In a previous post I wrote about the importance of preparing people for management before they become managers by making training available to them. For sure, no amount of training alone can totally prepare people for management but it does help if there is training available that can give people some understanding of what management is like. I have been working on a 2-part virtual training course called Exploring Management. 

This course is aimed at people who are not yet managers but are interested in learning about management. It can also be useful for first-time managers who are new to the role. The course is split into two parts and each part is about 2.5 hours long. The first part of the course focuses on management and the learning objectives for the course are shown below:

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• describe what management is,
• explain what the purpose of management is,
• identify the roles of a manager, and
• list some of the skills and knowledge required to be an effective manager.

The course starts out with a discussion of the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of management. In other words, what is management and what is its purpose. Here participants have a breakout room discussion to identify what management is and it’s purpose. There is also a link for them to watch a brilliant video on YouTube which describes management and its four roles.

Then we change direction to look at the manager and the two questions dealt with here are:

• Who is a manager?
• What does a manager actually do?

The participants are given the opportunity to reflect on what their managers do on a day-to-day basis before being introduced to Henry Mintzbergs three roles of the manager and the simple but brilliant action-centred leadership model from John Adair.

Next, they then look at some skills managers need to be effective and reflect on their own management skills.

The next part of the course looks more at leadership styles and I will write about that part of the course next week.

Below are samples of the course and a link to where you can get the full course.

Sample from Exploring Management 1 – Facilitation Guide

Sample from Exploring Management 1 – Presentation

Sample from Exploring Management 1 – Workbook

To get the full course resources click on the link below:

EXPLORING MANAGEMENT 1