Mark over on the ‘Integration Training’ blog posted an interesting post about ‘Technique Head’ recently.

Mark writes about trainers and consultants who learn the theories and explanations then spout them out, almost as written, regardless of their own understanding of it, or the understanding of the people they are training.

These “theorists” use the theory not as a means to an end but as an end in itself.
I know some consultants and trainers, for whom the talking about and theorising about, is more important than the actual doing.

They are the sort of people who will write endlessly about nutritional values, cooking in various parts of the world, health and safety considerations and then struggle to make beans on toast and get a cup of tea ready all at the same time.

There is the saying “Those that can, do and those that can’t, teach”
To an extent this could be true, bad teachers/trainers are those who know what to do, yet how to do it is lost on them and their students. Good teachers are those who have, done and know instinctively the best way to get their experiences and knowledge across.
It would be a sad world indeed if all teachers were former failures.

So why aren’t these ‘theory’ trainers and consultants just shown the door on the grounds that they are boring and in effect only tell us what we can find out for ourselves as easily as they did?

We live in an age of “perceived expertise” – where anyone can read a few books, set up a website and then call themselves pretty much whatever they want.

Most of the population (this goes for business as well as consumer) is generally so insecure that they will buy any “quick fix” going.

I agree with Mark’s overall thinking that training must work – at more than a superficial level – so the training does not have to be continually repeated, making staff more efficient, speeding  procedures etc. and overall, especially in these cost conscious times, saving money.

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Blog post originally from Sharp End Training

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Free articles on management styles

A colleague of mine recently used the phrase” the airport manager”. By this he meant that sometimes Managers with two hours to kill at the airport have picked up a book at the bookstall usually called something like

“Seven styles of management – to solve all your management problems (you need never worry about problem staff again).”

Now, I don’t know about you, but promises of that sort should always be looked at very sceptically. Books full of ‘How To’ information about management styles can be a bit like a ‘placebo’.

What is a placebo?

According to Wikipedia

A placebo is a sham medical intervention intended to lead the recipient to believe that it may improve his/her condition. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert sugar pill, and told that it may improve his/her condition.

And that’s the same with books for ‘airport managers’; and for free articles on management styles.

A good manager will learn from his/her mistakes while on the job – not from the books he/she has read, and his or her style of management will develop in the situations which occur.

Learning to swim by watching videos and reading books is the best way to drown.

Yes, It is possible to make a list of the types of management styles that different people use in their own workplaces but there are a whole host of factors which will influence the style of management that you adopt.

These include

Health and safety – This is the biggy. You can’t have a laid back management style if the health and safety of your staff and workforce is at risk. In situations which are hazardous to health, you need clear procedures and control mechanisms.

Legislative and statutory – Whilst not (immediately) hazardous to health. There are likely to be many legal requirements which affect your management style. If you work in food or food preparation, you should know what affects you and how to present this to the staff you have.

Personnel & staffing – This will obviously be a major factor is how you manage. What is the experience level of your staff? What are the skill levels to do the tasks of the job? Can you recruit quickly and easily? Is there a lengthy training program required?

Financial – Financial aspects are tied to personnel & staffing to some extent. For example, if your workforce if performing poorly and output is suffering but there is no money to pay for staff training. Then you have a problem. Which style is appropriate here?

Technological – There are likely to be many factors affecting your management style but these are, again, likely to come under one of the other previous headings. Here is an example. If your processes are heavily automated, but the technology is constantly breaking down and disrupting staff moral, again, you have a problem.

How would you manage these situations?

Hopefully, these ideas have got you to realise that your management style is a lot more than getting a free article (or buying a book from the airport), reading it and living happily ever after.

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Management styles

We all make decisions every day. It is these decisions that allow us to manage our lives, enabling us to do the things we want to do, while working with and around: other people, time and the everyday problems which always seem to occur.

Similarly a business needs to be managed. An Organisation is not called that because it falls apart every five minutes, but because the various parts have been managed and organised in order to fit its purpose

How the various parts are managed and by whom, largely depends on the type of organisation /business and its aims and objectives and the management styles of the individual managers themselves.

Management in its simplest form is about how you make use of your resources. These resources can be anything from how your money is spent and balancing a budget, moving people around, designing and placing items, in order to make the best of what you have.

There are four main management styles which can be employed within a business structure.

Taking each of these Management styles individually does not show a true picture of how a business should be managed.
It is likely that in most modern organisations many, if not all, of these styles are used at some time or other as changes to policies and practices are made almost on a week to week/month to month basis.

Which management style does your organisation use when and why?

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