A word on the 'art' of management and leadership
Management is a profession, a position of trust and a process that has a key influence on the performance of both the organisation and of the people within it. It should be a personal commitment of every professional manager and those aspiring to have influence over organisational resources and individual employees, to be effective, to operate within a high ethical framework and to protect the dignity of the individual in the workplace. In so doing, it is the manager's individual responsibility to continuously examine their own individual behaviours and practices to enable them to operate at the highest standards of ethics and responsibilities. Good management builds successful businesses through its people.
Fulfilling the role of an effective manager requires more than being accomplished at a range of personal competencies, it also requires personal qualities. The emergence of the concept of Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman, 2003) acknowledges the importance of those individual personal qualities to an individual's ability to lead and to manage effectively and fairly, particularly when the going gets tough! Building on this, much of the material introduced during the programme explores the relationship between management and leadership skills in pursuit of the 'golden chalice' of what makes the ideal manager and the relationship between leadership and management.
Continuous professional development (CPD)
CPD underpins the Chartered Management Institute qualifications. Managers can no longer rely on their initial training or qualifications to carry them through employment. Nor can they rely on their employer to provide everything they need to develop skills and experience - this old security, if it ever existed, has gone. Increasingly managers are taking responsibility for their own lifelong, continuing development - the bottom-line is that it is down to the individual. The new security consists of loyalty to oneself, to one's own skills and career progression. This new security is maximised when individual development needs and goals are aligned with those of the employing organisation. CPD is a hallmark of professionalism - one of the keys to employability.
The underlying philosophy of the CMI programmes delivered at the Business School is primarily about the application of theory into practise. To gain the most from this learning opportunity, you will need to explore and digest many of the concepts and propositions introduced beyond the constraints of the time available in the regular workshop sessions. Above all, you would be encouraged to explore and engage with the concepts, and to think through relevance and application in your professional domain.
Edward de-Bono, comments in his book 'Six thinking hats' (first published 1985):
'Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter good we become, we should always want to be better. Usually, the only people who are very satisfied with their thinking skill are those poor thinkers who believe that the purpose of thinking is to prove yourself right - to your own satisfaction. If we have only a limited view of what thinking can do, we may be smug about our excellence in this area, but not otherwise. The main difficulty of thinking is confusion. We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls'.
This is a good place to start!
The Chartered Management Institute
The mission of the Chartered Management Institute, as set out in its Royal Charter, is to 'Champion and promote the art and science of management'. It aims to shape and support the managers of tomorrow. By sharing the latest insights and setting standards in management development, the Institute helps to deliver results in a dynamic world. A Royal Charter is the most prestigious means of incorporating an organisation as a legal entity. In the case of professional bodies, it is reserved for those that are considered to be pre-eminent in their field, have a sound record of achievement and represent a body of knowledge that is unique.
Chartered manager
The Institute has established the award of 'Chartered Manager' (C.Mgr.) as a hallmark of current competence and professionalism. It will enable employers to identify managers who demonstrate current learning and development, and have a positive impact in the workplace. No other award can claim this. Only the Chartered Management Institute is entitled to offer the award of Chartered Manager. The University of Brighton Business School are part of a scheme with the CMI which enables the integration of SME elements of the Chartered Manager Award with the taight qualification. This is a recent and imaginative initiative, which works with two entirely separate processes.