How CMI training helps me push for change and ‘manage up’

James Dunne-Bennett CMgr FCMI’s employer was initially a bit reluctant to put him through CMI training, he says. 

“I’m not sure why, but perhaps because it has so much information on its internal intranet. But a lot of it isn’t really practical – unlike the information provided by CMI, which is easy to find and isn’t open to interpretation. It is fact. It is explicit and the language is simple.”

James adds: “Through CMI, I’ve read about behavioural issues and leadership. It’s given me confidence and insights into better practices. It’s helped me with direct reports, how to contextualise things. And it’s helped me reflect on the things I’ve done right and wrong. In fact, reading interviews like this has been the most helpful.”

Keeping on trucking

James has come a long way since driving a waste collection truck around Folkestone. Today, he is a project delivery manager at a German engineering giant, based in Kent, where he heads up the energy services project management department, having joined 12 years ago.

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“In my early to mid 20s,” he says, “HGV driving was something I fell into and got stuck in. Then an electrician friend of mine got me into domestic and commercial electrical metering. Then gas meters. None of it particularly interested me, if I’m honest, but I got a lot of training and it showed me a different side to the world.”

He continues: “Back then, I was a contractor, so I found we were hired by one company, then bumped across to another, so I actually gained a lot of experience of different companies and people. Some large, some small. I ended up at British Gas and became aware of big companies and how they operate.” 

It was eye-opening. “For me, working at a big company is about pushing the right buttons with the right people,” James says.

It took him about six months to find his feet at his current employer, in terms of what they did and how they did it. “But then I set about expanding my horizons by talking to the right people in management – letting the right people know I had a range of skills and expertise that they might find useful.