Should Management Skill Training Be Ditched in Today's Climate?

Management Skill Training Today

It seems there’s been some controversy over government funding to support management and leadership skills training recently which I find interesting.

As MD of a business and someone absolutely excited and committed to building businesses where being profitable, highly successful and great places to work co-exist, I find the whole debate fascinating! One post I read recently talked of the outcry in some media that job centres were spending good money on training staff, rather than on channeling that money into finding work for the unemployed which is, of course, their prime objective.

My view?

Well, as with most media stories, there is an element of hype in order to maximise their own profits; but even when you strip away the hype, there is still a risk, (and, I believe, a dangerous one at that) that we become polarised towards abandoning all but the compulsory development of our people (health and safety, practical skills and so on) and drop the so called “soft-skills” training.

Run a quick search on “you tube” for “bad bosses” or “bully bosses” and you’ll be overwhelmed with the sheer volume of video postings, and sometimes shocked at the level of frustration and intense dislike poor people managers can evoke! And whilst ever these employees feel the way they do, their energy, their focus and their performance at work will almost certainly reduce your chances as a business or a manager of hitting or exceeding your targets.

If such frustration and negative energy was going on in my business I’d be concerned.

Ask most managers today what they’re struggling most with – and they’ll tell you it’s trying to motivate people, managing organizational change in the midst of making some redundant, cutting back hours or bonuses, and piling on pressure to hit increasingly overwhelming targets. I bet those managers at the job centre are struggling to keep themselves motivated, never mind their staff, in the face of overwhelming pressures.

Outstanding managers know how to minimise problems, keep people “on-side” and still maintain higher than average levels of staff engagement and commitment – and throwing out all opportunities for them to hone such critical influencing skills only serves to add to their frustration as well as their staff’s.

Management Skill Training: What To Do When Money is Tight?

This isn’t about spending recklessly – or what you don’t have. what it IS about, is, in my view two things:

1. Get better at assessing the return on your management skills training investment.

   Let’s face it, how “woolly” are we sometimes in terms of assessing the value of most training interventions? Filling in a “happy sheet” shouldn’t cut it at any time – but in this economic climate it’s crazy not to assess your return on investment.
   Just because you may not be sure how to, doesn’t mean it’s not possible, or it shouldn’t be done. Get sharper at this.
   Ask your managers what they find the most challenging; initiate training to meet their needs, then assess!
   Get staff more used to agreeing specific action plans from training they’ve attended and more used to being able to demonstrate how they’ve applied the learning and with what results.In my experience, this is sadly lacking in too many organisations.

Management Skill Training of ANY description is a complete waste of money and time if behaviours or attitudes don’t change, and if you don’t measure its effectiveness.
I wonder if the job centres built any real accountability into the training programme their managers attended?

2. Look for funding support.

   There’s a number of ways to access training support from a variety of sources, if you look around. Ask your local Business Link or Chamber; find out more about Train to Gain. Get creative about how you use resources – both external and internal.
   Instead of coming from the mindset which says “we have no money for training managers”, which is a “dead end” statement, ask yourself:
   How can we continue to support and develop our manager’s people skills, despite the recession and a lack of budget?

As MD of my own company, I know I must stay profitable or I go under – but I also know I can’t run my business on my own – and without the support, engagement, creativity and loyalty of my staff I’ll face problems which will will only add to the risk of business failure.

Related posts:

1. Management Skill Training – Can You Not Afford To?
2. Management Training Resources: Are You Cut Out To Be A Manager?
3. Why Managers with Great Soft Skills are Essential in Hard Times
4. Are We Undervaluing Essential Management Skills?
5. Management Skills Blog Now Live!