Derrin Kent ( Link to Derrin's BLOG )

Management Development Courses

Individual sessions, short programmes or longer-term courses available

Today's managers need a broad range of skills to enable them to evolve with changing business needs. The Development Manager's management development programmes addresses the key issues involved with leadership and performance management. Organisational performance is directly linked to the strategies and policies implemented by leaders. Investing in the higher level skills needed to drive your business forward sets the scene for business success and future growth opportunities. Derrin believes that the best management development programmes couple knowledge and theory with hands on experiential learning. Ranging from supervisory level competence through to senior management level, this programme offers flexible yet challenging development of managerial skills.

Derrin delivers the following Leadership and Management Development Courses:

Business Planning for Managers
Planning in business is one of the key skills required by managers. The ability and discipline to plan on a short, medium and long-term basis is a great asset to the ‘pro-active’ manager and their organisation. This programme looks at the mechanical and visionary aspects of planning whilst ensuring that decisions are based on fact rather than assumptions.
Conducting a Constructive Appraisal
The task of reviewing or appraising employees places a considerable responsibility on the managers involved. It is a delicate and complex task. Appraisal interviews are used to review an individual’s performance in a job and to plan for the future. If carried out effectively, they can provide a method of obtaining, analysing and recording information about an employee.
Effective Coaching & Mentoring
Coaching is a key characteristic of good leadership and management. It is the process of helping employees to maximise their potential to the benefit to themselves, the team and the organisation. This programme concentrates on coaching activities that help to develop individuals and teams. It identifies techniques that help to develop and motivate others.
Effective Disciplining
Regardless of how good a manager you are or how able and motivated the group of subordinates you manage is, the hard truth is that at some time or other you will have to discipline a problem employee. For many managers, initiating a disciplinary action is one of the most difficult interpersonal activities they are required to do. While knowledge of the proper discipline skills won’t make the task a great deal easier, it can make the outcome more effective. This programme will identify and discuss the communication and assertiveness techniques that will lead to more effective outcomes of the disciplinary interview.
A Manager’s Guide to Successful Meetings
Many people dread having to attend meetings. This is often due to an unfortunate past experiences they have had. When people complain about meetings being a ‘waste of time’ or ‘boring’ they are really complaining about the poor communication that takes place. This programme provides the skills required to organise and conduct structured meetings and record the decisions.
Effective Recruitment and Staff Selection Practices
Our biggest assets are our staff – and our potential biggest risk. If we employ the wrong people with the wrong skills we will invariably encounter problems in performance and quality. “The quality of a product or service is directly related to the quality of the people delivering that product or service” (Dr. Ishikawa – TQM) This programme is designed to look at the interviewing and selection processes that should be adopted by the modern manager.
Interviewing & Appraisal skills for Managers
Who should attend? Managers wishing to develop their interview skills for various work situations. Why should you attend? As the success of an organisation rests primarily with the quality and happiness of its employees, it is essential that management employ skill and technique in managing selection, appraisal, counselling, disciplinary and exit interviews.
Introduction to Financial Management
Finance lies at the heart of every organisational decision. From strategic planning to day-today operational management, the financial implications of every decision is of critical importance and a must know for every manager. Yet too often finance is seen as the dark arts of the accounting and finance departments. This simple, but effective course aims to explain the basics of finance in easy to understand language covering the key areas of finance.
Introduction to Project Management
Many organisations require their staff at all levels to manage or participate in short, medium and long-term projects. These projects may relate to any aspect of the business but all require a high level of accuracy. Managing projects can be a time consuming and complex process requiring the ability to control many tasks at the same time. This programme is intended to look at the project management and planning process. It aims to assist the project manager to structure and maintain a controlled approach.
Introduction to Knowledge Management
How well does your organisation identify, create, capture, acquire, share and leverage knowledge? Are you using an effective combination of formal and informal, online and human-interactive processes to manage both explicit and tacit knowledge of your organisation? This programme will initially equip you to implement Knowledge Management in your organisation.
Motivation Programme Overview
People want to work, give their best and be recognised for it. They also want to work for organisations that understand this and give them room to do so. Why then does it seem so hard to get people at work to do what we want? Motivating people is seldom easy, in fact many experts say that you cannot motivate others, you can only create positive conditions that enable people to motivate themselves. This programme will look at the major theories of motivation and their practical application in the workplace. Emphasis is placed on creating conditions that will help us to be more effective in motivating employees.
People Skills for New Supervisors & Team Leaders
Of all the challenges individuals face as they progress their career, one of the most demanding is their first supervisory role. Not only does the supervisor require technical know how for planning and organising but also excellent people management skills to achieve superior team results. This one day course develops the essential skills and techniques to turn promising employees into highly effective supervisors and team leaders. Delegates will learn the fundamentals of effective people management and team motivation.
Practical Leadership Skills
Research has proved that a team of 10 motivated, well-led people will out perform a group of 30 badly led people. The skills of teambuilding and leadership are among management’s most powerful tools. The root to meeting organisational objectives is to get teams not only to do things willingly but also to take responsibility for continuous improvement and to perform to their full potential. This programme develops leadership and teambuilding knowledge and skills that will encourage commitment and have a positive effect on motivation and team.
Problem Solving & Decision Making
There are two things that all your workplace problem-solving processes have in common - they will involve and affect people that you supervise. People are the human resources that organisations use to reach their goals, but we must never forget that they are unique individuals. This uniqueness must be respected and fostered in whatever problem solving and decision-making methods are used in the workplace. Each person will have his, or her own skills, weaknesses, strengths, viewpoints and limitations. The focus of this programme is facilitating the problem-solving process. The strategies for discussion are applicable to both group and individual situations.
Senior Management Development Programme
Successful managers need to be innovative, creative, dynamic and forward thinking. This requires a blend of expert strategic analysis and commercial management, combined with an entrepreneurial and innovative approach. This course is designed for Managers who are preparing for or already in a senior or strategic management position.
Strategic Planning for Managers
Planning in business is one of the key skills required by managers. The ability and discipline to plan on a short, medium and long-term basis is a great asset to the ‘pro-active’ manager and their organisation. This programme looks at the mechanical and visionary aspects of planning whilst ensuring that decisions are based on fact rather than assumptions.
Teams and Culture
In creating an empowered organisation, management needs to be aware of how organisational culture can contradict the team behaviour that he or she is trying to reinforce. For example, it is difficult to get team members to work together when rewards and incentives are all for individual achievement. It is therefore important for managers to understand the positive and negative impact of workplace culture.
The Art of Effective Delegation
It is recognised that there are limits to any manager’s time and knowledge. Effective managers therefore need to understand the value of delegating and how to implement it. This programme defines delegation, explores its benefits and provides a set of behavioural dimensions that act as a model of good delegation practice. The programme also investigates the positive and negative aspects of constructive criticism and how it can be used during delegation to motivate others into achieving goals.