If the issue is that a department head wants his managers to be able to develop their teams, to give them the skills to successfully create teams instead of specialists working by themselves, to empower the members of their teams to think and make decisions independetly, what training program would you recommend if you had a tight budget? Part of the issue is that these managers and their supervisors don't have the necessary skills to coach their people. Is there anything you can hope to achieve in a couple days? Would I be better off putting them on a course learning coaching skills, supervisory skills, or communication skills, etc. or wait until we have more money to put them on a proper management development course? Any input appreciated.
Thomas Vinkler
3 Responses
go for the coaching option
Hello Thomas
I’d go for the coaching option as potentially best value for money, where your people learn “on the job” and are followed up (with continued coaching themselves) over a period of time by the coach trainer. I think the development of management skills in a two day course is pretty unlikely, particularly if your group haven’t had much development before, which I think your email implies. It’s a bit difficult to go into more detail, because you don’t give much information and I can’t see anything except the first line of your posting while I write this!
And as many people on this site can, I can recommend someone as a coach trainer who’s worked at middle management level as well as very senior level and has achieved great stuff.
Option
Hi Thomas
I design ready to deliver training modules in people and team development that are low cost and allow you to receive the material and deliver it yourself at a fraction of the cost of other routes. Have a look at http://www.supremacytraining.com or contact me on info@supremacytraining.com
Rich
Is team development the answer?
Hi Thomas.
I’d be wary of assuming that traditional team development is the answer here, having worked with a number of specialist groups which have come to the realisation that they are just that – groups – rather than being artificially and unwillingly herded into teams. There’s a huge difference between a group and a team.
Devote a day to frank discussion about group purpose, goals, structure and behaviours. You won’t solve the problems at once, but you’ll generate the initiative which can be followed by coaching, as Karen suggests.
John Driscoll, Head of Coaching, Dove Nest Group