John Linton
........which seems strange as so many people are management experts and management consultants etc.
In the years before I ran my own business I had many managers, when I try and count them I come to a number approaching 20 over a period of almost twenty years, and of course that period of almost two decades I 'observed' the behaviour of many times more than that. That time was spent with large multi-nationals (NCR, IBM, Sperry-Univac and Fujitsu) all of whom had significant commitments to 'management training' and significant commitments to human resources management within the companies. Over that time I had only one manager that I had any respect for and who was of any assistance to me. The others ranged from petty martinets to the totally ineffective and all of them shared a range of negative characteristics that were 'designed' to ensure the company that employed them got as little from the employees that they managed as was possible....which resulted in the highest possible employee turnover.
I obviously didn't realise this until I was managed by the only one good manager I came across in my time working for companies I didn't own (Jim Gallagher - may he be enjoying his after life wherever great people persons go) but as soon as I had a good manager it became blindingly obvious; before that moment I had assumed that all managers didn't give a damn about the people they managed but were only interested in progressing their personal careers by sucking up to their superiors and spending their days on their personal affairs. (though to be fair Jim did tend to also spend more time than he should on his personal "affairs" - he was no saint which you would have needed to have been to have resisted trying your luck with the delectable lady in question - even though he was married and she was married to someone else).
In Exetel's end of year career direction reviews all of Exetel's managers said that they needed "management training" as none of them have any management background, most are very young and for many Exetel has been their first 'real' employer and certainly the only employer that has given them a 'management position'. Now that this point has been raised so comprehensively (though Annette tells me it has been raised before) we will have to do something about it but that is always going to be difficult in a company of Exetel's size as we have very little time or opportunity to even do the planning for the education of a dozen or so widely differing people, in two different countries, across widely differing functions let alone subsequently carrying out whatever had been planned. One more thing to worry about let alone do anything about.
Personally, I have never found ANY management training I ever attended at any company I worked for of the slightest value in any way, shape or form. Much of the formal management training I attended was at IBM and Sperry-Univac with IBM's training organised and largely carried out 'in house' with several 'guest speakers' and Sperry's carried out by 'world wide' consultants paid for by the HR function in Bluebell (lovely name for one of the dreariest towns in the USA). All of those courses were lofty in intent and laughable in execution (not just my opinion) at which I learned nothing and wasted an enormous amount of my employer's time and money attending. Having had those experiences I have never used 'consultants' or other people in the companies with which I have been associated to do "management training".
My personal view is that you can do nothing to teach a person to manage people - they either do it naturally or nothing anyone else can teach them can make them any better as managers - it can make them worse but not better. After being in some sort of management position or other for something like forty years the only things that make a good manager can be summed up as:
1) Only hire people you like - it's impossible to build a sensible personal manager/employee relationship with anyone you don't like.
2) Ensure you have clearly set out what an employee is expected to do, in detail, and then always be available to help with anything an employee needs help with - any time of any day - with a smile and with enthusiasm.
3) Publicly and privately praise and encourage when ever possible but ONLY when it is sincere and as often as possible confirm it in writing.
4) Never, ever, criticise in public. Never criticise in private unless it is absolutely essential.
5) Pass as much of your own knowledge as possible as sensibly quickly as possible throughout the relationship.
I'm sure I could 'spin' these five pieces of advice into a 3 or 4 day course but there would be no point - someone who is going to work out as a good manager instinctively already knows this is the way of living their commercial 'life'...if they don't - then no amount of 'management training' is going to be of any use.