Highlights – 10 September

Do you find yourself struggling with tough choices? In June, we gave the CMI Lifetime Achievement Award to Baroness Louise Casey. She’s now taking on the task of helping the Prime Minister to reform public services. Covering her appointment, The Observer included quotes from Baroness Casey’s CMI Awards acceptance speech, in which she said leaders had to “take responsibility” for difficult choices. 

“Doing the right thing often isn’t popular, and that’s one of the things I think is incredibly important not to be afraid of,” she told the CMI audience.

Is it right to rank and yank?

One difficult decision facing many managers is how to reduce the pressure on their payroll. An article in The Sunday Times discusses how Lloyds Bank and other major employers are  adopting rigorous performance management programmes. One example is the ‘rank and yank’ method, famously associated with General Electric’s Jack Welch, which rates each team member in terms of their performance. 

“About 3,000 people are among the bottom 5 per cent potentially facing the boot” at Lloyds, according to the article. 

The piece quoted Ann Francke OBE CMgr CCMI, CMI’s chief executive, who said she’s “not against” more rigorous performance management if it is “transparent” and “objective” – and not “perpetuating a culture of favouritism”. 

“If you’re a high performer, you don’t want somebody who’s a low performer just skiving along and getting promoted,” said Ann.

Ready for action

Another pressing challenge for managers is finding talented new recruits. An article on social intelligence by Greek media outlet Epixeiro cited CMI's finding that only 3% of managers believe new graduates are fully ‘work-ready’.

We recently took this idea to the CMI community on LinkedIn, asking them which skill they feel is most commonly missing among today’s graduates. You can read all the insightful comments that the poll inspired here. 

Effective leadership

We need high-performing managers in every sector. As noted in this article on leadership qualifications in the fitness industry, CMI research found that effective leadership can increase company performance by nearly 25% and team engagement by more than 30%.

In this week’s newsletter, Amy Matthews, operations team manager at the Halifax-based Motor Repair Network, shares how a CMI Level 3 qualification gave her added confidence and new leadership perspectives, and helped push her out of her comfort zone.  

Christine Cackett, a manager in the social housing sector, also became more confident through her qualifications. Inspired by discussions around CMI’s “accidental managers”, Christine took CMI Level 5 and Level 7 qualifications, which she says helped her win a promotion, too.

International impact

CMI’s courses are having this kind of impact on managers all over the world. In its guide to the top-rated certification courses in various countries, NERDBOT notes that CMI qualifications are "very popular in the circles of leadership and management in Dubai and other Emirates”.

A recent Chartered Manager of the Week, engineer Wong Kok Yoong CMgr MCMI has played a key role in the launch of Vietnam’s new mega airport, Long Thanh International. He says his CMI Dual Accredited MBA at Universiti Utara Malaysia taught him a lot around team dynamics and ethical leadership.

In the US, meanwhile, Mortgage Professional America has cited research from CMI in a piece about the rise of women-led brokerages. The article referenced CMI's finding that flexible working is linked to higher productivity, lower burnout and greater staff retention.

Keep talking diversity

Finally, we turn to another intimidating challenge facing today’s managers. Diversity is such an emotive subject that it can leave leaders reluctant to act out of fear of making mistakes. In this week’s newsletter, we share insights from Piers Martin, head of leadership and workforce development at the Premier League, who explores how to keep the diversity conversation open.

One manager leading that discussion is Sarah Gardner CMgr FCMI, a former Chartered Manager of the Year. Sarah is a full-time project manager, a mother of two children with additional needs and a charity founder (she’s now on charity number four). She’s on a mission to improve understanding around neurodiversity and the strengths it brings, while also working tirelessly to promote workplace inclusivity for women. 

“Start somewhere,” she says in her profile, featured in this week’s newsletter. “Take the first step. If I can do it, you can too.”

One thing that Sarah has in common with other talented Chartered Managers is that she’s clearly not put off by a challenge. 

Best,

Matt Roberts CMgr FCMI

Director of membership and professional development, CMI

Image: CMI