Our Management Training Seminars

By introducing our Management Training Seminars to your staff we help ease the negative effect of change on both managerial and supervisory personnel. The change in job responsibilities, the change in personnel, job duties, and the rising challenge of developing subordinates are specific goals of our learning systems seminars. We are highly successful at helping Managers and Supervisors learn and adapt to the necessary skills and proper behaviors to be successful at work as well as in their personal lives.

For more information on our management training seminars please contact us.

As a part of our management training seminars, Managers and Supervisors will learn how to:

• Minimize the chance of miscommunication by understanding what people are really saying, and why
• Deal with difficult people, manage tense situations, and resolve conflict
• Make use of proven active listening skills to improve your ability to gain helpful information
• Be able to facilitate, guide, and close discussions in one-on-one or group settings
• Improve understanding and communication by giving and receiving good feedback
• Use ideas submitted by a member of the team without causing other members to be defensive
• Develop a comprehensive team building strategy that improves productivity of the whole team
• Emphasize the value of working toward common goals without devaluing individual accomplishment
• Define and set up a method to track staff activities
• Be able to manage time and work assignments effectively
• Conduct team meetings that capture and hold the audience’s attention
• Interview and hire the right person for the right job
• Save time and work more effectively through the use of a clear time management plan
• Understand and comply with proper hiring and managing requirements
• Communicate effectively with both superiors, peers and subordinates
• Become effective coaches for their work team
• Conduct accurate and difficult performance appraisals

 

Having built the retail shoe repair and key cutting Timpson business into a 100m+ turnover and 10m+ annual profit group, chairman John Timpson has plenty of contrarian business ideas to share on building successful businesses. Built around his Upside Down Management philosophy - an idea that came to Timpson as a lightbulb moment during a failed bid to acquire a competitor - it became "obvious" that the key to success was to have:

1. Happy Customers
2. Great Jobs

This required a whole new philosophy and framework of innovative ideas to overcome the old way of doing things. So the Upside Down organisational chart was born with customers at the top and Mr Timpson himself at the bottom. From now on, the frontline shop employees would run the business by putting a smile on the faces of customers whilst the management team would serve them. This concept underpins the philosophy. To achieve this, Timpson immediately introduced two new rules:

1. Look the part and put the money in the till
2. You can do anything else to best serve customers

This relaxation initially fell on deaf ears as the employees didn't trust this new regime, however, a further rule got the wheels of change moving:

1. You can spend up to 500 to settle a customer complaint (without management authorisation)
2. Charge whatever you like - the price list is a guide only

Timpson explained how the key to success of the business is in choosing frontline shop staff who have personality. "You can train for the job but you can't train for personality". This is reinforced by an interview assessment form that used by Timpsons which is disinterested in past qualifications and experience and instead focuses on the key personality attributes using a Mr Men style analogy. An approach that has worked wonders for the past 10 years. Here are some other fascinating facts from the world of Timpson's Upside Down Management:

• Staff are actively encouraged to use their initiative and try new ideas. "If the ideas work, tell me. If they don't work, just stop."
• Employees are encouraged to let management know if they've got themselves into some personal financial difficulty. To help them stay happy and focused on their work, Timpson operates a financial assistance package with 350k currently on loan to staff - "we normally get pretty much all of it back".
• There are 5 holiday homes available for staff to use for free.
• Employees are invited to submit their Dreams Come True entry once a year and a lucky few have their dreams fulfilled e.g. family reunions, holidays, concerts etc.
• Get rid of poor performing staff quickly.
• Weekly bonus scheme - all staff are eligible for the weekly bonus payment which is based on the store's sales less the wages paid x 4.5 ("because 4.5 works"). 15% of this profit is shared between store employees each week.
• The proportional share of the 15% weekly bonus is increased for the more highly skilled employees based on (internal) courses attended and completed - "so we have staff pleading to attend Health & Safety courses!"
• All internal manuals contain illustrations rather than words. "Staff take the manuals home" to read - would they do this with folders full of words....?
• A key internal training course is (as you might expect) Customer Care. Participants are asked to nip out to buy bits for the course not knowing that the bulk of the course is spent discussing their experience of shopping for the requested items.
• Most customers are a miserable bunch. Don't just encourage staff to smile, it is their role to put a smile on the face of their customers.
• No advertising costs - "our customers do that for us"
• Delegate authority but NOT responsibility. "This is what most people misunderstand."
• How to be a great boss = Listen + praise (praise 10 x more than you criticise). Email has placed a premium on the hand written thank you letter (ideally with a hand written envelope and a stamp sent to their home address perhaps with a hand written bonus cheque).
• Avoid meetings. A waste of time.
• Avoid excessive time spent budgeting. Get out on the road to visit your shops and customers to get real-time information.
• Watch cash. Daily.
• Avoid formal salary structures. Review each employee's remuneration on the anniversary of their joining - this avoids gangs of staff receiving wage appraisals at the same time (and comparing notes).
• No appraisals. Stopped this 25 years ago and best thing ever. Danger with appraisals is that the best staff are encouraged to look at their weaknesses whilst positives are looked for in the weaker staff!
• No head office staff allowed to issue orders. This is upside down management, remember?
• No management head office structure.
• Capital expenditure is the only decision requiring head office input.
• No marketing. No PR.
• A final salary pension scheme that is open to new entrants (!). This rewards loyal employees and is worth the added cost.
• Birthdays - a day off on your birthday.

Timpsons is an established business operating in established business areas yet this is where the similarity to its competitors begins and ends. Whilst other companies struggle, Timpsons continues to go from strength to strength building loyal customers and staff - underpinned by its Upside Down Management philosophy. There are key lessons here for businesses new and old.