found that recruiting to skills (mending shoes) was a disaster. What was needed were people with the right attitude: you can train people in the right skills, but not into the right attitude. So Timpson issued all area managers with a series of cards with Mr. Men cartoonson them. If any potential recruit was seen as Mr. Lazy, Mr. Fib or Mr. Slow, they were not hired. If they were seen to be Mr. Helpful, Mr. Honest, Mr. Speedy, or Mr. Positive, they might get in. It did not do well on gender diversity, but it did very well on recruiting the right sorts of people.
Timpson’s approach may not be as clever as your HR department’s latest psychographic profiling system, but it runs the risk that it might actually work in practice.
Develop your people
Management training has a bad name. This is a surprise since many executives will spend over $60,000 of their own money on management training: this is what an MBA is. Training is one of the first items to be cut when budgets are tight.
The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) did a study to find out what the obstacles to training were. Here are the top five replies:
• Not enough time
• Pressure of work
• Personal commitments
• Boss would not let me go
• No culture of training
Perhaps it is worth giving a little translation to these findings:
• Not enough time (not a priority for me)
• Pressure of work (still not a priority for me)
• Personal commitments (it really is not a priority for me)
• Boss would not let me go (not a priority for my boss either)
• No culture of training (in fact, not a priority for anyone)
So why will people pay $60,000 for an MBA but not attend free training provided by their own firm? There are three problems:
• Most training is perceived to be remedial, so it is an insult to be asked to go on the course. If you go on a leadership course, the implication is that you are not a good leader; you go on an interpersonal skills course or timemanagement course because you are lousy at dealing with people or time. At least, that is the perception, even if it is not the intention.
• Too many trainers are not up to the job. Once you have sat through two days of watching a facilitator with a flip chart and a franchised theory asking you to guess what they are going to write on the flip chart, the instinctive reaction is to discover your inner axe-wielding maniac.
• Even if the trainer is good, the training is either not relevant or not practical. Managers want ideas that they can apply now, and they want immediate solutions to today’s problem. So learning about interpersonal styles and doing MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicators ® ) is interesting but not of immediate use. It takes too long to master the clever theory, and it is not clear how it will help me with the fact that my project is two weeks overdue and the month end accounts look dodgy.
The many problems with training give some clues as to what you can do about it. And you have to do something: if you are not developing your team, you are not managing them well.
----
Developing your team
1. You are the number one trainer for the team. By coaching each team member well, you give them the real time support and advice they need. And the advice is credible, because it has to stand the practicality test: they have to go and apply the idea immediately and you both have to hope that it works.
2. Your team is the number two training resource for the team. When you have team meetings, find time to allow sharing of best practice, problem solving, or having someone showcase how they achieved something. Again, this passes the tests of immediacy, relevance, and credibility. The solutions may not have academic integrity, but they have the virtue of practicality.
3. Make formal training events a privilege, not a requirement. Only allow a chosen few to go on training programs: let them compete for the few training dollars or days at your disposal. The people
Timpson’s approach may not be as clever as your HR department’s latest psychographic profiling system, but it runs the risk that it might actually work in practice.
Develop your people
Management training has a bad name. This is a surprise since many executives will spend over $60,000 of their own money on management training: this is what an MBA is. Training is one of the first items to be cut when budgets are tight.
The CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development) did a study to find out what the obstacles to training were. Here are the top five replies:
• Not enough time
• Pressure of work
• Personal commitments
• Boss would not let me go
• No culture of training
Perhaps it is worth giving a little translation to these findings:
• Not enough time (not a priority for me)
• Pressure of work (still not a priority for me)
• Personal commitments (it really is not a priority for me)
• Boss would not let me go (not a priority for my boss either)
• No culture of training (in fact, not a priority for anyone)
So why will people pay $60,000 for an MBA but not attend free training provided by their own firm? There are three problems:
• Most training is perceived to be remedial, so it is an insult to be asked to go on the course. If you go on a leadership course, the implication is that you are not a good leader; you go on an interpersonal skills course or timemanagement course because you are lousy at dealing with people or time. At least, that is the perception, even if it is not the intention.
• Too many trainers are not up to the job. Once you have sat through two days of watching a facilitator with a flip chart and a franchised theory asking you to guess what they are going to write on the flip chart, the instinctive reaction is to discover your inner axe-wielding maniac.
• Even if the trainer is good, the training is either not relevant or not practical. Managers want ideas that they can apply now, and they want immediate solutions to today’s problem. So learning about interpersonal styles and doing MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicators ® ) is interesting but not of immediate use. It takes too long to master the clever theory, and it is not clear how it will help me with the fact that my project is two weeks overdue and the month end accounts look dodgy.
The many problems with training give some clues as to what you can do about it. And you have to do something: if you are not developing your team, you are not managing them well.
----
Developing your team
1. You are the number one trainer for the team. By coaching each team member well, you give them the real time support and advice they need. And the advice is credible, because it has to stand the practicality test: they have to go and apply the idea immediately and you both have to hope that it works.
2. Your team is the number two training resource for the team. When you have team meetings, find time to allow sharing of best practice, problem solving, or having someone showcase how they achieved something. Again, this passes the tests of immediacy, relevance, and credibility. The solutions may not have academic integrity, but they have the virtue of practicality.
3. Make formal training events a privilege, not a requirement. Only allow a chosen few to go on training programs: let them compete for the few training dollars or days at your disposal. The people
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