In my last Blog Article I spoke on the importance of having line managers well trained and coached in Leadership & Emotional Intelligence, Communication and Teamwork. We call this training as the foundational training. It is truly the baseline of what we used to call “soft skills”. I prefer calling them “core skills”. No person should be managing anything or anyone without being well versed in these core skills.

However beyond these foundational core skills, we have been seeing various other particular aspects of a line managers role and how performing effectively in that role needs a plethora of other skill sets.

At EMCS we have designed a number of training and coaching sessions that build upon the foundational training, previously outlined. The aim of these training and coaching sessions is to upskill line managers in order to better enable them deal with the various challenges they need to contend with. Below are some of the main training & coaching sessions:

Delegating effectively – Avoiding the plague of Micromanagement: Many times persons are promoted to the role of managers as they have shown that they are proficient at their job and possess good technical skills. However once they are promoted to the role of manager, they find themselves at a loss as they are now not skilled to manage the people that are now doing the job. Many times these leads to having managers micromanaging things and driving their team members up the wall. This training and coaching session will focus on the art of proper delegation and how to avoid micromanaging without losing control on the final output.

Time Management & Prioritisation Skills: Many line managers do the common mistake of not dedicating their time according to those areas to which they can deliver the highest value added. Others some signals of poor time management as they are constantly battling with huge time wasting activities, which they would better get rid of. Some managers also have battles related to procrastination and lack of delegation that is stopping them from using their time better. Ultimately managers need to learn to prioritise things effectively as time is a very scarce resource at their disposal.

Managing Conflict: Conflict can be a source of great waste of time and hence a huge cost to any business organisation. Managers need to be skilled as how to possibly prevent conflict, manage conflict and ultimately resolve conflict. Conflict can only be truly resolved if managers are able to analyse conflict and the reasons for such conflict effectively and are skilled enough to resolving it by trying to achieve a win-win resolution.

Negotiation & Influencing Skills: Managers are required to negotiate frequently at various levels, be it with their own team members or external clients and suppliers. However they many times approach any negotiation process in the wrong way as they are not skilled in how to build a structured approach to any negotiation, what techniques to use in a negotiation and how to communicate during a negotiation. Many managers lack the basic knowledge to distinguish between “interests” and “positions” when it comes to negotiations.

Financial Training for non-Financial people: I see many managers in conflict with other managers as they lack the ability to understand the point of view of the other manager. This situation is most common when there is a conflict between any line manager and the financial controller of the business. Many times this conflict arises as many line managers, like sales managers, fail to understand the point of view and the requirement of a financial controller. This training course is intended for those non-financial line managers who could perform better if they get a good grasp of solid and healthy financial principles that they could follow to boost the performance of the team they are leading.

Feel free to contact me on silvan.mifsud@emcs.com.mt to discuss the training needed by your managers. We will also guide you as how you can obtain funding for such training, whilst also handling the application for such funding.