Line Management Course

Course Content

The course will be tailored to reflect the needs of the delegates on the day.

We will include many of the exercises listed below, and any additional material that the trainers feel is relevant.

Opening Discussion

 A brief discussion on the line management role to set the scope for the day.

The Line Management Journey

Building on this, in small groups, delegates discuss the times and places in their lives when they have managed things successfully and the skills and resources they used.

Managed to Manager

As a group delegates offer their thoughts on the differences between being managed and managing.

Stepping Up

What qualities or resources do you need to step up to the line management role?

Delegates work in pairs on flip charts and then highlight three qualities they already have and acknowledge their best quality to the room.

Things They Didn't Tell You

Here we take a look at all the things the line manager is responsible for including all the extra things that come with the role but aren't necessarily in the job description!

Important things like Key Performance Indicators, Health and Safety, Quality and Environmental Responsibility.

It's all these extra things that can make promotion to line manager seem more of a curse than a blessing.

Hopes and Fears

Just to put things in perspective, delegates will construct a 'change curve' showing the sort of emotional journey they might experience from being first given a line management role.

From the feeling of being overwhelmed, to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - in other words being a confident, competent manager.

Coping with Change

Delegates think of changes they have been through in recent years and label them as easy/hard/impossible or imposed.

We then consider what it might be like for those who are being managed when a new line manager is appointed - again based on delegates own experience.

Authority

What is it?

How do you get it?

We will have a bit of fun turning up and down authority, from none upwards - just to show it can be done and the effect it has.

Attitudes

Building on the last exercise we look at how all sorts of other attitudes can be projected.

Everyone can change their behaviour quickly and easily and here you'll get a chance to practise projecting a number of different attitudes and seeing the impact they have.

Ownership of Responsibility

In this exercise, we compare the 'Teflon' approach to responsibility with that of owning it and the effect of each.

Delegation

We will play with different ways of asking people to do things - being fluffy or vague versus being clear and concise and the Do-Tell-Coach cycle.

Communication Cycle

We use a simple model to follow through a communication cycle, showing how easily we can be misunderstood but how with care, we can put our attention where it is needed so that everyone is clear.

i.e.; what I say is what you heard and we both understand what I meant.

Trust and Risk

This is an exercise that looks at the difference between trust and risk.

How to engender trust in someone else.

How easy it is to lose it and the effect that has on delegation.

The Art of Saying No/Yes

A look at the language we use when we have to:

• Deliver tough messages
• Introduce a new idea
• Ask someone to do something for them
• Turn down a request

Eating elephants

Ever felt a sense of bewilderment and overwhelm when faced with a seemingly impossible task?

Here's a practical exercise for eating that elephant.

Decision Making

A practical and fun exercise that explores the emotional side of decision making - a kind of push-me / pull-you analysis of the journey towards a decision.

Practice / Preparation for Day Two

Think of two difficult line management situations.

One where you felt you were managed poorly

One where you felt you managed someone else poorly.

Day Two

Persuasion, Motivation and Inspiration

We ask the participants:

What motivates/de-motivates you?

What motivates others in your team?

Are you doing everything you could do to motivate your team?

Empowering Others

A look at what happens when you stonewall, hijack or encourage ideas.

We will look at the motivating or de-motivating effect different approaches can have.

Bringing Values to Life

We provide a model to help people cascade the process of personalising the company values to make them more meaningful.

The idea here is to help make your company's values more than good words.

To make them rather a foundation for people's behaviour and commitment.

Setting Targets

Targets can motivate or de-motivate.

Setting clear objectives, targets and expectations can motivate the team to want to achieve them all and more!

We compare aspirational targets with a baseline approach and how they translate into a sense of success or failure.

What message do you, as a line manager, want to send?

Managing Performance

The Best Surprise - is no surprise

Here are some of the feelings that get in the way of managing poor performance.

I Noticed That...

A simple model that pre-empts difficulties and patterns of behaviour.

Blame vs Effect of Behaviour

This exercise shows how you can avoid finger-pointing and blame in order to more comprehensively resolve a difficulty.

Feedback Finesse

This exercise looks at how to give effective feedback by asking the questions:

• What am I feeding?
• What feelings do I want to leave?
• Is this feedback helping the problem or creating new ones?

Acknowledgement

Building on the last exercise we look at the useful tool of giving acknowledgement and the effect it has.

We explore the difference between praise, recognition and acknowledgement and how to avoid coming across as patronising.

Poor Performance

And at the other end of the scale, we look at the much-feared process of giving difficult messages to people who are performing below par.

Handling Conflict

We look at a series of short exercises for use when communication has got difficult and tensions are mounting.

Many of these techniques can also be used to pre-empt difficulties before they escalate.

Emotion vs Objectivity

So what you're saying is

A technique that helps to calm the situation down and pinpoint exactly what the problem is.

Listening with Empathy

Here we use an agreement technique that finds common ground when you are in the midst of an argument and need to have a calm discussion.

Agreement is used to diffuse tensions and to allow people to feel heard and acknowledged.

Internal Boundaries

Looking for the signals as to when internal boundaries have been crossed.

Deliberate Misunderstanding

This is a fun exercise for dealing with obtuse or difficult people!

It demonstrates how hard it can be to get your point across in the face of other people either misunderstanding you or choosing to make it difficult for you.

Shouting up the Hierarchy

A fun look at how difficult it is to get our message heard up the line and the pressure we put people under down the line.

How can we make ourselves clear so that we are able to prioritise successfully?

Giving bad news

As in life, so in line management, things can't always go as well as we'd like, and when they go awry we are sometimes reluctant to let people know.

This is a practical technique that owns up to a problem in a way that comes across as professional and in control.

Personal Style

You'll be asked to acknowledge what you know you do well and you'll get feedback from your colleagues on what they see what works about you.

Everyone will get relevant hand-outs to remind them of the coursework, including our memorable visual cue cards.

Ongoing Support

Two weeks after the course one of your trainers will call to see how you are getting on.

You will have email and telephone access to both of your trainers.

You'll also have access to a course web page containing:

• Handouts used during the course
• New supportive material
• Impact Factory PDF documents
• Recommended reading
• Links to our favourite videos

Line Management Course