Self-Management lies at the heart of effective management development.  Managers and supervisors must be given the primary responsibility for assessing their own development needs, for setting their own learning objectives, planning ways of meeting these objectives and building on the feedback from performance appraisal etc.  That is, managers and supervisors must control their own development process.  This self-directed and self-managed learning can lead to the release of latent energy and high levels of commitment to the learning process.

As part of their pre-course preparation, individuals are asked to assess their personal contribution to their departments, their strengths and weaknesses and to make a preliminary statement of their learning needs.  They are given guidance on this by way of a paper on self-development, which they read before they attend the start-up module.

This is done as part of what we call their department monograph, which goes to the Programme Director.  They can then tailor their presentation on self-development in the start-up module, after which each individual constructs their PDP.

During the start-up module:

Participants refine their assessment of their existing strengths and weaknesses by use of self-assessment questionnaires.

The whole subject of management competency and what makes a good manager/supervisor is discussed and debated.

The competency needs of the participant’s organisation and job, and how this links into the appraisal scheme is discussed.

Individuals can then construct their draft PDP, incorporating their unique set of development needs.  This PDP will then be discussed with the Programme Director at their first individual tutorial.

Participants are then encouraged to construct learning contracts around each weakness they want to remove (e.g. presentation skills).  Together with the Programme Director they will seek to remove these weaknesses during the programme.