"Jason was an amazingly hardworking and committed employee. His area in the workshop was always neat and clean - his tools logically and carefully displayed and his open, friendly personality meant the other employees naturally sought him out for advice and were quite happy to work with his ideas. In short, Jason was a more than logical choice for promotion to supervisor of his section.
Immediately after his promotion however, it was noted that the very same staff who used to approach him for advice were now actively working against him. They didn't listen to his instructions and they started discussing him amongst themselves and would stop their conversation as soon as he joined them. Jason was really upset - these guys had been his friends and now they were doing their level-best to bring him down.
Two months into his new position he approached the Production Manager with a number of issues, all related to the negative behaviour of the employees under his command. He was stressed out of his mind and production had taken a dip. So what did Management think had gone wrong? Well, they decided they'd made a mistake in promoting Jason - they had obviously misread his potential. They decided to demote him and do away with the supervisory position all together."
Had they been wrong in their assessment of his capabilities? Probably not. He sounds like a logical choice for promotion - their decision had been careful and considered. They weren't wrong in choosing him, but they set him up for failure from day one. How? They gave him no supervisory training for his new position.
It seems like a no-brainer - surely everyone who's moved into a supervisory or management position is given the requisite management training? But sadly this is not the case - more often they are promoted and left to flounder while their senior managers shake their heads and regret choosing that particular employee.
Had Jason been sent on a management training course where he would be exposed to the psychology of management, equipped with the tools required for him to effectively cope with resentful employees, set goals for himself and his department, whilst understanding how to gain cooperation from those he was now leading, he would probably have become a brilliant supervisor and continued to move up the management pole. He didn't fail - his senior managers failed him and themselves.
Staff Training offers specialised supervisor training and management training courses run over two days:
Developing your Management Potential I and Developing Your Management Potential II. Each course can stand alone, but the combination of the two is amazingly effective. The delegates work with individual case scenarios and run through practical management tools. Through interaction with other course delegates and the trainer they begin to understand how common many of their problems actually are and how to move past this to a solutions-based method of achieving their desired outcomes.
These management training courses are aligned to SAQA 242817 NQF Level 4 - Solve problems, make decisions and implement solutions.
Browse the links below to find out more about a specific course from our Management Training Suite:
Developing Your Management Potential I
Developing Your Management Potential II
Coaching Skills for Supervisors
Testimonials:
The practicals were really useful - I thoroughly enjoyed the training and would recommend the courses to everyone who is in a supervisory or management position ~ Berenice
Everything we covered was important to me, especially the goal setting and time management ~ Justin
Thank you Staff Training - I learnt so much! ~ Sue
Great examples on how to tackle my management issues! ~ Kelly
I learnt a lot about myself and where my own challenges lay ~ Bellany
The trainer made the understanding of the different modules of the courses very easy and interesting and exciting. ~ Hayden
Contact Staff Training at (021) 839 3021 or drop us an email.