It’s all too easy to forget the importance of management training; we forget when things are going well – the, “if it’s not broke don’t fix it”, syndrome; or regard it as a luxury item when times are hard – “We don’t have money to waste on the soft skills training right now”. Makes me wonder how it ever gets done, but then again, in a lot of cases, it doesn’t!
How important is it to ensure managers are fully trained and prepared? – Vital. You only have to read the recent news to appreciate what we expect managers to manage today. If you are a retail manager you’ll be expected to motivate your staff to deliver higher sales to compensate for the damage caused by poor sales over the Christmas period, if you work in the highways department you might be trying to manage the task of fixing all the pot-holes brought about by recent cold temperatures, and if work for a local authority you might still be trying to manage the disposal of mountains of rubbish following the recent industrial action.
Management training is not a luxury item it is the key ingredient of every successful public and private sector business.
By John Freshney| Righttrack’s Operations Manager