The only constant is change. How you manage this in yourself will determine your success in managing your team through change, while ensuring greater quality, efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of care.

Management is all about mastering a complex set of skills and achieving your goals through your people. If you are new to management, want to develop yourself as a manager or if you manage other managers, it’s important to stand back and reflect on your own management skills and competencies.  The world of work is hugely dynamic and demanding, and strong management techniques and behaviours will enable you to achieve quality care for your customers, clients, patients, staff and yourself, while building and developing a reliable team. Central to this is mastering the art of self-management, self-awareness and managing the impact your behaviours have on your team and your clients.  If you can’t manage yourself, how will you be able to manage others?  Self-Awareness is having a clear understanding of your personality, your thoughts, emotions and ultimate behaviours.  It allows you to better understand how you affect other people, how they perceive you and how you ultimately manage your responses to them.

Over the past 22 years, I have trained thousands of people worldwide on management, leadership and coaching skills, with real and meaningful results.  Putting the training, skills and techniques into practice is crucial if you want to be the change you want to see!  As one of my many satisfied clients, Molly Vinu, MN-CMS Gynae Project Manager at the National Maternity Hospital says “I attended this training to improve my understanding of the role of management and to learn about various practical and measurable techniques and methodologies, in preparation for my interview for a management position. The learning enabled me to widen my perspective and drill into my beliefs, thoughts and the challenges related to a managerial role.  It placed me in the manager’s shoes and helped me to analyse the realities of the position. I know for certain, this training enabled me to move from a non-managerial position to that of a clinical nurse manager and project lead.”

To be credible and effective in your management role, you need to understand the difference between being a leader, a manager and a coach and how and when to become each of these seamlessly.  You need to develop a culture of respect and integrity where there is no fear or favour shown and where your clients are the number one priority.  Developing your team to be the best they can be, improving your communication and active listening skills and motivating and empowering your team will result in a more unified and committed approach to collective quality service.  I often hear the cry ‘There isn’t enough time ….’ but there is a proven way to pull back time spent on non-critical activities.  This is one of the most eye-opening lessons, and when applied back in the workplace, is having significant positive results.

It’s fair to say that everyone suffers from a lack of self-confidence at various times in their life, and also in their career.  Just because you are in a management position, doesn’t mean you are automatically and always right, or that you are always brimming over with self-confidence.  However, for you to manage your team to best effect, you need to recognise when your confidence is low, and immediately deal with this.  Molly has and is consciously applying the techniques and learning from my programme “This training induced a high sense of confidence and taught me to look into different frames of evaluation. It taught me how to communicate more effectively without bias and how to visualise the crossroads of conflict and their sound management. Since every managerial position requires communications between different stakeholders, I am confident this training enabled me to unlock the doors of dogma.”

Managers cannot change other people, but they do need to learn how to change their own behaviours to influence change in others.  With the level of change happening in all sectors, industries and countries, take time out to help yourself manage yourself first, and then you will be better able to guide and manage your team.

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