Management Training – Is It Worth the Investment?

What are your plans for management training in 2011? Are you struggling to support your managers, with drastically reduced training budgets? It’s often the case when business is tough, money tight and competition fierce, that management training is often seen as a “nice to have” which doesn’t really impact your bottom line and can therefore wait until things ease a bit financially.

Trouble is, as a manager you’re likely to find increased challenges when you’re asking your people to work harder, change their working conditions and reduce the resources they have available.

And people problems need skilled, confident, inspiring managers – more than ever before! Having worked now with thousands of managers over the years, and still a practising manager myself, I see time and time again, managers struggling

- with “difficult” staff;

- with apathetic staff;

- with underperforming staff;

- with appraising staff,

- with recruiting the right staff;

- with how best to develop their staff and even with unsupportive line managers of their own!

I could go on! These are the challenges we expect our managers to deal with every day – and they are even tougher when business is facing tough choices.

The trouble is, many managers were promoted because they were good at the job they did before – not necessarily because they had the excellent people skills they’re going to need to deal with some of those daunting challenges.

Ruth Spellman, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute says this about training:

“If you think it’s expensive to have really competent people, try incompetent.”

After all – how much does it cost you in wasted time dealing with conflict? How much does it cost you in time and money dealing with disciplinary or grievance procedures? How much does it cost you to find, hire and re-train new staff because valuable, experienced staff are leaving? And how much is low morale and apathy costing you every day in terms of productivity?

Study after study shows a huge proportion of employees leave bosses, not companies.

What’s heartening for me is that in my experience, as with all employees, managers want to do a good job. But with the exception of a very few, naturally talented and skilled communicators most managers come to the role with little or no understanding of basic human psychology and how to successfully and consistently apply techniques which will ensure they get the best out of themselves and others.

So as we begin 2011, rather than simply take the simplest, and least creative route of putting all management development “on hold”, why not take the time to ask a more creative question:

“How can we still support management training on a lower budget?”

You may not be able to justify the “bells and whistles” programme you had planned – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways you can still give some support.

After all – you might actually find it more than repays your investment!

Shona Garner specializes in helping busy managers improve communication and productivity in the workplace. Whilst there will always be a need for in person training, Shona accepts that sometimes, lack of money, or time, (or both!) means managers just need some resources or support quickly, easily, and at low cost. Visit her website for much more information and access low cost management training and resources