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Free membership to our Privilege Club as we celebrate our 21st birthday!

As we celebrate our 21st anniversary of providing corporate training, management development, personal development and coaching, we are opening up membership of our free Privilege Club.  Until 2011 this was by invitation only.  Now anyone determined to benefit from exceptional training and development can join.

Members of TTA Privilege benefit from:

• Preferential rates for learning and development workshops, one to one coaching and consultancy
  

  Join our club

• Being the first choice of contact for unique offers and promotions
• Unlimited post-event email and telephone support for all workshop delegates
• A referral scheme discount as part of our fee structure
• An annual competition to find the top achieving employee of the year from our client base

Please take maximum advantage of what’s on offer to you, by emailing us at enquiries@trainingtoachieveuk.com to activate your free membership now.

Alison Miles-Jenkins

Managing Director

 

“Helping individuals and organisations achieve by releasing their potential to become the best they can be”

Requests for advice on Time Management

In response to last week’s blog –“Nomination for Mumpreneur and my thoughts on the current ’can working women have it all?’ debate”, some of my readers have asked me to publish techniques on how I manage my time to help my work-life balance.  As with any skill or approach, these require practice and aren’t guaranteed to work every time. With time management it’s so important to recognise one’s individuality and unique set of circumstances. Time Management is often put over as a rational set of techniques. But we are humans and often irrational and emotionally driven!  So what works for me won’t necessarily suit everyone.  Still, many of you asked me for guidance on managing time, so without further ado, below is a selection of what I’ve personally found works at work and/or at home …….most of the time!  Oh, and by the way, if any of you have time management tips that work for you and you would like to share to help others, please email me at Alison@trainingtoachieveuk.com or leave your comments at the end of this blog post.  I will be only too happy to share your contributions in a later blog.  Many thanks.

My top 30 time management tips

1. Always be clear – at work and at home  – on what you want to achieve.  Only then can you really prioritise – which has to underpin everything else
2. Don’t always gravitate towards urgency – remember importance and how stressed you will become once important stuff becomes urgent because you have neglected it
3. Don’t waste hours of productive time striving for perfection in everything
4. Remind yourself that faster isn’t always better
5. Resist the temptation to continually design and conceptualise – getting ‘in and working with and on a project may gradually get you nearer to perfection – as so much of what we do these days is iterative
6. Reduce the workload for your memory – write things down
7. Have a master list in a book that contains everything you need to do – I include work and personal all in one master list.  Then transfer over into weekly or daily lists to suit.  Again, I include personal and work on the same list
8. Batch routine tasks
9. Delegate routine tasks at home – especially the sock basket.  Incentives may be needed!
10. Look for birthday and Christmas presents throughout the year.  Make sure the bulk of them are wrapped and labelled by the end of September!
11. Be ruthless with time but always gracious with people
12. Really maximise your understanding and usage of all equipment that you have
13. Use ‘Chunking’  for overwhelming tasks especially -set dates/deadlines and deliverables
14. Be prepared to let go
15. Self-authorised agendas – book meetings with yourself!
16. Go by train when you can – you get great uninterrupted time for work or yourself!
17. 80/20 rule – Have this as your mantra
18. Consider your peak energy levels – try and do the huge important tasks when you are at your best
19. Avoid cherry-picking – at home and work
20. Be readily accessible but not all of the time
21. Update your contact lists, password lists and Christmas and birthday lists really regularly
22. Under promise and over-deliver
23. Allow a 20 % buffer minimum – at home and at work
24. Have a strategy for your task list stragglers
25. Have a ‘folder’ of portable tasks
26. ½ hour per week electronic/manual filing
27. Give others early deadlines – but don’t tell them
28. Keep your watch fast
29. Clear your desk and at least avoid ‘stacked desk’ syndrome
30. Have an emergency drawer – at home and work

And finally I would say choose exercise that works for you – I find it gives me a huge boost of energy and is actually worth getting up at the crack of dawn for.

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Alison Miles-Jenkins Sunday Morning Blog – 15 August 2010 Blog Number 13

Leadership development programme for Housing Association senior managers

Background to the Leadership Development Programme

We were selected to run a leadership development programme for the Senior Management Team (SMT) of a highly successful and well known Housing Association.  We designed the programme based on extensive engagement with the client and were able to access results of both the Executive Teams’ and SMT’s assessment processes and the Association’s  360 feedback system. 

Tools used to identify senior management training needs

The outputs from these were crucial to ensure we correctly identified the leadership training needs for this Senior Management Development Programme. So we were able to use personalised feedback profiles for each individual, guidelines for analysing the results, implications for Personal Development Plans and one-to-one feedback sessions.  Fundamental was the use of the competency framework and the building on solutions that were already in place to meet development needs that had been provided at individual level.

We went on to provide a robust, forward thinking and well supported Development Programme that met both collective and individual needs, closed any gaps and equipped SMT to excel across all required competencies.  We ensured the crucial link to business plan objectives.
       

Overview Of Our Leadership Development Solution

Our task had been to address the individual and collective development needs, within the context of live organisational and strategic issues and challenges.

Tools used to deliver the management training programme

To achieve this, we chose a combined approach using a series of workshops, supplemented by action learning sets, individual, mentor supported projects and a live SMT group challenge.  This was worked on collectively to plan and execute a strategy to overcome that challenge.  The solution devised by SMT was to be presented to Executive Team at the end of the programme.  This added further value corporately.

The action learning sets and the group challenge improved team working and SMT members worked together to develop team and individual skills.  The combination of workshops and the other activities encouraged managers to critically reflect on and share experiences and skills.  To encourage and support this reflective process, managers were also required to keep a reflective journal.

Outcomes of the leadership development programme

The programme, which in total spanned nine months, received excellent feedback from both sponsors and delegates.  The delegates made the most of the workshops and now have advanced skills and techniques to provide transformational leadership of their teams. They completed individual projects all based on actual and relevant challenges within their particular specialisms. They also worked together to solve a complex organisational set of issues during a time of considerable change. The action learning sets proved very popular and added real value. It proved such a successful way of learning that most managers wanted to continue this mechanism after the development programme had finished.
 
As a result of this successful leadership development programme, we were requested to work with the Executive Team to develop their leadership skills still further and we are working with the Housing Association this year on other management development and staff training initiatives.

Feedback from the leadership development programme

Here are some examples of the feedback we received.

“Thanks so much for a wonderful two days, your achievement in meeting the needs of a disparate group – in terms of skills and understanding – was excellent. All the feedback that I have had has been positive. We are also delighted with the support material – it is extremely comprehensive and I am really looking forward to reading my copy.”

Human Resources Manager

“The Senior Management Development Programme: I thought it was a fantastic, wonderfully challenging, interesting and a very professionally delivered couple of days. Thank you very much for what I consider to be a great opportunity.”

Head of ICT

“Just wanted to send you a note to say thanks for your efforts over the last couple of days. It was really interesting and your facilitation and knowledge was first class.”

“Having been a Director in my last role and now seeing the world from a slightly different perspective again, I find leadership theory and techniques very useful tools..”

“I look forward to working with you again on the Action Learning sessions.”

Head of Asset Management

Thanks so much to all of you who nominated me last week for the Mumpreneur of the year award 2010. I was really chuffed about it and it was particularly poignant as this year we celebrate our 20^th anniversary of the business.  It is very topical too, this week.  We have had the actress Emma Thompson declaring in the press that “working women can’t have it all”.  Her article has caused quite a furore and backlash from journalists and businesswomen who wish to prove otherwise.  And let’s not overlook the latest in a long line of dubious research published this week on the effect of working mothers on their kids and their development.  I guess it all makes for interesting but contentious reading for anyone – of any age – who has a vested interest in a family where both parental figures are working.

For those of you who don’t know me that well, it was on 30 September 1990 that I left my job as Head of Training and Development for Braintree District Council, to go it alone and set up Training To Achieve. I left a great job during a recession because I wanted to spend more time with my first daughter who was 20 months old.  The interesting twist is that 20 years on that same daughter is about to complete her second year working in the business, as my Client Services Manager. My son works part-time for me, and interestingly the entrepreneurial streak seems to have rubbed off on both of them too.  My daughter is setting up her own dancing business in her spare time and my son at 18 runs his own Tiling Company.  The jury is still out on the career path of my youngest daughter, at just 15.

I neither wish to get drawn into the debate on whether as working mums we can have it all, nor  comment on the effect on kids’ development, and the moral and ethical arguments that rage.  Each situation is unique and we all have our own reality.  What I do want to declare is that without a doubt my kids, my business and I have all developed and flourished together.  There have been highs and lows, and of course many challenges, professionally and personally.   I was asked though to give one piece of advice in support of my nomination for the award.  I want to share this with you now, as I hope it will help not just current or wannabe Mumpreneurs but also anyone who is a working parent at the moment:

“Never forget what being a Mumpreneur means and why you are going into business.  This will keep you grounded,  it will help you with your risk-taking and your prioritising.  Involve your kids in the business from any early age – they will then understand what you do and why you do it.  They will learn and benefit so much and will develop an understanding of what it takes to be working parents this century”.

Alison Miles-Jenkins Sunday Morning Blog – 7 August 2010 Blog Number 12