Archives for the Management category

Landing your first management role is an exciting and rewarding experience. You’ll have more responsibility, more power and more money. You’ll be given more freedom to act on your own decisions too.

It’s not all a bed of roses though. Management can be a tough and gruelling profession whatever the industry, and one which needs to be fully understood and prepared for in order to succeed.

Coming on our Management Skills for New Managers Course is a great idea and our Leadership Training will get you started on the path to success but I thought I’d reach out to a selection of managers and professionals from a variety of industries, asking them what they think is the biggest challenge they faced in the first few months/year in the job. Hopefully this will help those starting out in management understand the issues they may have to deal with.

First up we have someone who has only been in management for a day (or had when I spoke to her at least)!

Building Relationships and Understanding the Company

Laura Evans, Marketing Manager at Create.net

“Joining a new place is nerve-wracking but Create have been especially welcoming. Having a dedicated internal HR person has been useful here as it meant they were very supportive in checking I have everything I needed.

As a marketing manager it’s a challenge for me to have good connections with everyone I work with across the business, especially heads of customer service departments and the product manager, as well as those I work more directly with.

I bought donuts for everyone on my first day (which went down really well!) but I realise these relationships are something that need to be built up over time and will take long term attention to grow and maintain.

Read the rest of "Biggest Challenges Faced by New Managers"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Management, News on May 9th, 2013| No Comments »

In this Guest Post from Lewis Prescott of Skills Arena we find out why psychometric testing is so useful for hiring at Management Level.

If you are applying for a role in management, you will no doubt have to take a psychometric assessment. This will usually provide you greater detail into the key characteristics needed in the role.

These aspects may have been witnessed in your current role, however a personality profile will identify qualities for development and also your expert features in more specific facets.

By coming on our Management Training here at Silicon Beach, you’ll learn to develop the skills that psychometric tests can seek out one of which is charisma.

What Is Psychometric Testing?

Psychometric Assessment is a tool to determine the strengths of personality traits enabling the individual to communicate their preferred style and method of working.

Read the rest of "Using Psychometric Tests to Hire the Right Manager"

Posted by Guest Author in Management, News on March 15th, 2013| No Comments »

After what can only be described as one of the biggest shock results of the Premier League season this weekend – Southampton’s 3-1 defeat of Man. City – the City manager, Roberto Mancini, is not happy.

He has publicly stated that he’ll be ‘wielding the axe’ to most of the players who were responsible for the loss, and a decline in performances generally over the last few weeks.

Whilst prior to the Southampton game he may have planned to rest some senior players against lower league opposition Leeds for the FA Cup tie on Saturday, it is now expected that he will name an almost entirely fresh first eleven.

He has also hinted at continuing in this vein for the remainder of the season, stating : ‘I only want players who are ready for the fight in the last 12 games. I am very angry with a lot of my players and very disappointed at the performance’.

So is this the right approach for Mancini to be taking? It certainly isn’t the first time he’s taken an unusual stance on team issues but last season’s title would suggest that on the whole he has been correct to do so.

In this post I’m going to take a look at what we can learn about management from Roberto Mancini – starting with this latest exploit and covering another famous incident – to see whether the Italian’s bold and sometimes brash style is something that should be imitated.

We can’t teach you about playing with a false nine or whether zonal or man-to-man marking is most effective, but we can teach you the skills you need to succeed as a manager outside of the beautiful game on our Management Skills for New Managers training course.

To Axe or Not to Axe?

When facing circumstances like those Mancini is up against, a gut reaction can be to blame your team. When targets aren’t met, output is low or behaviour is poor it is the manager who will be picking up the pieces and so it is natural to feel let down by those below you.

Mancini’s latest response was to a prolonged spell of poor performances – he usually makes a habit of sticking by players who go through a rough patch. So is it now the right choice at the right time? Only future results will tell us but what is clear is that the decision is a brave one.

Read the rest of "Management The Mancini Way"

Posted by Jackson Rawlings in Management, News on February 12th, 2013| No Comments »

There’s been some buzz recently about an image released by Richard Branson showing his ‘office’.

I say office, it is in fact a shot of him and his colleagues generating ideas whilst enjoying the sun, sea and sand of his luxury, privately-owned paradise Necker Island (yes, before you think it, it is alright for some).

Want to learn expert management skills like those of Richard Branson? Try our Management Training Courses.

Known for his unconventional approach to business, Branson commented alongside the photo that “(he) never liked locking (himself) away in a separate office, or spending long periods alone to work out plans”.

Now it’s all well and good for Richard Branson, one of the most successful business magnates of a generation to say that. For regular managers of regular businesses to sit and sip margaritas on the beach while supposedly working would be seen as crazy/lazy/stupid/irresponsible/the quickest way to the exit, right? Read the rest of "Richard Branson’s Office: What You Can Learn"

Posted by Jackson Rawlings in Management, News on February 1st, 2013| 1 Comment »

This is the second post in our series ‘Management Lessons From Philosophy’. Last time, we talked about Plato’s School of Management.

This time around we’ll be examining what some of the other preeminent Greek philosophers can teach you. And yes, they can teach you something… honestly.

If you’d like to learn more about essential Management Skills, why not try our Management Skills for New Managers Course.

First up, the most famous of Plato’s students:

Aristotle – “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Quite self-explanatory really – doing something once doesn’t make you excellent, it takes repetition and commitment. Practice makes perfect as they say. It’s why your mum forced you to spend an hour a night practicing the piano – she really believed you could have been a virtuoso. You broke her heart when you gave it up… shame on you.

This may seem obvious to us but think about it for a while and you’ll realise how few people actually heed this advice.

A sense of entitlement often prevents people from working hard – ‘talent’* is often celebrated more than hard-work in our culture.

*I say talent – I mean ability to just about hold a tune, tell a really good sob story and spend every Saturday night telling millions of people how you’ve ‘been on such a journey’.

How This Applies to Management

You need to practice at your craft to become excellent at it. Don’t assume because you managed to bag the promotion you’ve done all you need to do (if you did, I’m impressed you got the promotion at all). Now is the time when the hard work really begins.

Spend time reading management blogs, attending classes and brushing up on your knowledge of the discipline (kudos for reading this), but most importantly – do your job and do it well! Read the rest of "Management Tips From The Ancient Greeks"

Posted by Jackson Rawlings in Management, News on January 18th, 2013| 1 Comment »

‘He was a wise man who invented (management)’!

It might not seem apparent at first, but Management and Philosophy go together like Kant and the Categorical Imperative.

Management, among other things, seeks to provide a structure to get the best from people, to understand business and make people (customers, staff, bosses) happy.

Philosophy, among other things, seeks to provide a structure to get the best from life, to understand the world and make people (society, individuals) happy.

So can managers learn anything from the great philosophers? Certainly.

If you’d like to learn how to be a great manager, why not try our Management Skills Courses?

This post will be part of a series called ‘Management Lessons From Philosophy’ we’ll start with the ideas of the ancient philosophers from Greece and work our way up to the modern thinkers, exploring everything that can be applied to management along the way.

This week we begin with the man who started it all: Plato.

“The Unexamined Life is not Worth Living”

The Godfather of everything philosophical, Plato is the man when it comes to wise one-liners that make you re-evaluate, well, everything!

With this quote he is arguing that to make the most of life, one really needs to inquire and seek knowledge, both about the world and oneself. Read the rest of "Plato’s School of Management"

Posted by Jackson Rawlings in Leadership, Management, News on January 8th, 2013| No Comments »

Here our trainer Graeme guides you through how to be more productive as a manager.

Make the Most of Your People

I am sure we have all seen those leadership and management quotes over the years: ‘His team would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity’ (anon) and other such pearls of wisdom.

However leadership and management have never been so important. In these tough times for businesses small and large the question is: how do you keep employees motivated and focused when uncertainty is high and pay rises are low?

You can learn all the skills you need to keep employees motivated, and much more, on our Management Training Courses.

Here at Silicon Beach we believe in the old maxim that people are your greatest asset and that it is our leaders and managers who can really make the difference to how employees feel and perform.

That’s why we concentrate on offering support to managers in the areas that we feel matter.  Experience tells us that employees value recognition, feedback and a sense that they have a role to play in the organisation. It also tells us that these are the areas that can be challenging to managers.

So whether it’s having difficult conversations, giving feedback or adopting a coaching culture our approach is designed give practical tips & techniques in these areas. Read the rest of "Management: Be More Productive"

Posted by Graeme in Leadership, Management, News on December 20th, 2012| No Comments »

You did it! You got that promotion or new job that means you’ll be leading a team. It’s an achievement in itself, but here’s where the really hard-work begins!

If you’re new to management, taking charge (and responsibility) of a group of people can be a daunting task, but fear not; help is on hand. We’ve compiled this handy guide to give you some ideas as to how to go about approaching your new role. Of course, you can always try our Management Skills for New Managers Training which teaches you everything you need to become a confident and successful manager.

If you’re managing your own start-up rather than changing roles within employment, try our 8 Management Tips for Start-ups blog post.

1/ Prepare

We all know the classic adage “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” but in this circumstance it most certainly holds true. As you are a new manager, it’s unlikely that you’ve done much research into it before now. Well, now is the time!

You’ve made a good start by reading this post, but there are literally hundreds of resources available to you on the subject (that go into much more detail on specific areas within management) so make use of them. In terms of research prior to starting the job, this is what you should be looking at:

• Management definitions – know exactly how your new job will differ to your old one in terms of roles and responsibility.
• Management styles – be aware of the different management styles that can be adopted and begin thinking about the style most suited to you.
• Techniques – everything from how to go about hiring and firing to how to talk to staff, it will all help in the long-run. Read the rest of "Managing your First Team"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Leadership, Management, News on December 14th, 2012| No Comments »