Highlights – 13 May

As the UK’s only Chartered professional body for management and leadership, we love to see members of our community getting out there and asking the hard questions. When Jacky Wright CMgr CCMI, chair of our AI Council, appeared on podcast Political Currency, she asked former chancellor George Osborne and former shadow chancellor Ed Balls whether the UK is relying on under-trained managers to run an AI revolution. 

“What do businesses need to do right now to properly equip the people on the front line to deliver it?” she prodded. Give it a listen – Jacky’s segment begins at 18m 20s.

Citing new CMI research, Jacky revealed that only 12% of managers feel very confident leading AI on the ground, while 38% report lacking the necessary training. Both Osborne and Balls could only agree with Jacky, acknowledging that training “non-savvy leaders” will be a crucial part of the UK successfully navigating the AI revolution. 

This ties in neatly with a piece in this week’s newsletter, written by Salman Khalid CMgr FCMI, a Chartered Fellow working in financial services in the UAE. Salman describes how, when he enters an office there, he no longer sees just people; he sees hybrid teams, “part human, part AI”.

“I see relationship managers, analysts and team leaders,” he writes. “On their screens, I also see chatbots answering customers, engines scoring risk and algorithms flagging suspicious activity.”

Accidental managers without borders

It turns out that lack of training, and its damaging consequences, are an international concern. In an article on the value of preparation, France’s Cadre Dirigeant Magazine highlighted how many leaders face a lack of foundational training. It cited CMI’s accidental managers research, which noted that 82% of managers who enter a leadership position have received no prior management or leadership training at all.

South Africa’s Acumen Magazine published a piece exploring how to turn accidental managers into actualised leaders. The article cited CMI research revealing that accidental managers are often promoted for the wrong reasons. In that survey, nearly half of the respondents (46%) said they believed their colleagues had won promotions based on internal relationships and personal profile, rather than their actual ability or proven performance.

Intelligent CXO published a short piece on new polling by CMI which revealed UK managers are grappling with changes brought in by the Employment Rights Act 2025 without adequate support. Nearly half of managers (48%) have received no formal training or guidance from their organisations.

The need for support

Continuing the theme of poor support for managers, HR News published a blog highlighting how modern workplace pressures, including a lack of proper backing, make senior leaders particularly vulnerable to burnout and anxiety. The piece cited a 2024 survey by CMI, which found that one in three UK executives had considered stepping down due to work-related stress.

When Portland, Oregon, TV station KOIN’s programme AM Extra ran a segment offering tips on how to deal with a toxic boss, it highlighted advice from Ann Francke OBE CMgr CCMI, CMI’s chief executive, which featured in a BBC article in January. That article drew a distinction with accidental managers, for whom “poor behaviour is usually driven by inexperience or uncertainty”.  

In this week’s newsletter, we hear from Damith Chaminda MCMI, who argues that financial literacy is essential for managers, as every decision they make will have an impact on the numbers. Meanwhile, Massimo Brebbia CMgr FCMI, Global Maritime’s regional director for Middle East and Caspian, writes about how remote work can make good companies feel worse than they are. One of Massimo’s tips: “create genuine moments where the organisation is experienced in contexts other than problem-solving”.

Celebrating pioneers, post-grads, partners…

Indeed, we’re not here to focus solely on management that has strayed off course. In this week’s newsletter, we shine a deserving light on recent Chartered Manager of the Week Kyle Armstrong CMgr MCMI, who went from becoming a father at 17 to being the HSE leader on a major Norwegian infrastructure project. 

We also feature profiles of several winners of the CMI Awards of Excellence, who were celebrated in late April at our President’s Dinner. The aforementioned Jacky Wright CMgr CCMI was crowned this year’s Gold Medal Award winner for her awe-inspiring career reshaping tech at the likes of Microsoft and McKinsey, while our Lifetime Achievement Award went to Edwina Dunn OBE, one of the most successful leaders in the data industry, the inventor of the Tesco Clubcard and founder of The Female Lead, an educational foundation that uses data to overcome the challenges facing women at work. 

The winner of our International Student of the Year Award was Nikhil Theva Raj, skills industry partnership manager at Film London, who is already working to develop the next generation of talent in the UK screen sector. The Department of Postgraduate and Professional Studies at the Faculty of Business and Management (DPPS FBM), part of Malaysia’s Universiti Teknologi MARA, was named International HE Partner of the Year. 

We don’t need AI’s awesome analytical powers to tell us that this was another year of brilliant entries. Could next year be even better? That’s up to all of you. 

Best,

Matt Roberts CMgr FCMI

Director of membership and professional development, CMI 

Image: CMI