Sheffield Leader: Management Fundamentals Development Programme - Reflections upon completing the course

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 By Tom Jolley


Close up of a whiteboard, with Week 5, Week 6, Week 7 written on it in black text


Having just completed the Sheffield Leader: Management Fundamentals Development Programme, I thought it would be nice to share some of my reflections of the course.


The course is open to staff across professional services who are either aspiring managers, managers who want to build confidence or where they have become managers without too much formal experience.


In my case, the reason the course was attractive to me was that I had become a line manager during the pandemic when the pace was so fast, it was harder to reflect and build on those skills in the context of everything else happening.


For me, the course helped me by being in the room with other managers or aspiring managers at various points in their career. The course has a strong focus on collaboration and interaction where peers are encouraged to discuss and share experiences, in a confidential and non-judgmental environment. The tutors on the course help to tease these conversations through thought provoking exercises and prompting questions.


Central to the course is a reflective activity which helps you to consider, based on your personality and approach to working. This can help highlight certain personality traits and how this may translate to a working environment, particularly in the context of becoming a manager. It also highlights potential development areas, suggesting personalised areas of further reading and theoretical tools that can help you reflect further. It also looks at the interactions you have with other staff and how you may handle conflict in the workplace.

Back view of a man's head, looking at a wall with various post-its on the wall.



Alongside this there are a number of very pragmatic sessions around things you will encounter as a manager such as SRDS, Finance and Health and Safety. These again help to cement knowledge as a manager, which you may have seen in pockets but have interacted with on a 'more needs' basis, rather than having a fuller appreciation of the entire topic. As a newer manager this is really helpful, because the amount of information you need to absorb can feel overwhelming. The structure and expertise on hand really helps to gain a better understanding of topics being put forward.


Speaking of expertise, the team who run the course are excellent - incredibly approachable, warm and visibly passionate about the topics they are presenting. The approach is very informal, and this helps to make people taking the course be at ease and feel safe to share.


I would strongly encourage the course to any colleague in a management role or who is aspiring to be in one in the future. I think the course potentially has the most value to aspiring managers, because this will give them tools and approaches in advance of becoming a manager, which I wish I'd had. That said, it was by no means wasteful for myself as it helped me to build my own confidence that I was headed in the right direction, whilst it offered some more ideas around how I may approach particular situations I could face as a manager and fill some gaps in my own knowledge.


Many thanks again to the People Development team in HR for developing and delivering the course. More information on the course can be found on the People Development area of the Staff Hub.


Tom Jolley is a Senior Digital Learning Adviser in the Digital Learning Team.