How to Manage Your People Well: Tips for Managers of Training

As a training manager, there are two important aspects to managing your people well: hiring, supervising, and motivating (managing with your people) and building up corporate support for your department (managing for your people). Unfortunately, training is not well understood by some executives, and its benefits can be hard to assess. Even a good training manager's department risks cuts by cost-conscious administrators convinced that training is an unnecessary expense. In The Secret of My Success, a cinematic fairy tale about life in corporate America, Michael J. Fox gets scolded his first day on the job for speaking to a senior executive: "Never consort with a suit unless the suit consorts with you first." As a training manager, however, you had better be prepared to consort with "the suits" from Day One. Managing for your people is a pro-active strategy that constantly demands selling your department's services and widening the base of organizational support for the training function.

All of our experts agree that the actions of the manager of training are critical to the department's survival, and important for the long-term health and continuity of the organization itself. In an era of cost cutting and corporate mergers/takeovers, a training manager must make sure his or her department is 1) visible, 2) credible and 3) perceived to be as integral to the organization's growth as it really is. This can be accomplished by means of two different approaches that boil down to either response or outreach. Some managers find it effective to combine some of each into a very personal brew. For example, Mary Belle GrosJacques, Trainer Coordinator at CH2M HILL, characterizes her department's approach as essentially "reactive .[We] satisfy needs brought to us" .Yet she also notes that "[we] try to think of needs they didn't bring to us," indicating that it is possible to respond creatively by anticipating future needs, and using the feedback from existing programs to extrapolate new directions. Susan Warshauer, Manager of Training and Development Programs, at M.I.T., acts on the premise that building up organizational support "...takes a conscious strategy. Cultivate relationships with senior people, find out what they perceive as needs, and have a yearly process of needs assessment. Keep in touch with your community and be responsive to them."

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.

In The News:

pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Enhancing the Motivational Climate of Your Workplace

It has been well documented that employees' productivity and job... Read More

Appraisal Systems - Not Living Up to Their Objectives

Almost, if not all organisations have them, they've been around... Read More

6 Steps to Effective Communication

Effective leaders are known for being excellent communicators. Here's what... Read More

Saying ?No? Gracefully to Customers and Colleagues

Envision the scenario: You've just been asked at the last... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management ? Feasibility

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Know the Source of Business

One of the first questions we ask a prospect or... Read More

Improvements In A Large Public Electric Utility In South America

The company decided to develop and implement an improvement program.... Read More

New UK Laws on Staff Dispute Resolution and Disciplinary Procedures

October 2004 saw the introduction of the Employment Act 2002,... Read More

Top Ten Tips About Communicating with Your Employees Effectively

Communication is the basis of who you are as a... Read More

Meaningful Diversity: Creating Cultures of Inclusion

In the fitness room the other day, I caught a... Read More

Change Management: Avoid Havoc In Very Uncertain Times

Escalating gas prices...tensions and turmoil in the Middle East...a struggling... Read More

What Every HR Manager Should Know About Hiring Productive Employees

The characteristics of job applicants have a strong influence on... Read More

Use QA As Your First Step To Outsourcing

Quality Assurance, or QA, is often given short shrift in... Read More

Hire Winners: Avoid These 10 Interview No-No?s

Have you ever hired someone who did not live up... Read More

Sweet Parting Of Ways

Why settle for bad feelings when your employee leaves the... Read More

How to Overcome Your Fear of Firing

OVERCOMING FEAR OF FIRING "It was obvious that this employee... Read More

Managing Creativity

Creativity Starts Here!The ability of an organisation to create new... Read More

5 Ways of Increasing Business Profits

The economy may finally be turning around and showing signs... Read More

Communicating CEOs

I see a PR firm has done a survey on... Read More

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Maximize the Two People Inside

Every one of us, in reality, has two people inside:... Read More

Lets Flourish and Prosper!

Some say that in business as in sex: if it... Read More

Document management : A dream of paperless office

What is document management: When we think about "Document Management"... Read More

Objects in the Mirror are Further Than They Appear

Definition From http://www.merriamwebster.com -- "Virtual: - being such in essence... Read More

Top Ten Tips for Outstanding Customer Service

Remember the 80:20 rule? You may not get everything perfectly... Read More

The High, High Price of Distrust

A paper manufacturer with over 300 employees once announced that... Read More

Bolster Credibility with Investors--Avoid These Phrases in Your Business Plan

Remember Papa John's commercial on TV with the slogan "Better... Read More

The ?Better Product? fallacy

Another fallacy ingrained in the minds of most marketing managers... Read More

Why Do Managers Create Low Morale? Or Does My Bum Look Big In This?

Why do managers create low morale as a product of... Read More

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a Genius

Great Groups! - Getting a Group to Think Like a... Read More

Middle Managers Behaving Badly ? How To Stop This Damaging Your Results

More and more I hear and read about a looming... Read More

Training and ROI (Return On Investment)

Statistics consistently reinforce that the biggest challenge in today's contact... Read More

Look Good on Voice Mail

Your use of voice mail tells others a lot about... Read More

Why Soft Skills?

The industrial age is over. Organizations still stuck in the... Read More