the business performance which you will ultimately be rewarded for.
As a final point, I’ll also reveal another facet of what makes a great leader – they are instrumental in unleashing the talent within their teams and that can’t be done unless they take joint ownership of their people’s personal development.