As a Trainer you can learn how to Change Attitudes to Reach Effectiveness....

Change Attitudes to Reach Effectiveness..

The world is made up of two groups of people they say - those who think and those who do not think. All of us have the potential to think for sure. But over the years many of us tend not to use our innate abilities to think and be independent. Lots of people can think but do not use that ability and end up being dependent.

Often when we train we come across many people who do not question, are quiet, reserved and even shy to ask, clarify, or just do not participate. The Behavioural Trainer has the techniques to bring out the best in every participant. The Behavioural Trainer is a master statesman who can get the participants around into doing the right things and eventually the training room comes alive. People are happy, the participants are enjoying, participating and learning joyfully. They play, they act, they smile, they are ready to take ownership for changing Attitudes and reaching effectiveness.

Productivity and Performance of all people at all stages in one’s life is an outcome of one’s behaviour. This behaviour is propelled by one’s attitude. But the concrete wall-like attitude by itself is a result of glue-like mindsets and die-hard habits. All training and development activities needs to directly deal with behaviours of people and not just a list of do’s and don’ts. This is also the reason why our parents, bosses and even teachers fail to influence the behaviours of their children, subordinate staff or students respectively. They advice, advice and advice and it just fails, fails, and fails!

Training & Development has the power to influence performance of individuals through the behavioural route. To enhance people’s productivity, organisations, educational institutions and families invest time effort and money. To gain faster and predictable outcomes one has no choice but to deal with people’s behaviour. Behaviour is caught and not taught and hence may lead to unconscious thoughts and beliefs in oneself and these thoughts and beliefs may not always be positive, healthy and good for, either, the individual, the team, the family or the organisation.

No training can be effective if behaviours are not dealt within the training format irrespective of topic on which one is training. Behavioural Training and development is both an art and equally a well established science. Huge advances in Behavioural sciences like Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology has contributed immensely to make training more and more result oriented. Today one can confidently assert that Training does give substantial returns on investment definitely through the Behaviour pathway.

It is time you pave the way forward, with a solid foundation in Behavioural methods at training and development. Behavioural Training of the Trainers helps to understand as to how they can easily change over to ‘inside-out training’ in order to be able to influence their participants to change their behaviours for the better.

Non-behavioural approaches bank heavily on text book knowledge, and tends to become teacher centred and as a result does not yield positive results. They are called the outmoded outside-in approach to training that does not guarantee change or improvement in performance or productivity in whatever field. Hence it is high time one change’s over to participant centred approaches where behaviour is the key.

Behavioural training is the in-thing that takes you on the path of a true Training professional. Behavioural Training has the added advantage of measurements as it strongly believes in measuring where you are now so that the training can be designed behaviourally to take you where you would want to be. Pre, during and post measurements are certainly possible. And that’s a definite plus for those who are groping in the dark. Now can you be left behind?



Reference:

Oscar Murphy International

The Training Of “The Will To Do”

The “Will To Do” is the greatest power in the world that is concerned with human accomplishment and no one can in advance determine its limits.

The things that we do now would have been a few ages ago impossibilities. Today the safe maxim is: "All things are possible."

The Will To Do is a force that is strictly practical, yet it is difficult to explain just what it is. It can be compared to electricity because we know it only through its cause and effects. It is a power we can direct and to just the extent we direct it do we determine our future. Every time you accomplish any definite act, consciously or unconsciously, you use the principle of the Will. You can Will to do anything whether it is right or wrong, and therefore the way you use your will makes a big difference in your life.

Every person possesses some "Will To Do." It is the inner energy which controls all conscious acts. What you will to do directs your life forces. All habits, good or bad, are the result of what you will to do. You improve or lower your condition in life by what you will to do. Your will has a connection with all avenues of knowledge, all activities, all accomplishment.

You probably know of cases where people have shown wonderful strength under some excitement, similar to the following: The house of a farmer's wife caught on fire. No one was around to help her move anything. She was a frail woman, and ordinarily was considered weak. On this occasion she removed things from the house that it later took three men to handle. It was the Will To Do that she used to accomplish her task.

Genius Is But A Will To Do Little Things With Infinite Pains. Little Things Well Done Open The Door Of Opportunity For Bigger Things.

The Will accomplishes its greater results through activities that grow out of great concentration in acquiring the power of voluntary attention to such an extent that we can direct it where we will and hold it steadily to its task until our aim is accomplished. When you learn so to use it, your Will Power becomes a mighty force. Almost everything can be accomplished through its proper use. It is greater than physical force because it can be used to control not only physical but mental and moral forces.

There are very few that possess perfectly developed and balanced Will Power, but those who do easily crush out their weak qualities. Study yourself carefully. Find out your greatest weakness and then use your will power to overcome it. In this way eradicate your faults, one by one, until you have built up a strong character and personality.

Rules for Improvement

A desire arises. Now think whether this would be good for you. If it is not, use your Will Power to kill out the desire, but, on the other hand, if it is a righteous desire, summon all your Will Power to your aid, crush all obstacles that confront you and secure possession of the coveted Good.

Slowness in Making Decisions

This is a weakness of Will Power. You know you should do something, but you delay doing it through lack of decision. It is easier not to do a certain thing than to do it, but conscience says to do it. The vast majority of persons are failures because of the lack of deciding to do a thing when it should be done. Those that are successful have been quick to grasp opportunities by making a quick decision. This power of will can be used to bring culture, wealth and health.

Some Special Pointers

For the next week try to make quicker decisions in your little daily affairs. Set the hour you wish to get up and arise exactly at the fixed time. Anything that you should accomplish, do on or ahead of time. You want, of course, to give due deliberation to weighty matters, but by making quick decisions on little things you will acquire the ability to make quick decisions in bigger things. Never procrastinate. Decide quickly one way or the other even at the risk of deciding wrong. Practice this for a week or two and notice your improvement.

The Lack of Initiative

This, too, keeps many men from succeeding. They have fallen into the way of imitating others in all that they do. Very often we hear the expression, "He seems clever enough, but he lacks initiative." Life for them is one continuous grind. Day after day they go through the same monotonous round of duties, while those that are "getting along" are using their initiative to get greater fullness of life. There is nothing so responsible for poverty as this lack of initiative, this power to think and do for ourselves.

You Are as Good as Anyone

You have will power, and if you use it, you will get your share of the luxuries of life. So use it to claim your own. Don't depend on anyone else to help you. We have to fight our own battles. All the world loves a fighter, while the coward is despised by all.

Every person's problems are different, so I can only say "analyze your opportunities and conditions and study your natural abilities." Form plans for improvement and then put them into operation. Now, as I said before, don't just say, "I am going to do so and so," but carry your plan into execution. Don't make an indefinite plan, but a definite one, and then don't give up until your object has been accomplished. Put these suggestions into practice with true earnestness, and you will soon note astonishing results, and your whole life will be completely changed. An excellent motto for one of pure motives is: Through my will power I dare do what I want to. You will find this affirmation has a very strengthening effect.

The Spirit of Perseverance

The spirit of "sticktoitiveness" is the one that wins. Many go just so far and then give up, whereas, if they had persevered a little longer, they would have won out. Many have much initiative, but instead of concentrating it into one channel, they diffuse it through several, thereby dissipating it to such an extent that its effect is lost.

Develop more determination, which is only the Will To Do, and when you start out to do something stick to it until you get results. Of course, before starting anything you must look ahead and see what the "finish leads to." You must select a road that will lead to "somewhere," rather than "nowhere." The journey must be productive of some kind of substantial results. The trouble with so many young men is that they launch enterprises without any end in sight. It is not so much the start as the finish of a journey that counts. Each little move should bring you nearer the goal which you planned to reach before the enterprise began.

Lack of Perseverance is nothing but the lack of the Will To Do. It takes the same energy to say, "I will continue," as to say, "I give up." Just the moment you say the latter you shut off your dynamo, and your determination is gone. Every time you allow your determination to be broken you weaken it. Don't forget this. Just the instant you notice your determination beginning to weaken, concentrate on it and by sheer Will Power make it continue on the "job."

Never try to make a decision when you are not in a calm state of mind. If in a "quick temper," you are likely to say things you afterwards regret. In anger, you follow impulse rather than reason. No one can expect to achieve success if he makes decisions when not in full control of his mental forces.

Therefore make it a fixed rule to make decisions only when at your best. If you have a "quick temper," you can quickly gain control over it by simple rule of counting backwards. To count backwards requires concentration, and you thus quickly regain a calm state. In this way you can break the "temper habit."

It will do you a lot of good to think over what you said and thought the last time you were angry. Persevere until you see yourself as others see you. It would do no harm to write the scene out in story form and then sit in judgment of the character that played your part.

Special Instructions to Develop the Will To Do. This is a form of mental energy, but requires the proper mental attitude to make it manifest. We hear of people having wonderful will power, which really is wrong. It should be said that they use their will power while with many it is a latent force. I want you to realize that no one has a monopoly on will power. There is plenty for all. What we speak of as will power is but the gathering together of mental energy, the concentration power at one point. So never think of that person as having a stronger will than yours. Each person will be supplied with just that amount of will power that he demands. You don't have to develop will power if you constantly make use of all you have, and remember the way in which you use it determines your fate, for your life is moulded to great extent by the use you make of your will. Unless you make proper use of it you have neither independence nor firmness. You are unable to control yourself and become a mere machine for others to use. It is more important to learn to use your will than to develop your intellect. The man that has not learned how to use his will rarely decides things for himself, but allows his resolutions to be changed by others. He fluctuates from one opinion to another, and of course does not accomplish anything out of the ordinary, while his brother with the trained will takes his place among the world's leaders.

Qualities of a True Leader

“Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

The highly successful people in the world are naturally leaders in their respective fields. If you want to realize any level of success in your own life, then you need to make the commitment towards becoming a leader too. Focus on becoming great at what you love to do in life and then step up to the plate and inspire others to do the same. Leadership is about creating a strong foundation within yourself that is able to support and nurture those that are weaker than you are.

A very important distinction is that a leader is not a title or a position. Kevin Cashman, a leadership coach and the CEO of LeaderSource, says that “Too many people separate the act of leadership from the leader. They see leadership as something that they do, rather than as an expression of who they are.” The difference between someone in the position of power, such as a manager, executive, politician, etc. and a leader is that a positionally-powerful person can get people to do what they want merely because they have the power to levy punishment if their followers don’t comply.

While this can get people to do what they want, it also harbors resentment because it pushes people towards action by the threat of causing pain in their lives. A leader, on the other hand, inspires and motivates their followers to take action on their own volition without creating that negative aura of threat. True leaders possess a passionate and powerful vision of what they want to accomplish and they share that vision with as many people as they can. The title of Manager is simply a position, but that title in itself does not make the person a leader. In reality, the person at the very bottom of the organizational structure can be a leader even in absence of any authority. A leader inspires hope within their followers and it’s that vision of hope that makes a true leader more powerful than any person of authority. This article will describe the important qualities that a person needs to possess in order to be a true passionate leader.

“Before you become a leader, success is all about growing you. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Jack Welch

Be a Visionary

People will only follow a vision that is perfectly clear in their minds, therefore, it’s extremely important that you yourself must possess a crystal clear vision of what you want to accomplish and the direction that you want to go. If your vision is the slightest bit blurry in your mind, then how can you expect to lead people if you don’t know where you are going yourself? You must be able to see the big picture and then develop the plan on how to get there because in order to lead people, you have to keep things simple enough for them to take action on and you must be able to convey your vision to them. Develop a statement of purpose for yourself and for your company if you don’t already have one. Continue to rewrite it each day until it becomes something that you are passionate about and when you speak it out loud, you feel emotionally charged and empowered. Always remember that vague goals will always produce vague results. Share your vision with your team and let them take ownership in that dream by showing them how it can benefit their lives. Remember that people don’t follow other people—they follow the vision that the chosen leader is committed towards. Take any great leader throughout history and study their life and you will undoubtedly see a truly great visionary.

Be Passionate About What You Do

A leader must possess the highest level of passion for their vision in order to inspire those around them with that same level of energy. A leader who does not demonstrate passion for what they’re doing will instead emit a negative energy to their team, which will cause chaos and de-motivation towards their goals. Always be passionate about what you are doing and strive to share that passion with others. Remember the saying, “Energy flows where attention goes.”

Be True to Yourself

Always strive to display the highest degree of integrity that you can. Integrity is simply the act of being the same on the inside as you claim to be on the outside. People want to believe that you practice in your own life what you preach to them. The lack of integrity is the reason why politicians have such a tarnished reputation today because some of them lacked the integrity that people desire from their leaders. Most people fail becoming leaders because they display a poor level of integrity. They put on a false illusion of leadership in front of their team, but after the show is over, when they are away from the spotlight, their personal lives are anything but inspirational. A true leader possesses a strong foundation from within and it’s that foundation which supports the great teams that they build. True leaders must possess the highest level of integrity. Integrity is congruency of actions and intentions—doing what you say and acting the same on the outside as you do on the inside. Leaders are thought focusers. They make the confusing—clear. Therefore, the leader themselves must be polarized towards one focal point or else they will run the risk of confusing their followers and dissolving that focused energy that was once a vision. So follow the age old rule of do what you say and say what you do.

Be Courageous

Rudolph Giuliani once said that a hero is not one who is fearless. A true hero is one who feels the fear and yet moves forward regardless. A leader is a hero who must be strong enough to face their fears of failing, kick it aside, and move forward anyways. Leaders realize not to cover or hide their fear, but rather, they acknowledge it like everyone else, but they also manage their fears rather than allow their fears to manage them. Remember that even the best leaders make mistakes, but what separates the great leaders from the mediocre ones is that the great leaders are willing to admit they made a mistake and they use it as a tool to create a better future for themselves and their team. Mediocre leaders, on the other hand, live in self-deceit and allow their ego to get in the way of doing what’s right for themselves and everyone who follows them. They stand firm in their decision that they’ve made, even when they know that it’s the wrong one and they would rather sink with the ship and take their team with them, rather than admit a mistake. The fear of failure is something that holds 90% of people from achieving their maximum potential in life. A true leader is one who makes a decision and moves forwards and sees failures not as failures, but as lessons for their future success.

Be Action-Oriented

The universe doesn’t reward people for what they know, it rewards people for what they do and leaders are doers. Leaders are geared towards taking action and they realize that for a team to come together, it requires moving from potential to action. The decision is yours to make. While making a decision might lead towards failure, the act of failing to make a decision will absolutely guarantee failure. It’s important to remember that leaders rarely have 100% of the information needed to make an informed decision. Those leaders who wait until they have all the information before they act, usually act too late. A true leader is intuitive and listens to their “gut instincts” because it usually gives them the right answer when uncertainty exists.

Be a Builder of Outstanding Teams

In any team sport, it’s not always the case where the team with the best players win. Exceptionally talented players are important, but it’s not as important as how those players work as a collective whole, as a single and powerful unified force. Therefore, it stands to reason that most of your time as a leader needs to be committed towards selecting, evaluating, coaching and strategically placing your players. As a leader, you must be a great team-builder because if people don’t work together on a common goal, then that mission will ultimately fail. Realize that the people that you have on your team won’t simply come together on their own. They need someone who can organize them into an efficient team. A great leader knows the importance of having a team comprised of the right mix of individuals with different and varying strengths and weaknesses and the strategic placement of these individuals on the playing field that will fully utilize their strengths, while minimizing any weaknesses.

Be a Role-Model

Over 80% of what people learn is from what they observe from other people. As a leader, people will be focusing on your life, both professionally and personally, as an example of how to act themselves. If you want to see your team with exceptional personal qualities that you admire, then make sure that you yourself are demonstrating those same qualities. Your followers will mirror back the qualtities that you display towards them. A true leader is committed towards serving their team and does what’s necessary to push the team closer to that ultimate vision. Along the same note, a leader must never complain in front of their team because that shows a lack of direction. A chain-of-command management philosophy I learned in the police force was that criticism should always go up the chain of command, while praise should always go downwards. An officer never gripes to his troops, he gripes to his superiors, while patting his troops on the back for doing a job well done.

Be a Learner

Leaders are learners. Our wisdom for making the right decisions is shaped and molded by our experiences in life. Leaders not only immerse themselves into experiencing as much as they can throughout life, but they also learn from the wisdom of other people as a way to leverage the time that they have. We can learn from our own mistakes and accomplishments, but we can also learn from the mistakes of others as well and it’s for this reason that leaders must be learners. Strive to maximize your own personal development by taking courses, reading books, listening to audio programs and immersing yourself into something new that will cause personal growth to happen. Leaders by their very nature have almost an obsession with personal growth because it’s from wisdom and experience that produces a higher quality decision.

Be a Great Communicator

Great leaders know how to communicate to their team effectively. They know how to deliver their message in a way that will create a lasting impact on the people who are listening to them. A great leader will also listen to the people that follow them. Through communication, leaders can convey specific goals and instructions to their followers. Leaders are listeners. I’ve known many bosses out there in the world that really haven’t grasped the ability to listen effectively. They are too busy thinking about what to say next, that they fail to grasp the valuable feedback and ideas that are given to them. Remember that consequences, both positive and negative, require actions and actions require decisions and decisions require an effective exchange of communication. Poor communication almost always results in a poor decision and the end result is a very poor consequence because of it.

Be Competent

A major component of trust is competence. To be a great leader, you have maintain a level of proficiency at what you do. To often, skilled people rise up the promotional ranks into a management position and they inevitably fail because they are no longer handling the technical aspects of the department that they were so good at before and instead, their have assumed a position that demands a whole new type of intelligence—interpersonal intelligence—the ability to interact well with others. A great leader is not only competent at the technical portion of things, but they are also competent at interacting with others. Strive to develop both to become a great leader.

Be Compassionate

People in the position of power often forget simple manners when it comes to delegating responsibilities to their subordinates. A great leader is respectful at all times and follows the platinum rule of giving all people unconditional love and acceptance regardless of whether they deserve it or whether they want it. It’s sometimes too easy to allow positional power to go to one’s head and when that happens, that person is no longer a leader, but instead a dictator. A genuine leader is one who is compassionate towards others. They have the power of empathizing with all people and understanding how they might feel. A false leader, on the other hand, does not empathize with their people, but instead makes decisions based on what they want or what is popular or what is good for them. The greatest leaders display the quality of unconditional love. Unconditional love is the love of all people without reservation and without having them demonstrate behaviors that you want them to. Unconditional love helps the leader put aside their wants and allows them to see what is good for other people. A compassionate leader also knows that they are not above anyone else and does not treat others as if they were. They understand that they simply have a role to fulfill just as other people do and they always treat others with respect and dignity at all times.

Be Intuitive

In my experience, all the outstanding leaders I’ve known have a very keen sense of intuition. They listen to their “gut” feeling and are sensitive to when their body is telling them that something feels bad or doesn’t sit well with them and they don’t ignore it. Leaders combine their gut feeling with their experience to avoid the pitfalls that sometimes open up underneath an organization at any time. It’s the intuitive nature of a leader that enables them to balance the information given to him by the “experts” with what feels right inside. While experts can give a lot of useful information, they are usually more resources of data than pragmatics and usually wither and die out on the battlefield of reality.

Be a Mentor

A great leader does not only see people as they are, they see people as how they could be. A dictator holds his people down and prevents growth, while a leader knows the value of developing his people and enhancing their potential. A true leader encourages his team to take on new responsibilities and to grow and learn because that investment in the personal growth of their team will pay off substantially in the future.

Be Willing to Celebrate

Many managers get caught up with trying to be professional by not celebrating enough. Celebration delivers positive energy and recognition to their teams for an effort well-done. Make a big deal about achievements as if your team had just won the Super Bowl or the World Cup. Celebrations are an important tool for motivation.

Conclusion

The path towards living a life of significance demands that you become an exceptional leader. Start working on building your leadership qualities as I have outlined here and never stop building on those skills for the rest of your living days. The better a leader you become, the more people will hear and follow your message and the greater positive change you can influence on the world as part of your legacy. As Major General Perry M. Smith (Ret. USAF) once said, “All leaders must work hard to build the future, for that is where they and their people will spend the rest of their lives.”

An Overview On Training & Development

Selection and Training

Ideologies or beliefs about people can influence the emphasis placed on selection on one hand and training and development on the other.So, what beliefs about people are influential and how do they influence this emphasis?Training and DevelopmentTraining is the systematic process concerned with facilitating the acquisition of skills, knowledge and attitudes which result in:

Improved job performance
Improved Organizational Performance

Status of Training and Development
“The British have always admired gifted amateurs. Except in certain well defined areas like hard science, they have always stressed that character is more important than formal knowledge.” (Layard et al, 1994)
This view assigns more importance to innate ability than to formal learning.

Influence of Training and Development on Recruitment and Turnover

Top 4 factors ranked by engineering graduates in choice of job and company :1. Challenging work2. Nature of work3. Opportunities to use abilities4. Structured trainingStructured training became the deciding factor for those with more than one job offer.(Killingly, 1989; Hawkins & Barclay, 1989)Jones & Goss (1990) - high training companies with an emphasis on development were less affected by skill shortages than low training ones - also noted that low training companies lose their ability to attract and retain labour.Jones & Goss (1991) - distinguished between ‘vocational’ and ‘post-vocational’ training - those involved in latter suffered less from skill shortages and had fewer recruitment problems.Blackburn & Hankinson (1989) - firms undertaking formal training and development had lower labour turnover rates than those without.i.e. Companies which include training and development as part of their formal Organisational Strategy are likely to be - more productive (hence more competitive) and - more likely to attract and retain good employees.

Factors Influencing Training and Development Activities - INHIBITORS

- National factors - lack of government strategy -lack of structures/ institutions (eg training boards, training institutions) - funding (no financial incentives)

- Lack of market competition for goods or service

- Viewing training as a cost rather than as an investment

- Training and development not integrated into the organisational strategy

- Training staff more concerned with input (a well presented training course) than output (influence on subsequent work performance)

- Lack of structures and systems to assess the need for and deliver training (appraisal system, training personnel etc)- survival state

- People in organisations struggling to survive need to devote all their energies to surviving - organisations in constant crises will not be able to devote time and energy to training (Payne, 1991)

Factors Influencing Training and Development Activities - FACILITATORS

- National factors - government encouragement - legislation - institutional structures (eg Training Boards) - funding (grants and levies)

- Strong market competitiveness for goods or service

- Customers demands for quality in goods or services, suppliers emphasis on correct use of equipment, product or service (certificated training courses)

- Knowledge that formal training and development programmes can attract and retain high quality personnel

- Recognition of a ‘skill gap’ due to: technical/technological changes, product market changes, work redesign, downsizing (Pettigrew et al 1988; Useem 1993)

- Top management belief in and commitment to training and development activities

- Integration of training and development activities within the organisational strategy

- Structures and systems to assess the need for and deliver training (appraisal system, training department etc)

FACTORS INFLUENCING TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

To facilitate training there is a need to achieve the support of line managers through involving them in decision making about training.Line managers should be involved in the processes of:- Identifying training needs and priorities - Allocating time and resources for training - Evaluating the success of trainingThey should also be kept informed of longer term plans and strategies so they can be proactive in identifying future training needs.

Training Needs Analysis: Organization >> Group >> Individual

Where do you want to be in 4 years’ time?
What skills will the job need?
Which of these skills have you demonstrated?
What gaps are there?

Methods of Training: (Muchinsky, 1997)

Lectures
Audiovisual Materials
Conferences
CAI & web based instruction
Simulation
Role-Plays
Behavioural Modelling
Outward bound
Job Rotation

Learning Styles:

Activist/Experience
Pragmatist/Planning
Reflector/Review
Theorist/Conclusions

Barriers to Training Effectiveness:

Supportive culture
Trainer credibility
Application Opportunities
Appraisal & accountability
Expectations & motivation
Follow-through assistance
Appropriate Methods

Management Development

Classical functions / activities of management:
(i) Planning, Organising, Command, Coordination and Control(Henri Fayol, General and Industrial Management, Pitman 1949)

(ii) Planning, Control, Coordination and Motivation,(E.F.L. Brech, Principles and Practice of Management, 1975 )

(iii) Sets Objectives, Organises, Motivates and Communicates, Measures(establishes targets and performance measures), Develops People (P.F.Drucker, People and Performance, 1977 )Useful for classifying managerial activities but do not indicate the skills and attributes demonstrated by effective or successful managers.

For management development purposes, the skills of effective managers need to be known in order to develop programmes for their learning and development.

The ten most often listed characteristics of effective managers:

1. Verbal communication (including listening)

2. Managing time and stress

3. Managing individual decisions

4. Recognising, defining and solving problems

5. Motivating and influencing others

6. Delegating

7. Setting goals and articulating a vision

8. Self-awareness

9. Team Building

10. Managing conflict

Cameron and Tschirhart (1988), using the 25 most frequently mentioned skills from a large number of studies, proposed they could be placed into four main groups:

a) Participative and human relation skills

b) Competitiveness and control skills

c) Innovativeness and entrepreneurship skills

d) Skills for maintaining order and rationality

The first two are contrasting, as are the last two. A conclusion from the study was that effective managers are required to demonstrate paradoxical skills.These are much more ‘skills-based’ approaches to managerial activity and thus form a better basis for training / development.