Management Skills Training

For  in-depth instructor led Management Skills tuition, we offer a comprehensive Management training and Leadership training in Brighton, Sussex. We can also arrange bespoke  Staff Motivation training courses tailored to your requirements.

In difficult economic times it is really important to keep your teams motivated especially when budgets for giving bonuses and large staff parties are not as large as they used to be. So here are some simple and effective tips to keep your staff motivated…

1. Get to know your staff. Take the time to really understand what motivates and interests them, what concerns they may have and what ideas they have to make the department and company more effective. If people feel that their managers are really interested in them they will return the interest in the work they are doing and the company as a whole.
2. Praise your people. When your team members do good work, put the extra hours in, come up with a brilliant idea or help a colleague – make sure that you give them praise and a thank you. Praising your people will encourage them to do more of the same in the future.
3. Enhance your people’s creativity. Allow your team members to express their ideas and be sure to listen to them and explore those ideas with them – they could come up with the next best thing for your business. Also in brainstorming sessions use a variety of ways i.e. mind mapping/Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to stimulate creativity and use coloured pens, toys and music to enhance the creative atmosphere.
4. Empower your people. Your role as a manager/leader is to get things done through your people and you can do this by effectively empowering your team. Where appropriate involve them in the decision making process, communicate key company information with them and ask for their feedback. Coach them to do some areas of your job that they would find stimulating and motivating and this will give you more time to do strategic thinking and planning.
5. Be consistent with your management and leadership style. Ensure that you are consistent with your style, if you are empowering and motivating one day but secretive and moody the next your team will get confused, paranoid and you will lose their trust. Remember every single second you are with your team you are having an impact on them, so make sure it is a positive one.
6. Be motivated yourself. The more positive and motivated you are the more likely it is that your team will be as they will follow your example. Take time to understand what it is that motivates you personally and assertively communicate that to your manager. As a leader and manager it is vitally important that you take time for your own learning and development to learn new skills but also to take the time to reflect on what you need to do differently and how you are going to do it.  So see learning and development as vital part of your role and an investment.
7. Reward your staff. You may not have the budget for staff bonuses or large Xmas parties but you can still do small things to reward your staff when they have met targets, demonstrated excellent customer service etc. Chocolates, cakes and wine always go down well as a thank-you. Or you can be creative and look at other ways in which you can reward staff, for example, introduce flexi hours or write them a handwritten personal note of thanks and praise.  In some cases you could get the MD/Chairperson of the company to do this.
8. Have a social get-together. Organising the occasional social get together is a great way to boost morale and enable your team to get to know one another better.  You can organize a social committee that takes responsibility for organizing such events.
9. Celebrate your successes. It is important of celebrate and communicate your successes as a company. Have a success board that is visually appealing and accessible for all staff to see. You could also have a ‘company hour’ once a week in which all members of the company are invited to have some wine/nibbles or tea/cake and learn about what successes the company has had and what the current priorities are. This is an excellent way to communicate directly to your staff.
10. Put your people first. Your people are your greatest asset so make sure that every single member of your organization is made to feel valued, talk to them, listen to them, invest in their learning and always put them at the top of your agenda.

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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Management Skills Training on August 13th, 2010 | 6 Comments »

The Top iPhone Business Apps

When it comes to business users, there’s an Apple iPhone app for just about everything, including many great free apps. There are actually thousands of the things, so it’s no easy task picking the best. However, some clear favourites have emerged from our own research and survey of our Twitter followers.

Of course these apps are nothing if you lack to business skills to use them effectively! If you need Business Skills Training, Leadership and Management Training or Project Management Training in Brighton, Sussex, check out our many courses including PRINCE2 Practitioner training courses and Time Management training.

Tricky as it may be, we’ve had a go at picking the ten best iPhone apps for professionals. Best of all, some of them are free! There are so many that we’ve broken our list down into “best iPhone apps for project managers”, “best iPhone apps for networking” etc. Whether you fancy an app to find a restaurant, write a blog, work out a font or change a PowerPoint slide there’s an app for all! Read on for our best iPhone app lists…

Image: Self Portrait by  Heather Buckley (Director of Silicon Beach Training)

Read the rest of "Best iPhone Apps for Business"

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Posted by Natasha Stone in Management Skills Training, Social Media Training on March 31st, 2010 | 8 Comments »

Leadership Traits

Rather than having to actually sell, produce or deliver, a good Leader must enable and inspire other people do these things, and do them well. Our public Management Skills for New Managers Training and Leadership Training courses run regularly in Brighton.

Companies and organisations are constantly looking for new leaders, but how do you set yourself out from the pack and establish yourself as a candidate and potential leader? Here are some of the skills that you will need if you are looking for the answer to this question.

Be dependable.

Leaders are people who are able to handle responsibility, so a company or firm will be looking for people who they can rely on to get the job done and handed in on time.

Initiative.

If you encounter a problem or an opportunity that is easily solved or something that you can handle then try to do it yourself without having to bother your bosses, they don’t want to be told of problems they want the project to go smoothly, so if you can show that you have the ability to think on your feet and have the self belief to follow through with it you will instantly grow in their expectations.

Respect.

Your employer will want to see that you are not only respected by your superiors but that you are also respected by your peers. They will be looking for a person who others will be happy taking orders from, so if you are not respected or liked well enough this will severely dent your chances of becoming a leader in the near future.

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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Leadership Training, Management Skills Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »

This free management resource provides advice and tips useful for managers who are new to their position, and will also provide a useful recap for existing managers.

These free resources are designed to complement our range of Management and Leadership Training courses in Brighton, Sussex.

Introduction to Management Awareness

Managers who know themselves well and who are aware of their emotions are in a better position to understand and empathise when managing others.

So an important step to being an effective manager is self-awareness. This means, amongst other things, knowing:

• Your strengths
• Your areas for development
• Your positive and negative qualities
• Your prejudices
• Your feelings
• What effect you have on others

Emotional intelligence

Emotional Intelligence, or EI as it is known, can be helpful in this area of interpersonal understanding as it involves thinking about yourself and others.

EI is said to be categorised into five aspects:

1. SELF-AWARENESS

If you’re aware of yourself and what makes you tick, you’ll be a more effective communicator and a better manager. Once you understand yourself and are open to self-development, you are in a better position to lead and guide others.

2. MANAGING EMOTIONS

Do you always know how you feel? For many of us our feelings are unclear and hidden as we have been taught to suppress emotions. Reversing this isn’t easy, but research shows that unless we’re first aware of our emotions we can’t gain control of them. You can increase your awareness of feelings simply by spending time thinking about them. The more you practice, the more conscious you will become.

3. MOTIVATING YOURSELF

Once you’re more aware of your emotions you can put them to good use to motivate yourself and keep yourself motivated regardless of the situation. You no longer have to react in an automatic way to outside stimuli; you can choose.

4. EMPATHY

Without empathy it is difficult to gain people’s trust, create rapport, influence people and develop their abilities.

Empathy is having a sensitivity to the feelings and concerns of others and seeing things from their point of view, rather than selfishly seeing things from your own perspective.

5. HANDLING RELATIONSHIPS

Once you have empathy with someone and can recognise their feelings of stress, anger, sadness, rejection and so on, you can manage emotions in others. Handling relationships means having a degree of social competence and using social skills.

How can we use this to be more effective managers?

Having the basic building blocks of EI means it is possible to control your emotions, create and maintain successful relationships and motivate yourself and others to achieve goals, all key aspects of management!

How can I find out what effect I have on people?

Feedback should be a two-way process. Now is your chance to ask for some for yourself! This takes courage but is worth it.

The more specific the feedback the more valuable it will be – this applies equally to praise as to criticism. You can help people be specific with their feedback by being specific with your questions:

Choose two or three people you trust in your organisation. They may be your staff, peers or manager. Identify two aspects of your management style that you want to receive feedback on. Be specific about what you ask for.

1. Record what each of them says
2. Analyse your emotional reaction to what they said
3. Make notes on what you can do and are prepared to do to change your behaviour

You need to be sure that if they are critical, you don’t get defensive. You will have to handle your feelings about the interchange if some of the comments are negative!

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on April 3rd, 2007 | 1 Comment »

performance appraisals

Here is a definition of Performance Management:

“an integrated set of planning and review procedures which cascades down through the organisation to provide a link between each individual and the overall strategy of the organisation.”

Out of Performance Management has arisen the need for Performance Measurement.

Silicon Beach Training provide both Performance Appraisals training and Performance Management training courses in Brighton, Sussex. Private Appraisals and Performance Management courses can be arranged 01273 622272.

Why measure performance?

The main reasons for measuring performance can be summarised under three main headings:

ACCOUNTABILITY
CONTROL
DEVELOPMENT

An increasing emphasis on performance and on the achievement of results is leading to the adoption of performance management schemes by more and more organisations. These schemes may vary in their design and application but nearly all are based on the simple premise of reviewing an individual’s (or a team’s) performance against previously agreed targets. The traditional idea of an annual appraisal meeting where a form was completed and then forgotten until the next year is disappearing, as performance management is accepted as a key part of the manager’s responsibility in developing their staff.

Performance Appraisals

From the point of view of an organisation or a manager, performance appraisal provides an opportunity to assess the value of each individual’s performance over a period of time. It is a learning opportunity for both managers and the individual being appraised and to review:

• If performance was good (i.e. agreed objectives were met or exceeded), what made it good and how can these contributing factors be maintained?
• If performance was merely acceptable, what could the organisation, manager or individual do to improve in the coming appraisal period?
• If performance was below the agreed standard, what were the reasons?

The emphasis in well-designed performance management schemes is not to punish “below-par performance” but to help people to reach a better standard of performance in the future (or maintain an already high standard).

Schemes not designed and applied in this way rarely benefit individuals or the organisation. Performance cannot be appraised without the existence of an explicit standard. So the other major benefit to both organisations and their staff is that it forces discussion and agreement on an objective standard of performance which staff members are supposed to reach.

Conducting a Performance Management Meeting

10 Point Checklist

1. Set a clear agenda and objectives for the meeting and prepare thoroughly.
2. Use specific examples rather than generalities when describing performance, good or bad.
3. Listen!
4. Motivate – balance positive and negative feedback.
5. Focus on behaviour that can be changed rather than on more vague aspects of personality or attitude.
6. Discuss development needs and performance improvement.
7. Summarise to ensure clarity about what has been agreed.
8. Don’t avoid emotive issues if they important.
9. Set SMART objectives. SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound.
10. Be prepared to receive feedback on yourself as a manager.

For a practical and comprehensive look at this topic we have a 2 day Performance Management Course which can be customised around your own organisation’s performance management procedures and documentation. We can also arrange Appraisals Course to provide the interpersonal skills required to conduct performance reviews.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on April 15th, 2007 | No Comments »

Performance Appraisals can sometimes be an uncomfortable experience, for both managers and the employees and will often only help in further dividing the manager-employee relationship. Appraisals will often determine the next pay alteration, who is fired and who is promoted, the most common element of this sort of appraisal is often to underline what a person has done wrong.

However what people sometimes forget is that appraisals are there to try and help and improve a person’s performance. It is a method through which managers are able to gather important information from their staff which they then should use to try and better the performance, not only of that individual, but also of the whole project in general. Through focusing on the improvement and bettering of an individual, and not on punishing them for their faults, the emphasis of that appraisal, not to mention the experience of the employee, will no longer be a negative one.

With the correct approach, there should no longer be the division between employee and manager that there once was, now you should get the feeling that you are both working for the same team and that any criticism that you level at an employee is constructive and warranted.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on October 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

From every manager giving good clear feedback is vital. Although it can sometimes be seen as criticism when handled carefully it can improve results and strengthen working relationships. Many employees may not even be aware that they are not performing as expected or required. Constuctive feedback can help people see their blind spots and understand the impact of their behaviour, feedback can  enhance their career.
Unfortunately many managers put off giving feedback because it makes them uncomfortable, or they want to avoid confrontation. Feedback should be clear and precise and avoid hints, blame or humiliation. Managers need to know how to be assertive and ask for what they want from employees.

Once an employee knows or understands what their manager would like they may go away and think about it, change their behaviour and enhance their own career as a result. Everybody wins.

Assertiveness and confidence building training -  A good one day course for managers on assertiveness.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on September 24th, 2009 | No Comments »

Meetings can be dreaded by members of the team. If you are to lead a meeting there are many things you can do to manage them as efficiently as possible. This will save your employees and colleagues time, and the company’s resources.

Meetings are essential and ultimately, when managed well, very constructive. They can be the only time where all the creative individuals are together, new ideas can be created, plans can be made and they encourage cohesion and efficiency.

Creative people are usually very busy, if you waste their time they will get frustrated and have less time to do what they do best.

If you learn how to manage meetings effectively, not only will you be a great asset to your company you will gain respect from your employees and colleagues and earn the reputation of a person who can get things done.

Managing Meetings Effectively

• Don’t have a meeting for the sake of it, cancel a meeting rather than meet for the sake of it.  If you have already made your mind up about a course of action there is no point in discussing it.
• Only ask the relevant team members to the meeting.
• Do have a meeting to address large numbers of people quickly and effectively.
• Have meetings when you need input, or to encourage others to come on board and to encourage them or motivate them about an idea. If this is your intention, be prepared. How are you going to motivate them?
• Always have an agenda and stick to it
• Be clear about what you want from each item
• Summarise points with one sentence and move on swiftly
• Take control of or delegate the role of facilitation, if it is your meeting you should be leading
• It can help to indicate what you want from each member at the start of the meeting
• Make sure you invite the right people, if it doesn’t involve someone or you don’t need their input don’t ask them to attend.
• Ask yourself:
  • Who can provide the best advice?
  • Who has the most experience?
  • Who will support you?
  • Who will oppose you?
  • Who do you need to make it happen?
• Choose the venue to suit the meeting, for authority chooses a boardroom, for an informal meeting choose an office etc. If you want to encourage colleges or persuade them what about coffee and snacks or even a meal.

If you put the above into practise, meetings should no longer be a bore. They can be an efficient and effective way of getting things done, generating ideas, moving things forward, and saving time.

We provide a one day Effective Meetings course for those looking to improve the way they manage meetings.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on September 18th, 2007 | No Comments »