The article focuses on the systemic character of managerial training, identifying in the entry phase the leader in interaction with his organization for the adequate design of his Training Program; in the process; the responsibility and influence of the Management Training Centers, Professors and Consultants in their training and outings: the factors that facilitate or hinder the subsequent objectives of change: environment and group.
After working in different manifestations related to Management Training for more than thirty years, we increasingly realize that although there have been significant advances, we still have a long way to go to achieve the necessary and expected results in this important activity..
Starting from the global concept that defines it as a permanent, planned activity, based on current needs and perspectives of the members of an entity. Oriented to CHANGE and comprehensive development of the trainee and the effectiveness of their work.
And appropriately locating the components of the system; We identify in the entrances a man that the society designates or the group chooses to exercise his leadership, according to the supposed possession of the knowledge, abilities, skills, values, feelings and motives that are expected to interact with the environment, problems of the organization, the characteristics of the group, and lead and drag it within reach of the objectives.
Seeing the matter in this way, it would seem too simplistic and almost magical, the expectation that only with the personal ingredients that the man brings to his entrance, he could positively transform the scenarios, often chronically affected by the environment and by group idiosyncrasy and reach a contribution positive.
This man, even with the appropriate cultural and professional level, motivation and absolute dedication to the exercise of the duties of his position, needs the support and direction of the environment, the decisive interaction with the members of his group and the effectiveness with which he interprets. and take advantage of opportunities and moderate scenarios will depend on the effectiveness of their management.
Delving into these input elements, we highlight the dependence of the leading subject, on a series of objective factors such as:
- Basic cultural training Previous management experience Specialization in the activity to be conducted Constant relevant information in the scientific-technical, social, cultural, political and legal fields Linkage and personal attraction to the activity he directs Constant feedback on the results They are achieving Interpersonal training in the different areas related to their activity Constant learning of the best external experiences and in particular those of their group
Because it is the daily life in which the dialectical, multi-faceted and multifaceted leader participates, we cannot aspire to a single man being prepared to manage success everywhere. Each scenario will require a general preparation, which must be enriched by the specificity of the competencies required to lead correctly in that particular context.
That is why this leader needs to be assured by the level that designates him in his responsibility, an adequate design of a Training Program closely related to the Vision and needs of the Organization, which will have to be complemented with individual actions of self-improvement, taking advantage of all the avenues at your disposal and sacrificing your own personal time.
The pressure of time, of the environment, of the unsolved problems, the common panorama that he faces daily with his group, will require the leader a strong individual effort to plan and dedicate time to overcome them. However, the traditional study of the themes will not suffice included in courses, publications and other media; The current development of Knowledge Management puts in your hands an essential tool: Benchmarking.
Observing, studying, learning, from those who have achieved positive results in similar areas, is an imperative of the time and a non-formal, fast and inexpensive way to assimilate novel and effective experiences.
Copying them by mechanically transplanting those results is not smart. The study and deepening of the same, will allow the leader the evaluation and determination of the possible applications, according to the peculiar characteristics of the organization that he directs and to the distinctive particularities of his group.
Training for short periods in similar organizations of the country itself or others, also constitutes a way of feedback and comparison of their reality and other realities, enabling the assimilation of adaptable and achievable experiences.
The leader's Training Plan should not be a passive and bureaucratic document, lying forgotten in a file. On the contrary, it should be a guide, an instrument of the Action Plan that she and the superior level draw up to adapt their competences to the needs of their position and to the imperatives of organizational and human development.
Not a static document, but it must be nurtured and updated according to the results that are being achieved and the persistent insufficiencies, so that it really goes from document to instrument and becomes the driving force of its training as an incentive for personal achievement.
A true Management Training Plan will not be the cumulative sum of courses to be passed by the leader, but rather the integration of the different actions of improvement, research, training, rotation, internships, workshops for acquiring skills and abilities; enriched by an evaluative analysis of the correspondence of its competences and the results that are being achieved in the organization it leads.
We still have a long way to go in the aforementioned field, but it is very encouraging to see that Success Organizations generally have managers as a result of well-thought-out and better-developed training.
Let's get our own reflections.
Taking up again the influence of the effective Training Process in the achievement of the leader's results, I propose to stop at the Institutions dedicated to this activity and its actors and agents of change: teachers, trainers and consultants.
The Management Training Centers are special educational Institutions and as such have specific requirements.
Due to the characteristics of their participants, also special, in my opinion, they acquire obligations, multiplying tasks and challenges that differentiate them from the rest of the teaching subsystems.
But carrying out the training activity for their centers is difficult and complex and despite their good intentions and those of their professionals, the expected results are not always achieved due to different causes, among which we can mention:
- Insufficient application of "andragogic" methods, with subjects who, due to their characteristics and experiences, do not come to be "taught knowledge", but to learn new techniques for solving problems and experiences in similar contexts. Lack of investigation of the needs of training of each leader. Amateur performance of professors, consultants, coaches, with eminently theoretical training, without own leadership experience and little connection with the current complex management scenarios.
A Management Training Center must be:
- Advanced Institution, paradigm in its results, of the successes that it communicates as an aspiration to its leaders. Promote the dissemination of the latest and most applicable in management and operations, not only as bibliographic information but as a demonstrative workshop on applicable realities. in the internal and external environment. Researcher of the best global and local experiences based on her constant interaction and feedback with the organizations of the Sector. Follower of the trajectory and successes of the main leaders as a living source of the teaching and recruitment examples of talents for your Cloister. Test laboratory of the main systems installed in the country.Research on the application of experiences in the main Companies as a means of effective feedback of the teaching process. To know and exhaustively master the origin, manifestation and evolution of the real training needs of its target population as the main source of their teaching plans. minimum Fixed cloister that assumes facilitating functions of process, methodological advice, consulting, research and publications; and a large faculty of Adjunct Professors selected from successful and well-known leaders, with pedagogical skills and professional motivations as a teacher or consultant. Develop a constant program of attraction, motivation and retention of these talents to ensure their genuine participation in the programs of the Center.Design active learning processes that bring out the valid experiences of the participants and generate self-reflection as the basis for subsequent change.
To complement the proper functioning of these Centers, a rigorous Selection of Professors, Trainers and Consultants must be carried out, evaluating their contribution to the objectives of the Center and their influence on changes in the participants' subsystem.
What characteristics should the teacher, coach or consultant have in the management training processes?
- Professionalism: Demonstrated in the possession of knowledge, abilities, skills and experiences that you do not teach but share with your special audience.
Obligation to demonstrate a level of scientific and practical updating, the result of their constant feedback not only with the latest bibliography, but also with the live development of practical management in the world and in particular in the country of reference.
- Ease of communication: Go from traditional "carrier" to "driver and facilitator", without mistaking the authority framework, pretending to teach or say "how to do it", without having starred in doing it. Expert in communication and feedback processes, to create an interactive climate that fosters the analysis and interpretation of the latest in management science, enriched by the experiences and contributions that participants can make from the daily role of actors. in companies as a complement to their professional universe. Credibility: Show and demonstrate the aforementioned references that facilitate acceptance, understanding and leadership given by the participants.
For all of the above, there is a need to project in each Management Training Institution an adequate Strategy for the selection, approval and development of its teachers, trainers and consultants.
The sources of entry for professionals to fill vacancies in these centers should be:
- Leaders with positive results, who receive adequate methodological training and a fair moral and material stimulation for their performance. Recently graduated professionals with high performance in their training, after a period of training and rotation in Sector Organizations.
And to the approval of a Methodological Preparation Course specialized in the andragogic methods and techniques of training leaders, and in the particularities of the Sector belonging to the target population.
Once these personnel have been recruited, their systematic links to companies and organizations will be ensured where they will develop their practices according to the objectives and interests of the educational center, facilitating feedback and collaborating in the solution of problems as the basis of their scientific research.
The effective linking of these professionals to the objective scenarios of managerial work, should be a main aspect of their performance evaluation, as well as an important argument to justify the actions of stimulation and promotion within the institutional and sector sectors.
With the same priority that methodological activities for teacher improvement are organized, the action plan derived from the centre's teaching strategy must contemplate the systematic holding of sessions for the exhibition, analysis and exchange of relevant experiences that teachers acquire in their business relationship, This will contribute significantly to the collective control of a bank of real problems that feed the training itself.
Due to the economic and social particularity of each country, the frequent collection and analysis of the information provided by teachers as a result of their practical link, will allow the creation of national data banks, which are very useful and complement training and reference for other countries..
Contributing to the excellence of the men whom we hold responsible with the training processes will have a multiplying effect on the training groups.
Systematically feedback activities will be promoted with the Companies and the participants in the teaching activities where their quality and the degree of congruence with the identified training needs are evaluated.
The Agency or superstructural level related to the Center, will regularly measure the influence of its work on the results and changes produced in the participating organizations, facilitating the validation and identification of new training needs.
This analysis suggests the possibility of reflecting in our Training Centers on the extent to which we currently comply or not, with the necessary quality dimension, the Mission for which we were created and objectively determine the immediate changes that at the level of our mentality first, and in the customary task afterwards, we must propose ourselves.
I assure you… it will be worth it!
We should suppose that a subject who entered our management system with the aforementioned conditions and who underwent an adequate transformation process under the leadership of a successful Training Institution with qualified and committed teachers, trainers and consultants, would be ready to contribute to the exit phase, within reach of your organization's objectives.
However, this possibility will not depend only on your training, willingness to contribute and motivation. And assuming that a leader will succeed in his management only because he has been properly trained is a gross error of interpretation.
There are two important factors that are involved in achieving the objectives of change after a management training process, which we do not always analyze in full. They are:
The environment
The leader's collective
The influence of the environment on the real possibility of the trained leader to change reality is decisive.
Its most relevant negative manifestations are:
- Selection and dispatch of the leader to train without conducting an objective analysis of their competencies and the needs of their organization. Divorce between the knowledge, abilities and skills acquired in the training process and the true needs of their organization. Insufficient training and updating of many representatives of higher levels, turning into conflict the intentions of change of the trainee. Pressures on him to develop other priorities and "continue acting as always". Distrust of the real possibilities of implementing changes in the organization with what has been learned. Insufficient moral stimulation and material to the leaders who are being trained. The training programs on essential areas and new techniques,they do not involve all levels of the system "from top to bottom" Lack of monitoring of the impact of leadership training in their organizations.
In the same way, situations related to the group of trained leaders occur that can make it difficult to carry out the proposed change actions, among which the following stand out:
- Lack of knowledge of the topics and experiences learned by the Chief. Difference in values regarding the effectiveness of the "new methods". Resistance to changes. Lack of confidence in the leader as an Agent of change. Concentration on other urgent tasks. Little influence from the leader. in the group by transmitting the knowledge acquired. Demotivation of the group for distrusting the possible solution of problems through training. Negative view of other previous processes. Planning of training activities at inappropriate times and inappropriate places.
In short, the enumeration of negative factors in organizational training would be endless if we did not focus on their comprehensive concurrence and their interrelationships.
Anticipating the possible appearance of these factors and planning specific actions in the system, to eliminate or lessen their negative impact, will allow us to look inside ourselves and ensure the quality of the possible changes in the complex problem of managerial training.
Blaming the environment …… is easy …….but taking our part, to change things… is very necessary.
