DDA Consulting Manager's Development Toolkit Reviews & Qs

A panel of Senior HR professionals from industries as diverse as Banking, Manufacturing, an NHS Trust & an FE College were asked by their Professional Institute to carry out an in-depth review of The Manager”s Development workbooks; the following is a brief summary of some of their responses.
(Full details available on request)

NB The workbooks were sent for review in exactly the same format as those available through this website. No additional material or preparation was included and they were used as they would be by any purchaser/manager

Q. Does the proposed training resource meet your information needs & how often would you use it in your day to day work?

“Yes, it is comprehensive and fully inclusive of the everyday practical elements of management. I would use it frequently as a bench mark for good team leadership & as a tool to help me develop my competence as a manager & team leader”

“Yes, as a reference material & development tool…”

“Quite often, the situations that we present to managers are academic & theoretical in nature so a product as practical and applicable as this would be very helpful”

“As an HR manager one of the biggest HR issues I have is the development of effective management styles, specifically when managing others is involved. Managers need continuous coaching and development on how to deal with managerial issues, again most specifically in my view, effective people management issues. A toolkit of techniques would be helpful to refer to in terms of how to have an effective approach and how to tackle different issues and situations.”

“I can see this being used by line managers to work with their teams on a teambuilding basis as well as a personal development tool for themselves'

“In an average year, I would expect to use elements of it on a weekly basis, others monthly”

“The proposed training resource would prove valuable for me in my role as a lecturer in Management and HR Management. The very practical nature of the resource would then lend itself to be applied, particularly, to evening class or day release students and to commercial training work that I undertake with organisations who wish to develop management skills for supervisors, and first line managers.

Within the college, the training resource would be particularly useful and applicable as a teaching aid for evening class students on the Chartered Institute of Management (CIM) EXECUTIVE AND Diploma courses. It could also prove of value on the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) courses run by the college.”

Q. Is the depth of coverage sufficient for your working needs?

“Yes, the topics covered are relevant to all parts of the target audience and would prove a useful prompt for experienced managers taking over new management responsibilities”

“Yes, for use as a practical handbook and as a development tool for teams and individuals”

“Yes, the depth of coverage provides a comprehensive framework which can be applied to my broad range of management/leader roles.”

“Yes. The basis principles of management are covered and the “chunked” style eases recognition and recall”

“I liked the style, it”s user friendly without being patronizing. Readable and easily signposted for the reader”

“Yes... students often have difficulty with management theory, whereas focusing on the practical and what can be done in the workplace in their own time to improve their own performance and that of their team would prove attractive to them.

The content allows the learners to concentrate on what works generically, with particular emphasis on what will work within their own organisations.

Achieving success in the workplace, having applied some of the learning principles, should motivate them..”

“The style and level of the material, at first sight, seems simplistic. However, this is no bad thing as it allows for the material to be easily digested by busy people who may have limited time to devote to workplace learning.”

“I do think it is sufficient for its intended audience, i.e. those new or reintroduced to management”

“It provides a well-rounded and professional coverage of the basic principles associated with management. It is pitched very well and at the right level for its intended audience'.

Q. What are the most Positive features of the handbooks?

“I found the questionnaires exceptionally useful and powerful as a management development tool, they really added value to the thought process behind management and how we operate as managers”

“I think my initial expectations were exceeded. It is fully inclusive of activities, which enable users to learn through experiment and action”

“The author assumes no prior knowledge and even for an experienced manager the training resource offers fresh insight and new technique”

“I feel comfortable with it as it is. I think it is capable of being used as a stand alone resource and to complement in-house corporate training resources”

”Good focus not just on the identification of skills, but also on how to improve on them”

“The stated objective is to focus on learning by doing and subsequent reflection leading to superior performance of the learner in the workplace. Too much detail or too much theoretical input would detract from that objective and has been successfully avoided by the author.”

“The whole Managing Performance section of the manuscript is packed with good examples of informal review opportunities.”

“The section on creating quantifiable measures from less tangible aspects of work (motivation, morale, briefing of staff) including positive and negative indicators is very useful.”

“The information is presented in a logical, progressive manner and is well laid out allowing ease of access”

“The repetitive inclusion of “Common Pitfalls & how to avoid them” and a “Self Assessment” Quiz are helpful devices to round off each element of the manuscript.”

“I view this manuscript very positively and believe that it should assist in turning the suggested target audience into “thinking performers”!”

“I particularly liked the icons used to identify “explanation” “activity” etc”

“I can see activities such as team communications exercise being easily used at team meetings”

“I also liked the provision of templates such as those in activities 4 / 8 and 11 in the Getting Started module. For new and experienced manager these provide an excellent working base from which to develop and refine their own.”