Management Blog

ILM's "First Time Manager" Research Project

As you know, ILM is the UK’s leading leadership and management development organisation, working in partnership with employers and training providers to develop leaders and managers at all levels. We have been asked by the ILM and David Pardey, ILM’s Senior Manager, Research & Policy to take part in this exciting research project and we would like to invite you take part.

The project is to follow some newly appointed managers for their first three months in post, to find out what they find straightforward to deal with and what presents challenges or problems for them. This has not been done before and so there is no reliable research to help employers provide appropriate support and guidance for newly appointed first time managers. The challenge for ILM is to identify these new First Time Managers (FTM) as soon as they are appointed so that we can interview them just before they start in their new role and during their first 100 days.

That’s why we are asking you to take part in the project. We need you to be prepared to ask any newly appointed FTM if he or she is willing to be part of the research and to let us know if they agree.

For more information concerning this ILM research project on first time managers clcik here.

How Resilient is Your Organisation?

“European shares touched a new 11-month low on Thursday, indicating a gloomy outlook for the global economy” The Telegraph 4th Aug 2011

This is just one of hundreds of headlines, articles and academic papers underlying the extremely difficult global circumstances in which we as commercial organisations have to trade in the short to medium term.

The real question is how resilient is your organisation?

Many of the pressures and stressors arising from the financial crisis are completely out of our control as individuals and organisations; therefore the way we deal and thrive within this pressured environment is the key to the ability to succeed in difficult times.

The concept of Mental Toughness accurately predicts how individuals and organisations are able to cope with the pressure and stressors of the work environment. Developed by Dr Peter Clough in Hull University the MTQ 48 tool assesses the ability to thrive when placed under pressure. It has been taken by many thousands of individuals from every level within many organisations and has been found to be a reliable and accurate measure of resilience in the face of challenge.

The Call of the Wild one day Mental Toughness workshop has been developed as a response to these difficult times. The workshop acts an introduction to the concept and illustrates how the tool will help to identify and develop the levels of Mental Toughness required within your organisation.

By the end of the workshop each individual will have had the chance to explore their own MTQ report and the subsequent implications both for them and their organisations.

The background and applications of Mental Toughness will be covered with a particular focus on the use of MTQ48 as a development tool.

Read on for more information about of mental toughness workshops.

Developing Leadership Conference at UWE

Call of the Wild in partnership with the PDC  delivered a workshop looking at Creative Leadership programmes. This was the The 3rd Developing Leadership Capacity Conference -
Leadership Development and Life Experience: Reflections on Becoming Leaders held at the University of the West of England. The keynote speakers were Professor Steven J. Zaccaro of the George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia,Professor Steve Kempster, University of Birmingham and Professor Kim Turnbull-James, Cranfield University .

The aim of the conference was to develop a research agenda and practitioner discourse around the discipline of leadership development. Our workshop focused on developing key areas of leadership development of middle managers using examples of data taken from our programmes delivered to real world client groups and delivery using our training centre and the green classroom of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The workshop focused on the practical rather than the theoretical aspects of leadership development.

One of the academic delegates commented in the Q & A session that  the transfer of learning methodology utilised and was actually better than that presentaly used by many academics.

For more information on our leadership development programmes the Call of the Wild website