This is hot off the press!

We’re pleased to announce that our 2010 Open Course schedule has been completed!

We’re running courses at Heathrow, Manchester and at our head office in Coventry.

This year we are also putting on an Advanced Management Skills course too which is the natural progression from our Essential Management Skills Course.

Please click on the links above to get a list of our dates and current availability.

Here’s to a successful 2010!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Managing Director, MTD Training

Dear All,

I came across a useful white paper that compares a range of current team models.

I thought you’d like a copy.

Please click on the link below:

Lominger White Paper

I hope you find it useful?

All the best

Sean

Sean McPheat

MTD Training – The Management Training Specialists

That’s just the way it is!

Some people seem to take to leadership and managing others like a duck takes to water. Others need to be guided and told what to do.

Now if you get a “follower” in a “leaders” position then this can cause problems!

All too often I see members of staff doing a great job and then they get promoted on the back of their performance.

Note, they get promoted based upon how THEY do the job.

Not their management potential.

Not whether they will be an insiprational leader.

Not whether they will be able to drive the business forward.

No.

The decision is made on their ability to do their current job. Either they are the best at what they do or they have a high profile in the company.

And this is a bad mistake!

Just because someone can sell or manage better than others does not mean that they can lead and motivate others to do so.

It’s a different skill altogether!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat

The leading authority on management development & management training

I thought we’d end the week with a little exercise – perhaps one of the most thought provoking yet.

Imagine that you work for a company that, for whatever reason, had a workforce that consisted primarily of white males. Throughout the years you have managed to change the face of the workforce and the company now has a significant number of female, African American, Asian, and Hispanic workers.

Your organisation is experiencing severe financial difficulties and you will need to lay off about 1/3 of your 1,000 member workforce. If your plan works you will be able to hire them all back in approximately 6-9 months.

What will you do in order to:

• Choose which employees to lay off while not changing the diversity you’ve worked to hard to create?
• Communicate the decision to lay off a significant number of employees to the rest of the team? and
• Make sure your team understands the change is temporary in nature?

It’s a tall order, for sure. How will you handle the decision making process?

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

As you grow as a manager you’ll quickly discover that there are not only different levels of management but different levels of authority as well. Several individuals on the same level of management (middle management, for example) may have similar job duties but one may have a higher level of authority than the others.

The three main authority types are as follows:

• Line authority
• Staff authority
• Functional authority

Individuals with line authority are managers who have the ability to supervise employees or, in some cases, other managers. They give direct orders, evaluation performances, reprimand mistakes, and reward positive behaviours.

Those with staff authority are seen as advisors. They don’t necessarily have direct control over their subordinates but will help the managers beneath them to make decisions. They can and do have authority over their subordinates and can exercise that authority if the need arises. For the most part he will simply offer advice or assistance as it is needed in between taking care of his own day to day tasks.

Functional authority is often exercised by managers with staff authority as well. Functional authority gives individuals the ability to make decisions regarding the way a department will be run. They can create, manipulate, or change procedures in order to complete a project. Functional authority applies to the department the manager works in and no other. The marketing manager, for example, can not tell the accounting department that they must change their procedures.

What type of authority do you currently have in your own management position? Are you exercising your authority or are you depending on others because you are unsure of your own position?

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”