The Management skills training program included:

• The Core Management framework
• Analysing results and driving performance
• Analysing your management style and its relation to your work environment
• Effective appraisals and developing people
• How to get the best out of my people – situational management
• Giving effective feedback
• Advanced coaching skills
• Creating a High Performing Team
• Building better teams
• Extended Disc and Management
• The essentials of Performance Management
• Managing and conducting Appraisals
• Setting expectations and delegating effectively
• The Manager as Coach
• Building and developing a leadership style that creates trust, sets a clear vision and guides your teams toward increased performance
• Understanding the role of “emotional intelligence” in successful leadership
• Strategy formation – the difference between intended, emergent and realised strategy
• Creating the best culture and right culture for your organisation
• Involving your key and developing people in strategic thinking, brainstorming and business innovation
• How to develop people, value differences and encourage honest communication

A common misconception is that a manager has one set style of managing a team. I have found the best approach is to employ a different management style when required. There are many pros and cons with each style if used at the wrong time or with the wrong team member.

1. Coercive / Directive – Do as I say approach
2. Authoritative –
3. Affiliative
4. Democratic
5. Pacesetting
6. Coaching

1. Flexibilty
2. Diagnosis
3. Contracting (Making agreements)

During the Career Path training I learnt about the ladder of mastery and how it applies to juniors through to senior within a team. According to the model, we move through the following levels as we build competence in a new skill:

1. Unconsciously unskilled – we don’t know that we don’t have this skill, or that we need to learn it.
2. Consciously unskilled – we know that we don’t have this skill.
3. Consciously skilled– we know that we have this skill.
4. Unconsciously skilled – we don’t know that we have this skill (it just seems easy).

I have worked with team members that fall into each of these levels and helped them climb and gain more skill and confidence.

When a team member needs advice

I avoid giving team members the answer to problems, the team often already know the answer but a lack of confidence or knowledge can hold them back, working with the team member to brainstorm and find solutions provides better results.

When theres a problem to review

In order to enable team members to gain confidence and start problem solving I employ a coaching approach. Starting with open ended questions I guide team members towards the right solution, encouraging them to research themselves.

and when something goes well

One of the biggest improvements I have seen with regards to managing and leading a team is scheduling weekly one to one catchups with each individual team member and also your own line management

I have found this approach beneficial for many reasons.

• Stops issues building up.
• Ensures team members open up about potential issues.
• Allow me to give regular feedback on both personal and task performance.
• Boosts morale and helps people to open up.
• Fosters better relationships and builds trust.
• Allows for continual course correction if required.
• Gives chance for praise when things are going well.

In past years, companies that I have worked with have 1 yearly or 2 six monthly performance reviews. Having worked this way we found that it was more beneficial to implement more regular goals and checking in with the team member more often to give feedback.

The team member has a chance to input their own ideas for goals working closely with me on objectives and agreeing to check in and give feedback on how they feel things went.

I also encourage ongoing learning, in the past I tried having team members reading books but found online videos or courses to be much more effective.  Some favourite platforms are interaction-design.org, Treehouse Youtube, Medium and Lynda.

In some cases training can go hand in hand with a project for example in the case of building a design system.

One of the keys learnings of management for me was the difference between managing a junior to a senior.

Junior level designers require more input, guidance and direction in order to not feel overwhelmed and to grow and learn, the input that they require can also be provided by mid-weight to senior team mates.

Mid-level designers may require some guidance and direction depending where they are on the scale but as they progress they will require less and less direction.

A senior level designer will flourish when you give them autonomy and complete responsibility for projects and their success, they thrive on knowing project is in their hands and will benefit from accountability as it will prepare them for career growth.