Management IT Mentoring & Coaching

Posts tagged ‘Learning & Development’

Shakespeare: 2012

(c) The British Museum - Shakespeare Exhibition July 2012Shakespeare: staging the world at the British Museum

19 July – 25 November 2012

400 years ago, the playhouse dominated society.
William Shakespeare was at the centre of this exciting new medium and his tales echo down through the ages. The exhibition will provide a unique insight into the  emerging  role of London as a world city around 1612 seen through the lens of Shakespeare’s plays.

Maps, prints, drawings, paintings, tapestries, arms and armour, coins and much more will retell Shakespeare’s stories to London in 2012 – a time when the whole world  will once again focus on this truly global city.

The exhibition opens in July 2012, but you can book your tickets now

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/shakespeare.aspx?utm_source=enewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=tickets&utm_campaign=shakespeare

A Manager’s Guide to Self Development

by Mike Pedlar, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell

A Manager's Self-Development“A Manager’s Guide to Self Development has become the indispensable guide for building management skills.  Now in its fifth edition, with a strong ‘how to’ approach, this practical self-development book helps new and experienced managers improve their managerial performance.

It provides:

  • A complete picture of the skills and competencies required of a manager from change management to coaching.
  • A flexible, self-development programme to do alone, with a colleague, or in a group.

Part one introduces a framework of 11 key managerial qualities.  Diagnostic activities help you to discover your strengths and weaknesses, and identify your own goals for self-development.

Part two features more than 50 practical activities to help you develop your skills and abilities.  These include:

  • Networking
  • Finding a Mentor
  • Handling Conflict
  • Managing Upwards
  • Getting to a Yes
  • Collaborative Working
  • Planning Change
  • Being a Coach
  • Using Communication Tools

Our framework of ‘The 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager’  is based on a research project [which] identified the qualities that were found more often in successful managers than in those judged to be less successful.  These 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager form the basis for the self-development programme provided in this book:

  1. command of basic facts
  2. relevant professional knowledge
  3. continuing sensitiity to events
  4. analytical, problem-solving and decision/judgement-making skills
  5. social skills and abilities
  6. emotional resilience
  7. proactivity – inclination to respond purposefully to events
  8. creativity
  9. mental agility
  10. balanced learning habits and skills
  11. self-knowledge”

Part one contains a questionnaire to enable you to assess yourself against The 11 Qualities of the Effective Manager and prompts you to set goals / target dates to help you to develop in any of the 11 areas.  To assist with this process there are 53 learning activities aimed to help with each of the 11 Qualities.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in their own self-development or in the self-development of their own team.

Spelling Mistakes ‘cost millions’

Spelling mistakes ‘cost millions’ in lost online sales

By Sean Coughlan BBC, News education correspondent, 14 July 2011

“An online entrepreneur says that poor spelling is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for internet businesses.

Charles Duncombe says an analysis of website figures shows a single spelling mistake can cut online sales in half.

Mr Duncombe says when recruiting staff he has been “shocked at the poor quality of written English”.

Sales figures suggest misspellings put off consumers who could have concerns about a website’s credibility, he says.

The concerns were echoed by the CBI whose head of education and skills warned that too many employers were having to invest in remedial literacy lessons for their staff.”

Click here for the full article on the BBC’s website:-

Management Apprenticeships

“Management & Leadership skills have a major impact on the development, productivity and performance of organisations of all sizes and across all sectors of the economy. Many British leaders and managers are innovative, creative, visionary and inspirational and are heavily relied upon to sustain the UK as one of the world’s leading economies. In today’s fast-moving competitive environment there is a need to continue to drive up the performance of the best and to address weaknesses in Management & Leadership that are holding back productivity and performance. The average amount of spend per manager per year for development in the UK is far lower than other European countries, particularly within small to medium sized businesses, where fewer staff have management qualifications than in equivalent sized European countries.”

“The existing workforce needs to be up skilled and new people attracted into these jobs to meet the increasing demand for new management practices and a range of skills, including:

  • leadership skills, including self management, relationship building, negotiation and
  • influencing skills
  • communication and decision making skills
  • information technology skills
  • knowledge and project management skills
  • coaching and mentoring skills
  • skills to win and maintain customer loyalty
  • change management skills such as the ability to manage the challenges of globalisation
  • partnership working and the ability to implement innovative solutions to a range of problems.”

“The Management Apprenticeship programmes have seen a steady increase in learners since their initial development and the Apprenticeship is in the top twenty frameworks. The Apprenticeship programme has been designed to provide flexible and portable qualifications, units and skills sets which meet the current and future needs of employers of all sizes and across all sectors.”

“The Team Leading Intermediate Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as team leaders, section leaders, floor managers, help desk managers, trainee supervisors, team co-ordinators and those working in a range of other team leader positions.”

“The Management Advanced Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as first line managers, section managers, assistant managers, trainee managers, senior supervisors, junior non-commissioned officers (armed forces) and those working in a range of other management positions.”

“The Leadership & Management Higher Apprenticeship has been developed to support those working as managers, senior managers, heads of department, directors and those working in a range of other senior management positions.”

The Apprenticeship Framework is available for download via the CfA’s website: http://www.cfa.uk.com/apprenticeships/sasew-frameworks.html

My initial reaction to the launch of “Management Apprenticeships” (especially for Level 5) is whether this will be fully funded and, if so, it’s an ideal opportunity for managers and leaders to obtain an accredited qualification.