Some people take on the responsibility off leading and/or managing others almost effortlessly; and they often seem to take the cruellest of decisions with little or no compunction. Bollocking, demoting, firing…no problem! Such leaders and/or managers often treat their staff with complete thoughtlessness; they are simply pawns in a game whose only purpose is to carry out their master’s instructions. Bizarrely perhaps, such people are on occasion greatly respected by their subordinates. More often, though, they are feared, with that true dread that numbs the ability to work effectively.

Higher than average staff absences are sometimes a by-product of this type of management.

At the other extreme, there are people who struggle with every decision that might impact negatively on someone’s life. All too often they take the slightest resistance to their wishes as a personal slight – and often that resistance is take as an indication of the lack of validity of their decision-making. Sometimes that resistance is seen as an indicator of their worthlessness as a leader and/or manager. Occasionally it is even taken as an indicator of their worthlessness as a human being.

This type of manager is acutely vulnerable to stress. Typically they struggle on until they, to all intents and purposes, ‘break’ – and then they may be off work with stress for some considerable time.

Both the extremes painted here – and there are all kinds in between – may have real vision that will benefit their organisation and their staff; but their leadership/management style works against them galvanising their staff to work with them to achieve it.

‘Tough Enough to Manage…?’ is a 1-day course designed to:-

# enable the ‘over-tough’ to see beyond themselves and their own agendas and to appreciate the human cost of their decisions – from this they should learn to motivate their staff by other means than sheer crippling fear

# resource the ‘under-tough’ to accept that being criticised by subordinates often goes with the ‘territory’ of management and to have more confidence in their own authority and decision-making ability

The course looks at the psychological factors that make us anything from an overbearing bully to a fragile victim - and what we can do to alter ourselves to be more balanced and effective as leaders and managers.

You will learn things about yourself and others that will almost certainly challenge you. This workshop is for those who know they need to change but are not sure how to. For this reason, numbers are deliberately kept relatively small and there is a degree of vetting of  participants.

Please contact me for further details and to discuss the needs of your leaders and managers.