Five Ways that Investing in your Managers can help your Organisation
During day-to-day telephone conversations with clients and prospects, members of the Customer Relationship Team at ILM-Approved Training Centre, Impellus, are often asked: ‘Which business challenges can be addressed by management training?’
The short answer is that it can help to address many challenges faced by organisations today.
In this blog, we have highlighted five key behaviourial changes you are likely to see in your managers as a result of leadership training that will positively impact your organisation:
1.      Increased Confidence and Ownership
A high percentage of managers in organisations across all sectors and industries have been promoted into their role as a result of their qualifications, expertise, experience, hard work and/or length of service. They are now managing people, but have received no formal leadership training and may lack the soft skills and confidence to do this effectively. Very often they are also managing colleagues who were previously their peers.
Following training managers will have increased awareness of their skills and abilities resulting in heightened self-confidence. They have a greater understanding of how their roles affect the overall results of the organisation.
This new-found confidence and self-belief regularly translates into an eagerness to take ownership for their and their team’s responsibilities and a greater desire to motivate and lead their people.
2.      Smarter Time Management and Delegation
Probably the most common complaint heard by the Impellus Training Team when delivering courses is that managers ‘don’t have enough time’/’they are too busy to perform effectively and manage their workloads’.
During leadership training managers will be reminded of the importance of empowering their people through delegation. They will see how to work ‘smarter’ and to create a working environment of effective productivity. Your managers will also return to the workplace believing in the significance of growing and developing their employees via delegation.
3.      Alignment with Company Vision and improved Team Buy-in
With the constant challenge of getting the job done and meeting deadlines, it is all too easy to lose sight of the organisation’s vision, mission and values that everyone should be working towards.
After training, your managers will be bought into the need to create a vision for their team that aligns with that of the organisation and which sets out a path and purpose for them all to consistently improve and evolve.
At the same time, managers will see the value of sharing their passion and belief in this vision to engender buy-in and commitment from their people. By tapping into their team’s enthusiasm, creativity and drive, it will help to remove stagnation and laziness as everyone will be working towards the same goals.
4.      Enhanced Communication Skills
Poor communication in the workplace is rarely A problem, it is usually THE problem. Managers experiencing leadership training often find it quite a revelation to learn how they may be perceived by others.
Becoming acquainted with different communication styles empowers managers to adapt their interactions to different situations and people paving the way to develop and maintain positive working relationships.
On the occasions when conflict occurs in the workplace, they also possess they skills and confidence to overcome it effectively.
5.      The Ability to see the Bigger Picture
Delegates attending Impellus’ open training courses regularly comment on the value of having time away from their busy work environment to have the space to reflect.
They also enjoy the opportunity to meet delegates from different industries and sectors and to discuss, what they come to realise, are common everyday challenges and to explore solutions. The realisation that these issues are not unique to their business often takes the heat out of the difficulties they are immediately facing.
The sharing of challenges also helps your managers to broaden their horizons and see the bigger picture – they become aware of business trends and tactics that they have been missing out on.
In addition to these five specific benefits enjoyed by managers who experience leadership training, client organisations, who have invested in their people, report the following long-term organisational advantages:
- Increased team engagement and motivation
- A decrease in absenteeism
- An uplift in employee retention with a resultant reduction in recruitment
- Improved efficiency and working practices.
For more examples of assessing return on investment in management training, read our blog on this topic.
