Its thats time of year, where some of us have been through our companies Performance management review process and are planning the learning needs for the year ahead.
On area that my company is erally struggling with is getting the team managers to think about their own development and how their advisors will be motivated and become more responisble if they see their managers progressing and gaining more experience.
Does anyone have any ideas for a group activity for them to complete?
There will be roughly 5 - 7 managers in each session and I am open to out of box ideas!
If I can get them thinking, then the sessions with advisors on their personal development will be so much easier.
Helen Taylor
6 Responses
It’s difficult but…..
You could ask them how they expect to have followers if they are not prepared to be leaders.
Ask them to write a list of all the positive attributes their team should expect to see in them and then list whether they see it in themselves. It’s an honesty call but you never know!
Pre-course Work
You could try asking them to list three problems that they have faced in the last year at work – that they struggled to deal with or that they failed to deal with properly and that caused them issues either personally or professionally with their teams.
Ask them to bring one page briefs on each of the problems to the session and ask them to keep them anonymous (not mentioning their own name or any of their team’s names).
Collect them all in at the start of the session, shuffle them and then pull one from the pile and work on it with them.
What kind of training, development, coaching etc. could have helped with the situation? What support could the business have provided? Who else has faced similar issues etc?
This should begin to draw out an appreciation of the fact that everyone needs a level of development and that this can be supported by themselves, and the company without embarassment or fear.
It should also give them something to base their discussions with their advisors on at a later date…
thanks
thanks for your help guys, will try both of these out !
Try this book!
Hi Helen
I can definitely recommend’A Managers Guide to Self Development’ by Pedler, Burgoyne & Boydell(on Amazon) -its very reflective & can be used by managers themselves or as part of a development session/discussion.Has lots of activities & ideas. I always use it when I’m talking with managers about where they want to go from here…
Career coaching
Hi Helen,
We’ve been doing some career coaching in a major multinational and we’ve found that once the managers know where they want to go with their careers then their development needs , plans and commitment fall out of the process. If you need more details then email me seperately. Rob
Managers Own Development
Hi Helen, to add to the other comments, to create a long lasting change, the senior people in the organisation must be committed to this too. In other words, unless the Team Managers’ Line Managers are seen to be developing themselves and creating opportunities for the Team Managers this culture will be difficult to change.
Detterman and Sternberg’s about transfer of learning from the nineties can be really useful in creating some momentum in this area.
Happy to chat more.
Warmest regards,
Richard