Mitchell Phoenix - Leadership and Management Training

How to Choose a Leadership and Management Development Provider - Part 2

Last week we explored training providers which deliver at Level 1 - Favourable Reaction. This week we focus on providers who deliver Learning.

2. Learning

What are the results reported by providers at this level?

1. A needs assessment is carried out, where delegates are tested to find out what they already know and don’t know. Training is delivered, and delegates are retested on what they now know. The result is shown in the difference between what they know now compared to what they knew before.

2. A certificate is often awarded to show that delegates now know more than they knew before. Where the certificate is deemed to be a useful addition to the delegate’s CV (eg an MBA), it is often the securing of this certificate that is held to be the most important result of the training programme.

Training that is focused predominantly on learning varies widely, from an MBA at a prominent business school to a one day Personality Type session run in a kitchen. What is learned can range from the latest, most complex process improvement models to the fact that one member of the department is less detail-oriented than another.

Clues that providers operate at this level:

• Testimonials focus on how much the trainer knows, on what the delegate now knows, or on all the useful tips and tricks the delegate picked up
• Promotion focuses on participants’ intentions to put what they learned into practice, rather than what they did differently back in the workplace
• Marketing focuses on the heritage / prestige of the institution
• Advertising will focus on how programmes kick-started careers through contacts made on programs, or once delegates were able to put the qualification on their CV

Why are the types of offerings described above only listed as the second in a hierarchy of four types of training? Why would a learning and development manager look for a programme that delivers anything more than learning? Leadership and management training which focuses primarily on learning often does not deliver development.  

How can this be? Consider these two questions:

1. “If a change is going to be unpopular with your subordinates, you should proceed slowly to gain acceptance.” Agree / Disagree

2. “If you are promoted to a management job, you should make it different than it was under your predecessor.” Agree / Disagree

What would you answer? Click to find out how these questions point to the gap between learning and development

Last month we put forward the idea that Leadership and Management Development Providers will create results at one of four levels:

1. Favourable Reaction
2. Learning
3. Short Term Behavioural Change
4. Long Term Behavioural Change

(Read more about this here)

How can you quickly discern at which of these four levels a potential provider will deliver? After all, as one of our clients famously said, “everyone out there will tell you they can do everything, but they can’t.”

1. Favourable Reaction

Clues that training companies primarily operate at Level 1 include:

• Testimonials focus on the trainer – how much fun, how inspirational, how dynamic, how interesting he/she was
• Little concrete evidence of results in the workplace – the result is that people attended the training and were not upset or bored by it 
• Training often woven into other fun activities, such as actors’ games, cooking, assault courses
• Business promotion reflects testimonials: people have a good time – all course days rated good to excellent, etc.
• Companies use associates – the key skill required is to be able to hold the interest of a group of executives for a day, or two days. Full time employees with deep knowledge of in-house content and approach are not required; in this case, associates hired on a daily rate will be able to fulfil the brief.

Click for a fuller discussion of Favourable Reaction as a Result of Leadership and Management Training

If you missed it, "Decisive Leadership - Effective Decision Making for Management Accountants" was published in September's edition of CIMA's Financial Management magazine.

This is a step by step action plan for Management Accountants who want to exert a stronger influence on their business in the next 3 months.

Click to read Decisive Leadership for Management Accountants

Over 20 years of client work, Mitchell Phoenix' approach has been constantly refined in the pursuit of a single goal: the creation of results in the client's business. This principle is the foundation on which our programs are built, and it is in the light of this principle that all other decisions about course content and structure are taken. 

But once the overarching purpose is established, what other principles are invoked to ensure every course produces real, practical results? Click to read how we build leadership and management training.

Here is an example of real ROI:

Communicating a Challenging Decision and Retaining Commitment

A manager had to run a difficult bonus review meeting with one of her direct reports. Under previous arrangements, put in place when the company was much smaller, the direct report only had to satisfy some basic requirements in order to qualify for his bonus. The manager wanted to change this situation, and link the direct report’s bonus to target achievement. Mindful that this was likely to be unpopular, the manager booked out a whole morning for the meeting in which she was going to broach this subject.

Using concepts developed on the Foundations of Management Program, the manager first agreed with her direct report that bonuses should be based on performance. This done, they worked together to create a set of objectives for the coming year relating to a particularly important aspect of the direct report’s role. With the objectives agreed, the manager told the direct report that his bonus for the coming year would be dependent on the achievement of the objectives they had just created. After a short discussion, the direct report agreed to this and they set a follow up meeting to monitor progress towards the achievement of the first objective. 

The manager felt in complete control in the meeting, and concluded it in 20 minutes, leaving a whole morning free for other work. She later reported that it was completely successful in terms of creating motivation in the direct report and securing agreement to a difficult decision.

c. 8-10 of these per delegate x 8 delegates = c. 70 results = real ROI from a management training program

… and what is a waste of money:

As mentioned in a previous post, the management training industry has created a smokescreen around what is a real result and what isn’t. The examples below are regularly proffered as ROI, when in fact all could be achieved much more cheaply through other means:

1. Everyone actually attended the course – (the only requirements here are physical presence in the seminar room and a pulse, it is a rare delegate who cannot manage either of these. Cheaper alternative = organise a meeting, see who turns up)

2. Everyone enjoyed themselves – (cheaper options = pub, crazy golf, day off…)

3. Everyone found things out about themselves (without action in the workplace to build on this, cheaper alternatives = horoscopes + star signs, drunken post pub truth-telling sessions, books)

4. Everyone left with an action plan for how they are going to implement what they learned back in the workplace (alternatives = your last set of new year’s resolutions)

5. Everyone enjoyed the facilities on their residential course (most residential courses are hotels that use training to hook people in. Cheaper alternative = book a week in a better hotel, leave out the “training”)

In 2010 - 11 Mitchell Phoenix have been working closely with Alderley Dubai, running bespoke in-house programs for senior and fast track managers both in the UK and Dubai. 

“The management team of Alderley Dubai were especially rewarding to work with. Their enthusiasm, diligence and application of ideas created the results that Nick and the senior team envisaged. In addition they made use of all the available strategies in Mitchell Phoenix projects, supporting each other, building team results and spurring each other on to deliver the maximum - a great group of people!” 
Kevin Yates, Managing Director, Mitchell Phoenix

Click here to read the case study

If one defines organizational culture as the collective values and behaviors of every individual within a business, what influence does this have on overall performance?

When we overlay culture, whatever form it may take, onto strategy, leadership, communication, customer focus, continuous improvement and sustainability, to name but a few core business competencies, we can immediately sense the influence that culture will have on output. Organizational culture will determine levels of efficiency, teamwork, quality, speed of decision making, employee engagement, innovation and reputation. It will block or embrace change, it will build legacy or stagnate, it will inspire or depress. Ultimately it drives the results.

How much attention does business pay to organizational culture? What connections does it make to some of the symptoms of a strong or weak culture?

When any organization examines its levels of employee churn, absenteeism, sick leave, internal promotions, overtime, its value of appraisal, effectiveness of meetings, its customer relationships, the willingness of its workforce to contribute freely, it can gain a measure of how healthy its culture is. How does any business ensure a healthy culture?

There is a clue for all of us in the purpose of management, which is ‘to secure the future’. A healthy culture is a leadership responsibility. When we hear about setting a good example it is actually about exhibiting the culture of the business. Feedback, good and bad, is indicative of what is important to the organization. If the strategic outlook is customer focused or bottom-line oriented it will drive out decisions and actions accordingly. Culture can be built with consistent management style, common language, shared best-practice and guiding principles. Any company can achieve a strong platform for growth if it invests in it and has the buy-in of senior executives.

Rockerfeller once said that he would pay ten times the salary to someone who could influence people who were smarter than they were. That is the importance he placed on being able to influence. Culture is influence over the ability to deliver strategy through people and it is vital.

What is the impact of organizational culture on performance? Whatever you decide.