If you could send your manager (or yourself) away for training, what topics would you want him or her to learn?
Some of the topics might include:
- Hiring
- Staff Training
- Time Management
- Scheduling
- Advertising & Marketing
- Website development
- Sales
- Buying
- Inventory Management
- Bookkeeping
- Reading Financial Statements
- Merchandising
What are your top three or four? What would you add to that list?
-Phil
PS I had a request from someone who wanted to apprentice with me which got me thinking… What would I teach? What would they want to learn? Yeah, the second question is the key, isn’t it?
Sales, merchandising, and inventory management would be my top three. If I had to add another category, it would be employee management. I have the problem that my manager is great at managing herself but she never ever manages the other employees. I do not suppose that I am the only one with this problem.
Employee evaluations (setting expectations, praise, disciplinary action)
Personality types and how to recognize them and communicate to them
Goal setting
How to manage employees as well as I manage myself. I hate conflict and my employees take advantage of that.Would like to develope better skills in getting employees to do what I want them to do, when I want them to do it, without being told or reminded.
Yeah, managing people is a HUGE part of the success (or failure) of a manager. One way to handle that is to make sure you have hired the right people (yeah shameless plug for my book:-). Another way to handle that is to train your manager how to handle conflict. The best book ever on that topic is the classic by Dale Carnegie – "How to Win Friends and Influence People."