Do you train your managers?

cross hair · Jun 8, 2017

Many years ago when I was promoted to a shop foreman position the business owners sent me to management classes, one program was an adult education program taught at a career center and some were one and two day seminar type things. I found the training valuable and still practice some of the techniques I learned.

These days when I look at reviews for one or two day seminars most of the reviews are terrible, it seems the main goal is to up sell additional seminars and programs/books etc., so I never send anyone. I have three people that have been promoted into leadership positions and as much as I try to coach them they sometimes don't handle things correctly, which in this day and age can result in lawsuits. When I have suggested a more structured program I get excuses of why they shouldn't or couldn't give up an evening a week for six weeks to take a class.

Do you train your managers/supervisors? What are some programs others have used or gone thru that you found helpful? Do you require your supervisors to get certification of some sort?

I'm in the US if it matters, non union shop.

Thanks

hanermo · Jun 8, 2017

Imho, all over the place in the EU, and in the world, in terms of quality/results/cost.

Most stuff is useless, some stuff is extremely good.
I don´t have any idea how to separate the 2 ... or find the good stuff ... without trying.

Since you mentioned plural, I suggest sending people to multiple places, 1 each.
Listen to their reports/reviews.
Also, look at performance (KPI) after the test courses, for the test group of managers.
Do they do better ?

Almost always, significant improvements are done with minor changes and costs.

I used to do this, training, in IT/business mgmt, at a relatively high level and cost.
My reviews (results) were excellent, but I had zero traditional consultant background or academic credentials.
This was about 1996-2000.

IronReb · Jun 8, 2017

Who do you want in leadership positions, those who are closed minded to growing, or those willing to make sacrifices to achieve success?

JNieman · Jun 8, 2017

/EDIT/

nevermind, that probably didn't need to be aired.

/edit/

cross hair · Jun 8, 2017

hanermo said:
Imho, all over the place in the EU, and in the world, in terms of quality/results/cost.

Most stuff is useless, some stuff is extremely good.
I don´t have any idea how to separate the 2 ... or find the good stuff ... without trying.

Since you mentioned plural, I suggest sending people to multiple places, 1 each.
Listen to their reports/reviews.
Also, look at performance (KPI) after the test courses, for the test group of managers.
Do they do better ?

Almost always, significant improvements are done with minor changes and costs.

I used to do this, training, in IT/business mgmt, at a relatively high level and cost.
My reviews (results) were excellent, but I had zero traditional consultant background or academic credentials.
This was about 1996-2000.

That's probably how I would approach it, if the first person came back and said the class was great then send others as needed. The negative of that philosophy is people learn differently, a program that reaches one person may not connect to the next. Still....basic principals and practices are what I am looking for, I would think an established program would have the right curriculum to reach the majority of people.

cross hair · Jun 8, 2017

IronReb said:
Who do you want in leadership positions, those who are closed minded to growing, or those willing to make sacrifices to achieve success?

I agree that a person should be willing to sacrifice for the purpose of growing. Maybe next time I will spell it out that in order to be promoted there will be some class work required, and that may mean some evenings off the clock. When I was young I asked my employer if they would pay for classes if I went to night school, I took advantage of what I could!

cross hair · Jun 8, 2017

JNieman said:
The phrase that rings in my mind that came from on-high, here, was "I've never had to take a class to learn anything so I don't know why I should pay for anyone else to." (paraphrasing, possibly exaggerated from bitterness)

*sigh*

Those kind of ignorant statements make me sad. ditto *sigh*

Wild West · Jun 8, 2017

cross hair said:
Do you train your managers/supervisors?

When I was asked if I train my employees I replied, "the problem with taking the time to train is that they'll leave and go down the street for another nickel an hour" He replied to me, "do you know what is more expensive than training an employee and losing them?" I said, "what?" He said, "don't train them and keep them".

I knew a guy, a very successful guy, who had a 100 person screw machine shop. The place was immaculate and very profitable. No matter what your skill level (you could be god's own machinist), when you started you would be assigned to someone for the first two weeks to be taught how they did things. It sure looked like it paid off.

gerritv · Jun 8, 2017

IronReb said:
Who do you want in leadership positions, those who are closed minded to growing, or those willing to make sacrifices to achieve success?

The difference between a job and a career. If a person is interested in a career, then they should be looking to educate themselves. An employer willing to pay for that education should be cherished.
I'm mostly self taught (programming, sw design, machining, cad etc) but whenever a company made courses available I took them. I didn't care if it was on my time on on theris, learning is what keeps you fresh and interested.

Tony Quiring · Jun 8, 2017

What type of training are you looking for?

Local small business association offices have peer programs as well as sources of different types of training.

General leadership is a natural state of mind or trait that will be present at all times that given opportunity they will do what they can without pay or direction.

Those folks given exposure to good training get polished and perform well while others who do not have a natural instinct for it may never get it.

The 2 above sent to the same training will give different results regardless of the curriculum.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk

Tonytn36 · Jun 8, 2017

Everyone in any salary job and anyone in customer service gets sent through the Steven Covey 7 Habits of Highly Successful People class. This is a VERY good class on how to deal with people and situations.

garyhlucas · Jun 8, 2017

Anyone you have promoted to a management position that won't agree to some night classes on their own time if you are paying for them was a mistake for you to promote and you should fix that.

I have three young engineers working under me right now. Today I explained to them that their degree only got their resume past HR and they had better learn fast!

I will be 64 next month, still learning as fast as I can. Books, magazines, internet, trade shows, competitors, customers, employees, bosses, you have to learn from all of them.

Mike1974 · Jun 9, 2017

cross hair said:
I agree that a person should be willing to sacrifice for the purpose of growing. Maybe next time I will spell it out that in order to be promoted there will be some class work required, and that may mean some evenings off the clock. When I was young I asked my employer if they would pay for classes if I went to night school, I took advantage of what I could!

That is all well and good, but what I am learning is when youa re salary, you are always on the clock. If management (not all, but alot where I work) finds out I'm willing to take night classes, they will soon think I am willing to work nights for the next 'hot project'* so everything goes out the window at that point...

* Let me clarify, I have, and will do this (occasionally), but lately it seems everything is hot, and I would end up just working all the time so I tend to not volunteer for these things anymore.

guest · Jun 9, 2017

Back in my manager days, my company required that I took some kind of continuing education classes or seminars every quarter. I found the one-day seminars (how to manage difficult people, etc.) were not very useful, but I went along, with the intent of finding one useful takeaway from every seminar.

I also did the Netware CNE and APICS CPIM courses, which were much more involved (and much more useful).

So it depends on the training, imo. I wouldn't spend my money on sending supervisors to the one-day seminars, but more substantial training is worth doing.

Gordon B. Clarke · Jun 10, 2017

cross hair said:
Many years ago when I was promoted to a shop foreman position the business owners sent me to management classes, one program was an adult education program taught at a career center and some were one and two day seminar type things. I found the training valuable and still practice some of the techniques I learned.

These days when I look at reviews for one or two day seminars most of the reviews are terrible, it seems the main goal is to up sell additional seminars and programs/books etc., so I never send anyone. I have three people that have been promoted into leadership positions and as much as I try to coach them they sometimes don't handle things correctly, which in this day and age can result in lawsuits. When I have suggested a more structured program I get excuses of why they shouldn't or couldn't give up an evening a week for six weeks to take a class.

Do you train your managers/supervisors? What are some programs others have used or gone thru that you found helpful? Do you require your supervisors to get certification of some sort?

I'm in the US if it matters, non union shop.

Thanks

I doubt if there is a "one rule fits all". To become a manager means that your employers believes that you can do the job. You can either apply for the job or have it offered as a promotion.

If the first then your qualifications will probably be listed in your CV. If the alternative then the chances are probably greater that your employer will suggest extra seminars etc. to make you even better.

I've found over the years that the more seminars I've attended the less I take from them. Often it becomes the same old same old just presented differently. What I ended getting most out of was talking to the other attendees and exchanging information as to what works and what doesn't.

Here it isn't uncommon for groups of people in various companies with similar jobs and positions to get together a few times a year and discuss and exchange experiences.

The important thing is to always be aware of what is happening around you and learn what you find might be useful. "We've always done it like that" means stagnation.

Wild West · Jun 10, 2017

garyhlucas said:
I will be 64 next month, still learning as fast as I can. Books, magazines, internet, trade shows, competitors, customers, employees, bosses, you have to learn from all of them.

Yep, I'm 67 and I still do the same, can't seem to get enough of it. Also, I'm always excising my mind with simple mathematics, try to avoid the calculator as much as possible.

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