How studying for a CMI Level 3 Diploma helped Amy Matthews lead with confidence

“Teams are motivated by different things,” says Amy Matthews. “Younger people might be motivated by the prospect of a night out, but my team is all mums. They’re not so interested in team events. They want to finish work and get home to their kids, which is fair enough. For them, it’s about chocolate.”

Amy, 31, is operations team manager at the Halifax-based Motor Repair Network, where she has worked for seven years. Part of the Activate Group, the business works closely with insurance companies to repair a wide range of vehicle types, including the latest EVs, via its own body shops and a network of more than 300 repair locations nationwide.​​ 

“We’re accident management specialists,” Amy says. “But we’ve also invested a lot in technology that allows customers to track the progress of repairs.”

Embarking on a CMI Level 3 Diploma

Two years ago, the company suggested Amy study towards a CMI Level 3 Diploma in Principles of Management and Leadership. 

“At the start, I didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit nervous. I knew there would be a lot of different people involved from different backgrounds and businesses.” She hoped it would help make her a better manager. 

“It helped reinforce some of the things I already knew,” she says. “And I suppose if I could sum it up in one word, it would be ‘confidence’ in terms of how I am as a manager. But also, it’s helped push me out of my comfort zone.”

The course, which Amy studied via training provider Ioda, was split into eight modules, with one every few months. Amy says: “There were about ten of us, including a couple from the Activate Group. We’d have a full-day online workshop with everyone on the course, where we would go through the module topic, then spend the next couple of months writing up the assignment.” 

The course covered budgets, managing change and even handling difficult conversations.

The confidence it’s given me, it’s like night and day

“We learned a lot about various theories,” she says, “but mainly we learned about ways to manage people. It’s something I’ve always said. In fact, I said it when I became a manager. You can have so many different people on your team, and they’re all different. They learn differently, they work differently, they all take feedback differently. It’s important to deal with them as individuals. And that’s something that was really reinforced on the course.”

Amy says the course covered communication and engagement, particularly getting – and keeping – your team engaged with the job at hand. Hence the chocolate.