People management

A course in people skills for managers
People management
Lately management got a lot of flak for being too process-oriented, too much focused on the short term, too much oriented on leanness and altogether neglecting the human side of leadership. This led to qualifications such as spreadsheet fundamentalism, anorectic organizations, neo-Taylorism and people farming. It does appear that trying to rationalize management overshot the mark in this respect and this has had serious negative consequences. As it is, such practices affect the quality of performance, external and internal communication, motivation, and well-being. This is especially true in (the parts of) organizations that provide services.

‘People management’ aims at restoring this relative neglect of the human factor. Besides being thoroughly skill-oriented, the approach also addresses the underlying suppositions and motives, aiming at a real and remaining change. In this way, ‘People management’ enables managers to be much more successful in this respect and become more of a real leader. 

Method
The program is custom-tailored. Its specific composition is determined in an intake session (one hour per participant). If needed, a short study (interviews, observation) can be done to gear the program even more to the organizational needs.
Skills are taught by micro-teaching techniques, in which participants experience the skill in question from different perspectives (doing, undergoing and observing it). All exercises are discussed. There are also group counseling and feedback sessions.
The program consists of three times two days two weeks apart (each time five day parts, with an overnight stay) and individual coaching sessions of two hours two weeks afterwards.

 Possible topics:
  • Becoming more sensitive for own and others’ verbal and non-verbal behavior, and its effects
  • Feedback skills
  • Asking questions and listening
  • Reflecting and focusing
  • Using fantasy
  • Recognizing own motives
  • Explicating own suppositions and goals
  • Surfacing others’ suppositions and goals, knowing what others are bringing and getting
  • Coming to ‘and-and’-solutions
  • Improving creativity
  • Awareness of ethical matters
  • Goal-setting
  • Using mental silence
  • Personal stress management
  • Motivating skills
  • Managing own emotions
  • Managing emotions of others
  • Managing expectations
  • Managing older personnel
  • Managing professionals

Results at the team and organizational level
  • Better performance
  • Better internal and external relationships
  • Better motivated employees
  • More well-being and lower sick-leave

Results at the individual level
  • Improved skills
  • More creativity and individual development
  • Emotional growth
  • Becoming more of a real leader

Participants
  • Managers who could use more people management skills
  • Number of participants: 4 - 12. Depending on the size of the group there will be 1 or 2 facilitators

Trainers
  • Trainer: Marc Schabracq
  • Co-trainer: Roos Schabracq
Book
All participants get the book Changing Organization Culture (Marc Schabracq, 2007, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons)

Track record
The course was developed for master students of the University of Amsterdam

Location
An external congress center with hotel facilities

Book

Changing organizational culture

Factsheet

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