Page 289 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

274 enhancing performance through training
4. ... be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their own management style. This will
have been made clear through the intensive feedback sessions held during the training
course. They will have been asked to work with individual action plans as a means to
improving their weaknesses and to honing their strengths.
5. ... know how to conduct effective appraisal interviews, set goals, and delegate respon-
sibility in keeping with the experience and abilities of the members of their teams. They
should know how to give feedback constructively and be able to coach and encour-
age their staff. They should be familiar with the firm’s main personnel development
measures and know how to use them.
6. ... have learned how to run a goal-oriented team meeting.
7. ... know the principal leadership theories.
8. ... know the important areas and activities of the firm and have a sound understanding
of the strategy and direction of the organisation as a whole.
9. ... be able to handle difficult leadership situations, learn from each other through
feedback and be able to implement solutions in the workplace.
10. ... have learned the steps needed to implement changes successfully within their own
organisational units.
11. ... have learned how to run their departments effectively from a sales and customer-
oriented perspective.

Networking between departments and business units as well as a strong focus on the
applicability of newly acquired skills were considered to be very important requirements
for the course.

DEFINING TARGET GROUPS

Properly defining the target group which you intend to train is important. If you wish
to respond effectively to participants’ training needs, it is often best that participants
have similar levels of knowledge, skills and experience. In management training there
are often notable differences between “beginners” who have limited expertise and more
experienced managers.
Experienced managers might be interested in learning more about management the-
ory, reflecting on their particular management style, and acquiring advanced man-
agement techniques, whereas newly appointed managers will need to focus on ba-
sic management skills such as delegating, organising, communicating in a team, etc.
Practical training will be of greatest interest to them. The next paragraph describes
how the target groups were defined in the firm’s introductory-level leadership training
programme.

INTRODUCTORY-LEVEL LEADERSHIP TRAINING:DEFINITION OF TARGET GROUPS
For the following training course the target group consisted of newly appointed managers
and project managers who had been given management responsibilities in connection with
a specific project. Participants had to have been active in a management position for at
least 4 weeks before attending. Making these stipulations proved very successful as each
participant was able to contribute examples from his/her own day-to-day experiences as a
manager.
Employees who knew that they would be taking over a team in the near future, were
given the opportunity for preparation in a two-day “management preparation course”
which helped to give them focus during the first 100 days in their new roles as managers.