Improve the People-Management Skills of your Managers and Supervisors

When Individual Producers Are Promoted into Management Positions The skills of an excellent individual producer don't automatically transfer into effective management. What often happens is that these new supervisors become micro-managers, or else they get so involved in their own work that they fail to develop the skills of the people on their teams. Learning a New Skill Set Individual producers know how to get the job done. But getting it done through others, as a manager, is an entirely different challenge altogether. It takes a new skill set to motivate employees, transform negative attitudes, resolve conflicts, challenge and change behaviors, and build a highly-motivated, highly-productive team. How will your new managers and supervisors learn this new skill set? Have your seasoned managers really learned it? Accomplishing Goals through People Strong individual producers are self-motivated and know how to accomplish goals. But the transition to accomplishing goals through people is a major shift in perspective. Your managers need management training and coaching to help them through this transition. Making The Transition Our management training seminars and management coaching programs will provide your managers with the skills they need to make this transition: from great individual producers to truly great managers.

Every member of your work force reports to a manager or supervisor. If you could improve the people-management skills of your leadership team, what would it mean in terms of productivity, teamwork, motivation, morale, communication and employee engagement? Managers and supervisors develop behavioral habits over the years, and some of those habits need to change. We can design a management training seminar for your management team that will improve their behavioral habits and people skills - and the results will go straight to your bottom line.

Great Managers... and Not-So-Great Managers

Over the course of our careers, we have all had the experience of working for great managers and not-so-great managers alike. The great ones held people accountable for their performance but treated people with respect. They dealt with behavioral and performance problems directly and fairly, and they called people up to higher levels of productivity and professionalism. The great managers built great teams that people were proud to be a part of. And they developed people who were promoted to higher and more influential positions within the organization.

Then there were the not-so-great managers. They were smart and very capable - but they often took credit for the work of their people. Some of them were too harsh and caused employees to seethe with resentment. Others were too lax and didn't hold people to consistent standards. Some were tyrants, and others were manipulated because they wanted to be everyone's friend. Some were micro-managers, and others were so busy with their own work that they weren't available to coach their team members.

What does it take to become a great manager? The right people-management skills and behaviors. You already have great people in place. They just need to develop the skills and behaviors of great managers.

Schedule a Management Training Seminar: Make Every Manager a Great Manager

Our management training seminars and management coaching programs will equip your managers with the skills and behaviors they need but haven't yet developed. Every day, they are reinforcing current skills and behaviors. Give them the opportunity to learn and practice the skills and behaviors that will build high-performance teams while improving morale and increasing employee loyalty.

Great Managers Resolve Conflict

In our management training seminars we teach managers and supervisors how to effectively resolve conflict. We also teach them how to coach their team members in those same skills. Wherever people work together, conflict will arise. Conflict itself is not a problem - but it can become a huge problem if conflict is avoided. We provide managers with effective tools and techniques for confronting issues without being confrontational. Effective conflict managers don't attack, react or put people on the defensive. They ask questions, arrive at solutions and negotiate behavioral changes with positive outcomes.

Your managers and supervisors will learn the techniques and master the tools of conflict management through practice. During our management training seminars, we conduct role-play sessions and include tools like conflict-resolution cue-cards and "difficult conversation" planning sheets to prepare managers for the real thing in their day-to-day roles. Moreover, our coaching programs provide ongoing telephone coaching support for key managers, to give them a resource for effectively handling conflicts, and to guide their continued practice of using the tools and techniques we've provided.

Great managers are great because of their skills and behaviors. Conflict management is one of the most crucial areas where a manager's skills and daily behavior make the defining difference between "great" and "not-so-great."

Great Managers Are Also Great Leaders - And They Build Trust & Respect

There is a difference between management and Leadership. Not all managers are great leaders, and not all great leaders are managers. Great leaders exhibit the kinds of leadership skills and behaviors that cause people to follow them - not because they have to, but because of their personal power.

In our management training seminars we teach your managers and supervisors how to develop their personal power through leadership skills and behaviors. The not-so-great managers often break down trust and lose the respect of their people. The great managers (who are also great leaders) foster trust and respect through everything they do.

For more information about the leadership training we include in our management training seminars, please visit our Leadership Development Workshops website at www.LeadershipDevelopmentWorkshops.com.

Great Managers Build Accountability & Ownership

Some managers use their authority to get compliance from their employees. If employees do what they are told to do, that's good - at least in the short term - but if they don't develop their own sense of accountability and ownership, they will never develop into high-performing team members.

Effective managers help employees to think for themselves, and to become problem-solvers rather than complainers or compliant drones. Employees who really care tend to take more ownership of their job and of the team's overall mission. Employees who are driven toward compliance, on the other hand, only tend to become apathetic. They learn to be motivated by avoiding punishment; and when the boss is not around, they are less compliant as a result.

We train managers in how to build a deep sense of ownership and accountability in their employees. Great managers do more asking than telling. When problems occur, they ask the hard questions that make employees take an honest look at what could have been done and what they could do in the future. Great managers get employees to think and act differently because they build new structures into their thinking. The employees of great managers care about the quality of their work, and do it well even when their manager isn't around. Our management training seminars provide your managers and supervisors with new tools and behaviors for building accountability and ownership.

Great Managers Are Effective Coaches

The best managers have great coaching skills, and the performance of their teams are a testimony to those skills. In professional sports, a great coach makes the difference between a mediocre team and a winning team. The same is true in business. But how many managers have truly great coaching skills?

Our management training seminars provide tools and techniques to build effective coaching skills into the daily behavior of your managers and supervisors. Effective coaches build structure and discipline into the habits of their employees. They coach their people on process improvement and work habits. They coach employees on attitude and performance. They lead employees to change self-limiting beliefs and to accomplish things they never thought they could do. Effective coaches address problem behaviors and get employees to grow up and act right. Effective coaches turn weak players into superstars.

Some managers are too busy to coach. Others may never have developed any coaching skills because they don't really understand what it means to be a coach. Our management training seminars will transform your managers and supervisors into coaches; and with practice, they will become great coaches. If you're really serious about coaching, follow up the management training seminar with a management coaching program, which will provide telephone coaching to your managers. With our telephone coaching support, every manager can become a great coach. Visit the coaching page of this website for more information about our management coaching programs.

Great Managers Attract and Retain Good Employees

Everyone wants to work for a great manager, and most employees try to escape from the not-so-good managers. Some managers seem to have a revolving door when it comes to employee retention. They hire an employee and within months are complaining about that employee's attitude and performance. How many new hires does it take to get one to stick? If you do exit interviews with the employees who leave, you will no doubt get an ear-full about the manager's behaviors and people-management skills.

Nobody wants to escape from the great managers. Employees love working for them, and will choose to stay even when recruiters offer jobs with higher salaries. Great managers develop a high degree of employee loyalty. And loyal employees recruit their friends and business acquaintances, reducing the costs of hiring. Our management training seminars teach the skills and behaviors that every manager needs to attract and retain good (and great) employees.

Great Managers Develop Your Future Leaders

Not-so-great managers have a tendency to hold on to all their best people. But the great managers develop future leaders who go on to manage other departments within your organization. Great managers often have the pleasure of seeing the people they have hired become their peers, and sometimes even surpass them, in their career development.

Our management training seminars are all about developing people. You pay dearly for the human resources on your payroll. We teach your managers how to make the right investment in their people, to develop them into the future leaders who will form the backbone of your organization down the road.

Transform All Your Managers into Great Managers

Effective management training is transformational. Don't you think it's time to begin that transformation progress? Contact us for a free telephone consultation. We will discuss your current situation, the skill levels of your managers, and the outcomes you would like to achieve through management training and coaching. You can start with something as small as a half-day seminar, and when you see the results, we can grow it into an ongoing management development program.

Give your management team the tools, training and coaching they need to become a great management team. Let's start the transformation today. Contact us to find out how.