Does being a newly appointed Manager excite but worry you?
Then this Confident New Manager Programme is the key you need to succeed and thrive:

Are you worried about the transition to managing other people?
Do you feel excited, yet terrified in your new role, daunted by tasks and responsibilities you have never had before?
Do you feel out of depth, lacking in confidence, and fear being seen to be a failure in your new role (maybe even suffering from Imposter Syndrome)?
Are you concerned about juggling all your tasks on top of monitoring the work of your team?
Are you worried about not knowing how best to manage the members of your team?
Do you sometimes feel there is no one at work to turn to with your worries?
Would you find it useful to have someone on hand, external to the organisation, to discuss your concerns, issues and ideas?

If you have said yes to any of the above, then here is the programme for you:

This is an instructor-led, online, group training and one-to-one coaching programme, designed specifically to help new managers lead their teams more confidently, effectively and productively. It will give you the support, tools and techniques to help you to feel more confident (and less stressed) about your role; to interact better with your team, peers, and those senior to you; to manage your team more effectively, build trust and get them to work more productively and cohesively to achieve goals.

Instructor Bio:

My name is Janet Baker and, many years ago, I was like you, a newly appointed manager. Having previously been a very successful team leader, I thought the transition would be straightforward. However, reality was very different.

The support I had been promised was not forthcoming, the team was divided, some were resentful. I felt totally out of my depth, suffered from imposter syndrome and longed for my old job. I was so stressed! Over time, I ploughed my way through the problems, gained experience amid much heartache and hard work, and met challenges face on.

Fast forward in time, I have now been a successful Training Consultant and Coach for the last 25 years, putting that knowledge and experience to good use. I have worked with people in management of all levels in a wide variety of organisations, training and coaching them to help them become more effective in their roles.

Don’t struggle through like I did. Let me pass this knowledge and experience on to you to fast track your way to being a more confident manager by giving you the tools and support you need in your new role.

What can this programme do for you and your team?

There are six training modules, plus a series of coaching sessions:

Step 1: Validation

Why you? Understanding your new role as a manager, what is expected of you and when, and feeling more confident about being in that post

Step 2: Organisation

Recruitment of and interviewing staff, ensuring you have the “best fit” personnel in your team

Step 3: Communication:

Dealing with your team in meetings and one-to-one; online and face-to-face. Communicating in an open, friendly, and professional way, to ensure your time and their time is used most effectively, ensuring tasks are completed successfully, questions asked and answered freely and clearly. Also communicating well with other departments, peers, and senior management

Step 4: Tasks and Delegation

Managing your workload and that of your team, to ensure work is completed to standard in a timely manner

Step 5: Motivation

Working with your team to make the best use of their skills, expertise, and knowledge, getting them on board, helping improve collaboration, communication, creativity, productivity and trust and managing their performance

Step 6: Transformation

Taking it forward for the future, growing as an individual and with your team

Step 7: Coaching

Four one-hour, one-to-one coaching sessions, when you will have some private time to focus on your own specific issues

Additionally, you will have email support, to get your questions answered, and a programme Facebook group to connect with like-minded members.

When does it start?

The next programme will run for six concurrent Thursdays, commencing on 30 September 2021 at 09:30hrs (UK BST), each module lasting about two hours. On completion of the training programme, you will then be invited to book four one-hour, one-to-one coaching sessions with me.

Alternatively, a second Programme will be run on Thursdays, commencing on 30 September 2021, at 18:30hrs UK BST (13:30hrs EST).

What is the cost?

The investment in this programme is £597 per person. Only ten people will be accepted onto it, so sign up today to be part of this exciting programme!

Application deadline:

The deadline to sign up is midnight on Monday 27 September 2021.

To Enrol:

Contact me at janet@inspiretrainingmidlands.co.uk, fill in a booking form or phone me on 07944225290 to secure your place on this unique programme.

Drop me an email at janet@inspiretrainingmidlands.co.uk and I will be happy to help.

Click here for the booking form:  New Manager Programme Booking Form

Photo credits:  

Sanu A S from Pixabay

Katy Allison from Pixabay

Angelo Esslinger from Pixabay

Meetings are notorious for being terrible time consumers, and not always to great effect either. This can mean that they are an expensive waste of time for many of the participants and the organisation as well, if nothing useful comes of them.

With that in mind, here are three quick suggestions which can help make your meetings more productive, effective and efficient.

Time agenda items

When you decide on what to include in your agenda, you should also decide roughly how long should be spent discussing the subject.

When I used prepare agendas, I would email the meeting participants, asking if anyone had anything to add to the agenda and the length of time they wished me to allocate to it. The first time I ever did it, a colleague who would happily talk in a meeting for an hour about any given topic, emailed me back saying he would need 15 minutes! And he actually stuck to it!

So, allocate a time slot for each item. As you will then know all the agenda items ahead of the meeting, the Any other business section could just be allocated about five minutes.

Once the times have been set, you are then able to work out the length of the meeting, and book the room and the participants accordingly. People are then able to work the rest of their day around it, knowing when they will be free again.

Appoint a timekeeper

In the meeting itself, it is useful to appoint someone (not the chair or the minute-taker) as timekeeper. They can keep an eye on the timings on the agenda and ensure speakers are checked. I used to ask the timekeeper to make participants aware when there was just one minute left (often by using a ‘time out’ sign or ‘wind up’ sign). This way the dialogue can be brought to a convenient close.

If the discussion is still ongoing, it is up to the chairperson to decide if (a) they need to continue talking about it in the meeting; (b) if it can be put on hold till the next meeting or (c) if any of the participants can meet outside the meeting, continue the discussion, then report back (either to the next meeting or by email to other participants) once it is complete.

More often or not, the talking is concluded and the meeting progresses to the next agenda item.

Allocate deadlines to actions in minutes

Everyone is familiar with the process of allocating someone to carry out an action identified in the minutes of a meeting. However, frequently no timescale is allocated to that action, so it can just drift on. Sometimes actions then get lost along the way too.

When you decide on an action to be taken, then the person who will carry out that action, give them a deadline by which to carry it out. It may be “by the next meeting” or “by Friday” but it gives them a definitive time to plan with.

Sometimes, there are multiple actions requiring several people to work together. It may be that one person’s task is reliant on another person completing theirs, so giving time limits can help both parties. For example, you might ask one person to book a room at an hotel for a gala dinner, another to research and book entertainment, another to book transport. Until the first task is confirmed, and they have a date, the second and third person cannot carry out their tasks.

One PA who attended a training session with me, gave me an additional excellent tip, which I happily pass on nowadays. She suggested putting a “shopping list” summary of all the actions at the end of the minutes, plus a carried forward column for any which hadn’t been completed, for whatever reason, from previous minutes. A new date can then be allocated to these if still needed. This provides a quick reference point for readers, and keeps track of actions completed or outstanding. For example:

So there you have it, three simple suggestions to make your meetings run more smoothly and efficiently and make better use of everyone’s time.

Try them, you will be surprised how well they work!