Training Case study: The Problem: Turning Technical Experts Into Good People Managers

A professional institution had over the years promoted expert professionals with a focus on technical knowledge to positions of management. Their lack of skills in people management were causing high staff turnover and a generally atmosphere of demotivation and a lack of responsibility.

The HR function observed that the complaints from staff that came to them involved: -

• A feeling of not being trusted as everything was checked and double checked even though they were professionals in their own right
• They were not learning anything because any technically difficult cases were handled by the Manager
• Work progressed very slowly as the Manager was a bottleneck. This was because he/she wanted to be involved fully in everything

We were asked to devise a management development programme that would address these issues and improve the skills of these managers.

The solution

We undertook a series of interviews with individual managers and discovered that none of them had any training in management skills and felt that they were overburdened and not greatly helped by their staff who referred everything to them. There were two polarised opinions about development: -

Group 1 – did not really want to be managers and had accepted promotion because of an increased salary. They were not enthusiastic about training and overall felt they would prefer not to manage people at all.

Group 2 – could see that they could delegate more if they could place trust in their team and accepted that they may not always have the best answer to a problem. They were keen to learn new skills and perceived the benefits this could bring.

We recommended that the firm did not force those in Group 1 to undergo the training but looked for a change in attitude from these people as Group 2 proceeded with training. If no change was apparent then they should consider whether it would be of greater value to the firm to create a “Senior specialist” role for them and remove their management responsibilities.

We proceeded to design a programme for Group 2 that would provide the necessary skills and on-going support as they gained skills and applied them.

The foundation course started the process and was delivered over 3 days at a hotel to detach delegates from the workplace and allow them to concentrate on the learning. The measures of success were a reduction in turnover, absenteeism and complaints to HR

The course was designed to cover the following: -

• Specify how they will vary leadership styles according to circumstances
• Understand difference between a manager and a leader, and it’s importance to the business
• Highlight the individual changes they need to make from being a manager to a leader
• Specify practical ways in which they will motivate people and achieve business objectives through enhanced performance
• Identify activities in which they can establish their leadership credibility
• Review performance management system with a view to enhancing productivity and performance
• Understand how to design and deliver informative and relevant business presentations
• Understand the importance of setting business goals and objectives

Importantly, a variety of exercises were undertaken to prove that a team result was more likely to be right than the result a single individual could achieve. These showed the value of everyone’s input to problem solving.

Action plans for practising learning in the workplace were made and committed to and the Training Consultant was available by telephone at any time to help if problems arose.

A 1-day review session was held 3 and 6 months after the event to share experiences, good and bad and to debate and resolve ways of solving them

The results

Nine months after the event no one had left from the teams where the manager had undergone training and there was generally a much more positive atmosphere. However, turnover had continued in the Group 1 teams and HR decided to take action with those Managers to create the new role and promote people who were ready to undergo the foundation course.