Hi all,
Are there any good options to get personal trainings for first time managers. I am thinking of something practical and which includes scenario based roleplays .
My personal curriculum looks something like this:
1. Advanced meeting skills
. Conduct a status meeting
. Conduct a brainstorming meeting to come up with novel ideas
. Organise a fun Team building meetings
. Conduct a meeting to solve a problem or arrive at a technical design
. Conduct an informational Allhands meeting to your team
. Conduct a skip level 1:1 with your reportee
. Conduct a project kickoff meeting
. Manage a scrum call taking status
. Assertive communication: Persuade the team to put in long hours to complete a task
. Give status update important issues to your skip level manager
. conduct a project planning and timelining meet
. Give a technical presentation
. Conduct a scrum retrospective call
. Manage a communication with a client to close a contract
. Pitch your idea proposal and win a project
. Manage an escalation scenario.
. Conduct a quarterly earnings call and take questions
. Meet with external teams with a potential for future co-operation
2. Mentoring and performance feedback
. Coach an employee who is showing non-compliance
. Give performance feedback
. Set the expectations to your reportee
3. Stakeholder management
. Give the same information to 4 different stakeholders with differing detail and vocabulary
4. Hiring
. Conduct interview (5 hours)
. Write JD
. Work multiple channels to source candidate resumes
5. Networking
. Organise an event for the organisation
. Organise a special interest weekly meetup group within the organisation
. Lobby successfully to advance the adoption of a new tool
6. Negotiation
. Negotitation of jjoining date with an employee
. Negotiation salary package with a new hire
. Negotiation of a deadline with a client
7. Writtten communication
. Write a business proposal with clear ROI for project
. Write a mail seeking co-operation
. Write a stakeholder communcation plan
. Write a project timeline
. Write a project communication plan
. Budget for the project
8. Behavior and soft skills
. Respectful polite behavior
. body language( power , confidence, submission etc)
Are there more skills to add to the above? Appreciate comments and replies.
Thanks,
Sri Saving Changes...
This is a good list! I'd add a whole section around other leadership interpersonal behaviors which need to include things like reward & recognition, establishing a psychologically safe culture, helping the team develop their working agreements, and effective delegation
Sri, In addition, I would add three items to your list: 1. Legal and Ethical Responsibilities - for instance, a) Understanding employment laws and regulations. b) Ensuring fair and ethical treatment of employees.
2. Ethics and Professionalism - for instance, a) Understanding ethical considerations in project management. b) Adhering to professional standards
3. Continuous Improvement - for instance, a) Encouraging a culture of continuous improvement in project management practices.
I would go one further than Kiron and suggest that leadership skills should be top of the list.
Often, when top performers are promoted into management roles, they are already strong technically and should at least have the skill set and personal initiative to learn new technical management related skills on demand. Where they really lack is the people skills. There are whole books about it like "What got here won't get you there." It's the basis of The Peter Principle where people are promoted to a level where they are now incompetent and that is where their journey finishes.
I had the benefit of being sent to a multi-week transition to management course some years ago, and almost all of it was about introspection and how my role as a leader affects others' lives, not about status meetings, timekeeping, or finance. Those are tasks you will need to learn once you are in the role, true enough, but the administrivia of the role rather than the core competency.
One of the most disappointing things I see in many organizations is that their culture stresses management over leadership, with the managers trying to prove that they are more tech savvy than the people they hire to be the techies. Leaders by contrast empower the team to do more, rather than managers who constrain and direct the team with their own limited vision. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Sri
think meeting skills are a bit overdone, while all of them are ok, focus on what is important.
Extend hiring to team building, of which it is one of the first steps.
Some more:
Problem solving skills, and there are several, including design thinking.
Conflict handling, keeping your emotions out.
Emotional Intelligence - self-awareness, serenity, empathy, influencing.
Tolerance of uncertainty.
Sustainability and willpower.
Utilizing diversity and pluralism.
Humility, keep your ego in check and look at yourself from the outside. Saving Changes...
Bob PatrinoConsultant/Senior Technical Project Manager| TamazariNewport, KY, United States
I think that I have a less 'checklist' oriented philosophy about this topic. Supervision/management is not the same as leadership. A newly promoted manager can have amazing technical skills but have very lousy leadership ability. I would be more inclined to focus on how the new manager interacts with their team and others. Can they communicate? Are they empathetic? Do they inspire trust? Saving Changes...
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