Our Learning and Development Manager explains how career progression doesn’t have to be difficult
Here at Total Assist Group, training our staff is an absolutely central part of our company culture, as we energetically and enthusiastically encourage our staff to tackle career progression, and work their way through promotions. Although we offer an abundance of basic training, covering everything from simple sales teaching and techniques to stress management, we also think ahead to how we can support colleagues once they have made the decision to tackle the career ladder and business hierarchy.
In particular, we have two targeted programmes aimed at those who wish to hone their skills in more senior roles – the ‘Pathway to Leadership’ teaching which is aimed at managers, and the ‘Learning to Lead’ training, for those who are entering or thinking of starting out as a team leader. Many individuals are equipped with the industry know-how to flourish successfully in their work, however to develop into a leadership position also requires added ‘soft’ skills, with a focus on communication to really ensure that your team is managed well and efficiently, so that you can get the best from employees.
Pathway to Leadership
This interesting training for managers really helps to clarify the defining differences between what it means to be a leader and what it means to be a manager, and how you can negotiate the two. The course tackles a variety of issues, with one module concentrating on effective communication – learning how to be understood by all as well as ensuring you understand others is critical for gaining valuable feedback and ideas within the company, especially since you will be a key point of contact for colleagues. The teaching will also analyse your personal management style and how you can utilise it to create win-win situations for both you and your employees. Dealing with difficult people can also be a bit of a minefield so that is another useful area that we cover, as well as more general skills such as good time management, which always comes in handy. Another aspect of management is the position of being a rolemodel and mentor, so we also take the time to investigate coaching methods, and how you can help your team develop individually. All in all, this course is a complete package for enabling you to deal with management roles.
Learning to Lead
Stepping up from the ranks of the team to start leading your colleagues can be quite tricky to navigate, which is why we feel it is important to provide support and advice about the best ways to go about this. The teaching covers basic categories, such as what a team leader job involves and what attributes you need to be successful, however it also helps pinpoint any skills gaps you may have, so that we can work on improving these throughout the duration of the course. Communication is really broken down to help new team leaders grasp a thorough understanding, for example learning about active listening and different kinds of questions, such as open, closed, leading and multiple choice. Difficult situations and people may be something a potential team leader hasn’t come up against before, so we ensure that colleagues are armed with the skills to tackle this head on, helping them to develop their interpersonal skills to the max. As well as learning about self managing and the art of juggling your workload with managing a team, we also cover the basics of what it means to be in charge of a group of people. Many won’t have experience of allocating or delegating out tasks, or giving feedback to colleagues, so these are all areas that we cover so that every team leader who steps out on to the sales floor is full of confidence that they are equipped to deal with any situation that arises.
What other training do we provide to colleagues?
Every fundamental business skill is covered as a requirement at Total Assist Group, as we aim for all our employees to be driven, knowledgeable and self sufficient in their work. Here are some of the other courses we offer to our employees:
- Sales training – new and old staff can brush up on sales techniques
- Account management – role specific knowledge for our Client Account Managers
- Assertiveness – learning how to use communication to gain results
- Communication skills – focuses on the impacts of ineffective and effective communication styles
- Preparing for appraisal – get the most from your catch up with your line manager
- Completing a PDP – complete your personal development plan with confidence
- Systems training – basic know-how for our in-house computer systems
- Equality and diversity – helps increase understanding of this topic in the workplace
- Stress management – creates understanding about stress in the workplace
- Health and safety – raise awareness about this politically correct area
- Winning telephone techniques – a large part of business is done on the phone, so this fine tunes your skills
- Customer centricity – learning why this is a vital aspect of our day to day roles and how we can understand our customers
- Recruitment Academy – our intensive nine week teaching programme, giving recruitment newbies all the info they need for a career on the sales floor
[testimonial name=”Sue Murfet” who=”Learning and Development Manager” imagelinks=”https://totalassist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Sue-Murfet-e1404484076393.jpg” vertical=”no”]”I have overall responsibility for the learning and development strategy at Total Assist Group. I am a qualified assessor and internal verifier with 20 years experience in learning and development departments training adults. I can help fast track your career as a recruitment consultant.”[/testimonial]
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