How would you like to receive up to 50% funding from the Welsh Government towards enhancing your  Leadership and Management skills? The Enhancing Leadership and Management Skills (ELMS) programme is aimed at funding training courses seeking to improve and support the development of skills and capacity within Welsh companies and organisations.

Course Titles

We have now had two new courses approved by ELMS which means if you book theses courses you can benefit from up to 50% funding. The courses are:-

• Institute of Leadership and Management Level 3 Award in first line management. Click here for more info on ILM Level 3 Award
• Achieving and maintaining peak performance in challenging times through resilience and mental toughness. Click here for more info on our resilience and mental toughness workshop

Leadership and Management Training Grants Free Consultation

If you are interested in improving your or your organisation’s leadership and management skills in Wales  then contact us and we can put you in touch with a Human Resource Development (HRD) advisor who will work with you free of charge.

The Employer Ownership of Skills pilot offers all employers direct access to public investment; up to £250 million over two years to design and deliver their own training solutions. The Government are inviting proposals from employers for the first phase of the pilot, covering up to £50 million. It asks employers to set out how they would use public investment, alongside their own, to improve the skills of their current and future workforce.

Employers Take Ownership of Skills Development

Skills are essential for our future prosperity.. This prospectus invites employers to come forward with radical proposals that test the full potential of employer ownership. The overall aim of the pilot is to find more effective and sustainable ways to improve skills in the workforce and to use these improved skills to drive up productivity and growth. The Government are looking for proposals from employers that support the following key objectives:

• Increase the impact of work readiness, workforce development and Apprenticeships activity
• Employers are better able to secure the training they need by having the influence they require overquality and content and can shape training provision to meet their needs
• Collaboration amongst employers to address cross-sector or supply chain skills challenges is increased
• Employer leadership, commitment and investment in skills is increased, including the involvement of employers who do not have a track record of investing in skills.

Eligibility

The aim of the pilot is to raise the contribution of skills to economic growth. It is therefore primarily targeted at private sector businesses, although proposals from public and voluntary sector employers will be considered. This opportunity is open to all employers irrespective of size and sector. Whilst bidding organisations can be based anywhere, the benefits of proposals must focus solely on England.

The Government want to see significant and scalable proposals for skills investment and therefore the minimum cash investment from Government will be £250,000 for collaborative proposals involving SMEs, and £1 million for individual or consortia bids involving large employers (defined as employing
250 employees or above). The Government will continue to assess the appropriateness of the eligibility criteria throughout the pilot.

Questions and Guidance

Full investment criteria, application forms and guidance will be available towards the end of February 2012 on the pilot website here:-

(www.ukces.org.uk/employerownership).

Questions and enquiries regarding the Employer Ownership of Skills pilot can be submitted to:-
employerownershipqueries@bis.gsi.gov.uk

The online survey that was undertaken in December last year revealed that respondents struggled to name Welsh leaders with only 50% being able to name two or more. In addition, almost 40% said they were very dissatisfied with the performance of their own business leaders including their decision-making and general leadership skills.

Aneurin Bevan and former Leading Wales Award recipient, Rhodri Morgan, were named as the two top Welsh leaders. However, disappointingly, no Welsh person made it into the list of top ten world leaders which was headed by Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.Not one Welsh woman made it into the top ten Welsh leaders and only Margaret Thatcher made it to number 6 of the top 10 world leaders.

Of resonance to the rest of the UK, 60% are in agreement that management and leadership skills development is very important to the overall success of an organisation. The responses indicated that 85% of businesses have training budgets in place, and over 93% clearly recognise a need for skills development as a major part of organisational success.  It would be hoped that these figures would be duplicated across the UK as they are encouraging in the current economic climate

Respondents were split on the question of whether leaders are born or made with 55% voting for leaders being made. The values we rate most in our leaders: vision, inspiration, communication, integrity and passion.

Call of the Wild are previous double winners of the Leading Wales Awards

The current business climate dictates that managers and leaders are able to fully engage their teams and deliver outstanding performance. Are you 100% confident that you and your leaders are equipped with the skills necessary to deliver sustainable business growth during tough economic times?

How would you like to receive up to 50% funding from the Welsh Government towards enhancing your  Leadership and Management skills? The Enhancing Leadership and Management Skills (ELMS) programme is aimed at funding training courses seeking to improve and support the development of skills and capacity within Welsh companies and organisations.

Leadership and Management Training Grants Free Consultation

If you are interested in improving your or your organisation’s leadership and management skills in Wales  then contact us and we can put you in touch with a Human Resource Development (HRD) advisor who will work with you free of charge to:

• Review the company’s strategy to ensure all staff development and training helps deliver on business objectives
• Help the company improve its approach to management and training by building an agreed organisational development plan, and advising on its implementation
• Identify training and development requirements and produce an agreed learning plan
• Help the company fulfil its training and development needs by linking it with training organisations and sourcing the right courses and grant funding

NB – Grants available for private businesses not the public sector or those who have received more than 50%  funding from Welsh Government grants!  SMEs and National/ International companies with operations in Wales are eligible

The UK economy is set to stagnate in the first quarter of the year but a “new recession is not a foregone conclusion”, the business lobby group said on Tuesday writes The Guardian

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said GDP is likely to be flat in the first half of the year, including one quarter of contraction, amid indications the “UK recovery is stalling”.

Order book expectations at home and overseas are set to fall in the manufacturing sector, while unemployment will hit 2.77 million by the end of 2012, up from 2.64 million in the last official figures, the BCC added.

But John Longworth, BCC director general, said that while a slowdown in the eurozone is inevitable, Britain “need not suffer a similar fate”.

“A new recession is not a foregone conclusion,” he said. “However, action is needed urgently to tackle short-term stagnation and a lack of business confidence, damaged by the ongoing eurozone crisis.”

The BCC’s views echo those of the Bank of England, which forecast a heightened risk of recession in the first half of 2012 in its last quarterly report, as well as numerous downbeat predictions from the likes of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

Barriers to Effective Communication

Self-concept

Every person has a self-concept which can act to shut out information or opinion that is not in line with it. If we think of ourselves as important, behaviour that indicates that the other person does not see us in this way can cause anger.

Status

A boss may be unable to receive instruction from a secretary on how to operate a word processor, not because he or she is incapable of learning nor because the secretary is incapable of teaching but simply because the role of learner does not square very easily with the status of superior.

Credibility

People accept information from those they think of as credible. Credibility may result from impressive credentials, demonstrated expertise or even a credible manner. Confidence tricksters know this very well.

Emotion

No communication is emotion-free. People tend to receive communication more readily if the speaker is open about their own emotions and open to the fact that others may feel differently.

Repetition

It is a matter of judgement how many times one can run over some instructions just one more time. Some of the time, this acts to allow the information to sink in.

One way – two way

One way communication is one person telling another something. The assumption is that if one is clear, careful and precise, the listener will attend to and understand what the speaker is saying. Two-way communication is about feedback.

Active listening

As Carl Rogers said:

“Despite the popular notion that listening is a passive activity, clinical and research evidence clearly shows that sensitive listening is a most effective agent for individual personality change and group development.”

For information on Effective Communication Skills Training Course visit our training pages.

(Piece taken from article by Carl Rodgers on our online development academy)

So how can you acheive this – through developing your workplace coaching skills on this coaching course? Learn how to unlock a person’s potential to maximise their own performance

Institute of leadership and Management research shows that 95% of organisations believed coaching as a development tool benefited the organisation, and 96% believed it benefited the individual.

Visit our Coaching Course page – An Introduction to Coaching in the Workplace for more information

The dictionary defines management as being in charge, controlling, administrating, handling. Leadership is defined as being the principal or “front-runner” , holding the chief role. However another distinction is as a leader you need followers. As a manager you don’t all you need are resources, money, projects for example. There are 3 components to any situation:-

* A leader
* A situation
* A group of people

These 3 components have led to 3 theories on leadership.

The Leader – Trait Theory

Do you believe that leaders are born and not made? Well this is basically what the trait theory is – people are born with certain traits that make them a good leader. Therefore a born leader would emerge naturally within any group because they would have the traits or qualities necessary to be a leader. However over the years this theory ahs lost some credence and others have

Have gained greater credibility. However there are certain things you can do to improve your trait leadership. You need to improve your abilities and work on areas you now are weaker than others such as:-

* Ability to see opportunities
* Adaptability
* Analysis
* Communication
* Decision-making
* Enthusiasm

The Situation – Situational Theory

There is no such thing as a born leader but there are a whole variety of characteristics that might make a person a good leader, which people have a mixture of. In any situation the person best suited to that situation will emerge as the leader. This theory says that leaders rise to power. There are 3 sources of power that a leader can build on: position; personality and expertise.

You can improve your situational leadership by developing power or authority relevant to situations you commonly find yourself in:-

* Take advantage of training
* Keep up-to-date
* Find out about areas you are weak in
* Learn from others by talking
* Keep close to your boss
* Think ahead

The Group – Functional Theory

This third theory on leadership, based on John Adair’s theory, says that any group has a number of functions it needs to perform – a number of needs that need to be fulfilled. The leader will be the one who can best satisfy those needs. These are in three categories: team, task and individual needs.

Team: The group of people needs to be drawn together and organised so they co-operate with each other.

Task: The task the group is faced with needs to be achieved

Individual : Individuals need to be recognised and utilised appropriately – they need to use their skills and talents when they can.

A good leader will concentrate on all three functions or needs. Too much attention on one will be at the expense of another. Here lies again the difference between a manager and a leader. By balancing these three components of functional leadership the leader can best satisfy the needs of the group to improve team, individual and organisation performance. To improve your functional leadership concentrate on:-

Task

* Set standards
* Monitor and evaluate performance

Team

* Communicate
* Encourage co-operation and compromise in the event of differences between staff

Individual

* Encourage people to get involved
* Get to know people
* Delegate
* Make criticism constructive
* Develop peoples skills

Mark Soanes, director of Call of the Wild, said: “To be a member of the London Welsh RFC Business Club is important to us on so many levels, not just as a business but as rugby fans. To be associated with – and be able to support – a club with such a rich heritage is extremely gratifying to us.”

“Placing corporate responsibility at the heart of your business is, of course, a brilliant way of helping local communities in these challenging times. But did you know it can also boost your books?

We spoke to three companies reaping the benefits

A year after the 1981 riots in Toxteth and Brixton, the UK was suffering high unemployment and inner-city unrest. These events informed the creation of Business in the Community (BITC), a business charity dedicated to regenerating local economies. Its slogan was “healthy back streets make for healthy high streets”.

“Following the riots businesses realised that what happens in the community impacts on them,” says Andy Melia, CommunityMark manager at BITC. “They understood that working with communities is a sensible and responsible way to do business and that it has benefits for them as an organisation.”

Mark Goyder, founder director of business-led thinktank Tomorrow’s Company, believes that some of the reasons that led to the launch of BITC are resurfacing. “There is a danger of a growing divide between business and society through a lack of trust. Look at the recent riots, the vandalism of Fortnum & Mason during the spending cuts protest or Rupert Murdoch being splattered with shaving foam. It is a symbol of people saying business stinks,” he says. The withdrawal of public funding from charities and community projects adds to the problem. “There is a big gap to be filled. Businesses are stepping up and saying we can make a contribution here,” he adds.”

For the full article on corporate social responsibility click here.