Mark Hedberg, DrMedVet MRCVS
Have you ever had a bad boss, or known someone who’s had a bad boss? Certainly – bad management is such an old story that nobody is really surprised anymore when another article or paper comes out talking about the effect of bad management in the UK workplace.
Just how widespread is the problem?
In 2012, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills released a paper1 that among other things, noted that 43% of employees thought their own manager was ‘ineffective’. Another key finding was an estimate that bad management was costing UK businesses more than £19billion in lost productivity. To put that in perspective, that’s enough money to give £1,000,000 to everyone living in Greater London, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands urban area, with enough left over to give a million to everyone living in Scotland.
The Institute of Leadership and Management surveyed 750 workplaces in 2012 to “identify the challenges they face in recruiting and developing skilled leaders and managers”2. In plain English, how hard is it to hire or train management? If anything, the ILM results were even more striking. 93% of the surveyed employers said that “low levels” of management were adversely affecting their business. How many of them expected managers to have training before taking on a management role? Just 18%.
So do we all rush out to get MBAs? Of course not. What we can do is learn the language of leadership and management, and learn the essential day-to-day skills that help you run a small team or small business. You’re not trying to be Richard Branson; you just want to get the rotas sorted and the bills paid without your team killing each other!
Modern training methods will allow you to take small, easy to manage qualifications without taking significant time off work; and unlike a masters level program, won’t cost you tens of thousands of pounds!
So think about how you could make your workplace better, and contact us if we can help you achieve that goal!
CAW recently introduced a Level 3 and Level 5 qualification in Leadership and Management, awarded by the ILM. Aimed at the first-time or first-line supervisor, the qualifications concentrate on leadership, stress and conflict management, planning and organizing work, and common problem areas in small business.
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