Looking for a management/assertiveness course

[Deleted User]

for my husband. Hes been in a role for nearly 3 years and this is due to expand in September. He manages a IT department within a school environment and has a technician to support him. He reports to a business manager and a head teacher.

However he often feels hiarachy bypass him and in turn so does the technician. In meetings he often feels frustrated by his boss taking all the credit and glory from work he has done or passing my hubbie's ideas off as his own.

I've tried numerous times to help, support, offer ideas etc, but none of which my hubby feels he can implement, its a true sticking block for him. Technically he is very good at what he does, just not the delegating, overseeing, management part of his job.

We feel this is because he has never had to management anyone and only been responsible for himself and his workload.

I've been looking into assertiveness/basic management courses, but cant seem to find anything in our area that meets his needs. With September looming and the possibility of him gaining an extra technician, he realises he needs to gain extra skills.

I've suggested he enquire at work at to courses, but he said he mentioned this a year or so ago and nothing came of it and now he is just too busy at work to take time away. Any courses he feels would need to be done in his own time.

Please can anyone offer any opinoins, help or ideas. I really want to help my husband and this morning he was saying if he saw something else on similar pay hed apply. :eek:

Thanks.

little_busy_bee

Hi,

does he mind travelling into London, I would suggest the City Lit, they do a number of assertiveness courses specifically aimed for the workplace, and colleagues who have attended have greatly benefitted. They also do management courses, though i have no feedback on these.

http://www.citylit.ac.uk

Lara44

I'm doing the version of this course for women, which is called Springboard. The version for men is called Navigator. It was recommended by a fellow poster on MSE.

It runs over 4 days, so I'm not sure if getting time off would be a problem? It's a personal development course overall, but features one whole day on assertiveness techniques. There's a big workbook to work through between course dates which is very personal and helps locate any issues you might be having across your whole life. It sounds like you OH would benefit from increased confidence and self esteem as well as assertiveness.

So far it has helped me to set goals with more clarity, to recognise my progress and value it, to recognise all the intangible skills that I have an value them. The assertiveness day was last week - what an eye-opener! In the past I had blamed bosses for not understanding me, and being too dominant, but now I understand that I am extremely passive in the workplace. I've learned some strategies to use, and the other parts of the course have given me the confidence to try them out. Only 1 more day until I finish - gutted!! The last day I think is on managing your visibility, which sounds interesting for your OH, if others in his workplace aren't aware of what he does, or are approaching other people.

I am sure his role is a very busy one, if he could get his boss's support it might help him with time off? At the end of the day you have to prioritise certain things sometimes if they're going to get done at all. I hope he managed to find something suitable

[Deleted User]

Thank you so much you two for your help, i'll certainly look into those links and london is definitely viable just over an hr by train to London Bridge. If work will support him and pay for it, even better. I really appreciate your input and i really wasn't sure what to look for and personal recommendation is the best.

Thanks.

desert_rose

As a quick introduction to assertiveness and identifying/dealing with people who promote themselves unethically, there's some good books out there which will help your hubbie to tune in to the language/body language these types use and offer some great strategies for anticipating and controlling their behaviour.

One is Dealing with Difficult People and the other is Nasty People (can't remember authors sorry) but they're available on Amazon and full of handy hints.

[Deleted User]

Thank you Desert Rose ill go and look them up!