Building a development plan, whether for your personal use or to outline a training program, is no simple task. A considerable amount of thought must go into each aspect of the plan, but where most managers, trainers, and individuals go wrong is in believing that their development plans have to be perfect on the first try. This just isn’t so.

It’s important to remember that your development plan is a guide to help you jump start your personal growth, training seminar, or project. There’s no way to predict changes, roadblocks, or setbacks and there’s no reason to feel bad about abandoning parts of the plan if necessary later on down the line.

Another mistake people make when outlining their personal development plans is in choosing too many goals. It’s perfect acceptable to have a lengthy list of goals, but it’s impossible to focus on all of them at the same time. Choose two favorites (no more than four) and focus on them until you’ve achieved your goals; then move on to the next one on your list.

Finally, make sure the goals you’ve chosen are things you really care about and want to achieve. So many people get caught up in the “development plan” cycle and end up “borrowing” ideas from other sources. In the end, they certainly make progress but it doesn’t really mean anything – they’re simply crossing items off of their “to-do” lists instead of completing tasks that have personal meaning.  It’s OK to browse sample development plans or ask your mentors, supervisors, and peers for suggestions, but in the end you need to make sure the goals you include are personalized and mean something to you.

These reminders apply more to your personal develpment plan than anything else, but knowing what your goals are as a manager or trainer are just as important as your plans for your classes. In the near future we’ll talk a bit about how to tailor effective development plans for your employees and training sessions. Until then, take a look at your personal agendas and let me know what you think! Are you on track or do you need your goals a bit more?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

No matter what type of business you’re in, one fact remains true. You have customers and those customers expect to receive products or services from you in a timely and professional manner. So how do you ensure this happens? You put systems in place that allow you to monitor whether or not your employees or workgroups are properly managing service delivery.

Managing service delivery involves a number of different factors. Good service begins from day one, when your employees begin their training process, and continues daily as they learn to interact with their clients, customers, and even other internal workgroups. Good customer service involves not only making a client happy by promising results, but delivering on those promises as well. If you tell a client you’ll return a phone call in 2 hours, then 2 1/2 or 3 hours is not acceptable. Someone expecting a shipment to be delivered on Thursday may not be thrilled if it doesn’t show up until Saturday.

The process of managing service delivery involves creating workflows in which the products and services you are promising your clients are delivered – on time and as expected. This high level of service should occur both after the initial sale and throughout the remainder of your relationship with the client.

The better your service delivery models, the higher your clients will perceive the value of your products and services to be. Make sure your employees are familiar with proper customer care methods. If you can provide an excellent level of customer service your clients will remain loyal to your organisation for as long as you can provide the services they need!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

Here’s a little something to get you started this morning. We’ve talked about the different types of skills a manager should have, including conceptual (thinking in an abstract manner) and diagnostic (being able to respond to a situation). Apply these skills to the following situation:

Joe has been an employee for over 10 years. When you hired him he was enthusiastic about his work and jumped on any task you assigned him. He’d work overtime whenever necessary and always received excellent performance reviews.

Over the past 3-6 months Joe has changed. He complains when given extra assignments, refuses to work past regular office hours, and is generally always in a bad mood. He makes more mistakes than he used to, and his coworkers have complained about his attitude.

Think about the situation and decide:

• Assume you’ve done a little digging. Why might Joe’s attitude have suddenly changed? Did he suffer a personal loss? Did he miss out on a promotion at work? Maybe he even had a conflict with another employee that you are unaware of.
• Is there anything you can do to change Joe’s new perception of his job? Should you take action?
• How has stress impacted Joe’s behaviour? Is this something you can resolve by altering his workload, or is it something he needs to change on his own?

What do you think? How would you handle the situation? Sound off!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

The delegation of authority is a difficult skill for most new managers. The first time I found myself preparing to delegate a task I had an overwhelming sense of worry. After all, up until that point I had taken responsibility for every single project I’d ever worked on. What if my team didn’t live up to my expectations?

As a manager, this is exactly the sort of thought process you need to break away from. As we’ve discussed before, you’ve chosen the members of your team for a reason – they’re all skilled enough to get the job done!

Now you simply have to learn HOW to delegate a task. There are three main components to consider:

1. Assigning the task;
2. Granting your employee the authority to complete the task; and
3. Creating accountability.

Assigning the task is all well and good, but if your employee doesn’t have the authority to access certain files or perform certain functions than you may as well have done the project yourself. When you make the assignment you must tell your employee exactly what he has the authority to do, especially if that means granting authority he doens’t necessarily have.

You also need to make sure your employee is accountable for the project once it’s been assigned. Make it clear that the task is not optional – it must be completed within a reasonable amount of time.

The three parts of the delegation process don’t happen automatically just because you decide to delegate a task. You must clearly communicate your ideas, visions, and goals to the employees you’re working with. Make sure you touch all of the bases and you’ll have a properly completed project exactly when you expect to receive it!

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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

As we move forward with our study of different management styles I thought it would be a good idea to briefly discuss the management cycle. The management cycle is akin to the backbone of an organisation. Managers make plans, monitor the results, explain the outclime, and then make changes to the plan as appropriate. Rinse. Repeat.

Every manager participates in this cycle on some level, whether he’s a part of middle management or upper management. Each person may have a different expectation regarding the outcome of a process, depending on the level of management he is at. Lower management and middle management members may each be designing processes to complete a specific part of the overall task. Upper management may only see the overall project and what they perceive to be the final outcome.

Everyone has the same goal, though – to see hundreds or thousands of pieces of information distributed in a manner that allows employees to effectively complete their jobs. Your CEOs are relying on the trickle down effect – where middle management takes information, pulls it apart, and divides it accordingly.

In short, those involved in the management cycle are responsible for creating systems in which information is properly coordinated. The end result will be a properly linked and executed strategy, no matter what the project entails. Failure to have a strong plan for sharing information will only result in disaster when something as simple as a lost piece of information stops an entire project.

What methods do you have for streamlining the dissemination of information within your organisation? Can you identify your own role in the managment cycle? Are these things covered in your management training courses?

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

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