Dear Cyndi,
I have never been a Training Manager, I was an internal OD consultant, but I
am often a consultant to new ones. I think it is often a lonely job and
managers in the organisation sometimes have contradictory attitudes. They
want change and improvement provided it does not cost too much take too long
and involve too much effort. This can be very confusing.
When things are confusing you feel bad and find it hard to think straight.
It is essential to have at least one person who you can talk to in complete
confidence and express all your felings and thoughts to. This can be a
commercial one way arrangement with an professional consultant. Informal
arrangements also work well. When I was an internal I had several very
productive two way relationships with other internal consultants in other
organisations. We took say an hour each way to be consultants to each other.
These helped me feel more supported and to widen and clarify my thinking.
There are networks for cocounselling that are open to anyone who is able to
listen to someone else. One good source is "Re-evaluation Counselling" see
www.rc.org/ . There is also much challenging and practically useful
information there. The skills you learn to cocounsel well improve listening,
understanding and attending skills enormously.
Finally, I see the first few months of the job as crucially being about
building trust with key people in the organisation by taking the time to
listen to them and understand their concerns. When you have people's trust
they will want to tell you their concerns. Only when you understand them
will you be able to make sensible and acceptable proposals that will work.
I attach a model of influencing skills that may help you think about how to
do this and your strategy and tactics in the new role.
I hope it goes well.
Best wishes,
Nick Heap
nickheap@tesco.net
-----Original Message-----
From: McCay, Cyndi <
CMcCay@ACCRAPAC.COM>
To:
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU <
MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Date: 04 November 1999 20:36
Subject: New Training Manager
>Hi everybody!
>
>I just started a new position in April of this year (same company) as a
>one person training dept for a 750+ sized company. My duties are not
>only to train but to develop the course material, an organizational
>development plan, GMP training, and to set-up and maintain the training
>records. Thankfully, I don't do any safety training. Also, we are just
>beginning to set-up SDWT's and I am doing the training for the teams.
>I have attended a few seminars on giving presentations, GMP training,
>Team Leadership, etc. I also do a tremendous amount of research on the
>internet and have found many useful sites. Before it sounds like I'm a
>disgruntled employee, let me say that I LOVE what I am doing now and
>just want to do the best possible job that I can!
>I would very much appreciate your advice and direction on:
>1) Necessary training for me
>2) Priorities
>3) What you found most helpful starting out if you are in training
>4) Internet sites you would recommend
>5) Anything else?
>
>Thanks for your help!
>Cyndi McCay
>Corporate Training Manager
>Accra Pac Group, Inc
>