Management training: the course – delegates and content

It’s important you select the right delegates for management training.

Pick the wrong people and you will have wasted the company’s money and the delegates’ time – as well as creating resentment.

Managers who are new to people and process management should have initial management training as soon as possible after their appointment. Delegates for middle and senior management courses should be nominated by their managers.

But be wary of allowing poor managers onto courses – training probably isn’t the answer to their shortcomings.

Find out what delegates and their managers want to see covered in management training courses and, time and finances allowing, submit delegates to a pre-course assessment, for instance psychometric profiling.

Course content

Course content will vary according to the level and experience of the delegates, but these are the basic elements you should consider:

First level management

• Process management 
• Recruitment
• Team building
• Time management
• Communication skills and processes
• Inducting new staff in the workplace
• Managing and allocating work loads
• Managing conflict
• Conducting assessments and appraisals
• Setting goals and objectives
• Conducting disciplinaries 

Middle management

Assuming delegates have attended first line management training and proved themselves to be effective team managers the focus should be on:

• Conflict management
• Performance management
• Financial skills – such as devising budgets
• Change management
• Effective decision making
• Personal and staff development

Senior management

At this stage, leadership skills will form an important part of senior management training, but topics that delegates may have covered in middle or first line management may also feature.

• Developing organisational strategies and vision
• Getting buy-in to strategy and vision
• Implementing strategies
• Different management styles
• Chairing effective meetings
• Staff motivation
• Communicating effectively
• Influencing techniques

Does accreditation matter?

Most managers do not have a formal management qualification, let alone a leadership one. The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) reckons that 60% of UK managers fall into that category. An accredited training course is, by definition, more likely to lead to a qualification than otherwise and will likely count for more among delegates.

The CMI will assess internal management and leadership courses and offer accreditation if they meet its criteria. The ILM will also accredit internal courses. More than half a million managers have ILM-accredited qualifications. They run from level 2, for aspiring managers and team leaders, up to level 7 for board-level leaders.