According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) the number one HR concern of companies as the economy starts to pick up is management development.
There are suggestions that this is because the money for training and development hasn't been there so management practice has simply become stale. This is probably true to a degree, but the real HR issue companies will have is with retention of good staff - and that is the matter for management development.
Any business over the past few years will have had times when it had to focus on the next 6 months, one month, even sometimes the coming week as a goal for survival. In that fraught situation the subtleties of leadership style can go by the wayside, and with jobs a rarity even the most talented staff will have tended to 'put up and shut up'. But the economy is improving. It's slow, as cyclical systems usually are and it's not evenly distributed across the country. But it's happening, and talented individuals will start to look for a way out, to employers that better appreciate those talents.
So yes, management development - and more particularly leadership development - should be a prime concern for your company, allowing senior staff to review how they work with their teams. In partiular the emphasis needs to be on engagement in every aspect of management.
Time management isn't about diary formats, it's about team dynamics; team dynamics aren't about hierarchies they're about motivation; motivation isn't about carrot and stick it's about communication. Communication engages team members and keeps them in the team.
Retention is achieved through engagement - and engagement has to be the number one concern for management development.
Training that's all about engagement - whatever the subject...
Engaged staff
