Line manager development exercises

Use these exercises to develop your management approach
Line manager

Based on the areas highlighted in your recommendations report (generated from the behavioural alignment quiz) the following exercises will help to develop your management capabilities.

Each exercise focuses on a particular statement from the quiz and can be used alongside the action plan to help you adopt a management approach that supports good health, wellbeing and engagement in your team, based on the five key behavioural areas:

  • Being open, fair and consistent
  • Handling conflict and problems
  • Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance
  • Building and sustaining relationships
  • Supporting development.

Taking a positive, respectful, open approach

This exercise (relating to statement 1 in the quiz) provides ideas and inspiration relevant to taking a positive, respectful, open approach, which is part of being open, fair and consistent.

This involves giving positive feedback, avoiding blame and criticism, being clear about when people need to make improvements but not focusing on mistakes. It is also about being open to other ways of doing things and different perspectives, consulting people and respecting their views.

Handling conflict and people management issues

This exercise (relating to statement 3 in the quiz) provides ideas on handling conflict and people management issues, which is part of handling conflict and problems.

This involves taking an objective approach to employee conflict, dealing with it as soon as it arises and following through to make sure it is resolved; it is also about addressing people management issues (such as bullying and unacceptable behaviour) in a supportive way and getting support yourself if needed.

Remaining calm under pressure

This exercise (relating to statement 2 in the quiz) offers ideas about remaining calm under pressure, which is part of being open, fair and consistent.

Being able to stay calm in pressured situations and managing your emotions, enables you to take a consistent approach to managing people, and be fair and kind in your interactions with people.

Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance

This exercise (relating to quiz statements 4 and 5) provides ideas and inspiration relevant to providing knowledge, clarity and guidance.

Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance is about clarifying employees’ role requirements and expectations, understanding their role, your own role, and relevant process and procedures, and communicating whether employees are on track. It’s also about taking the time to give employees clear, specific advice when they need it and taking responsibility for decision making, problem solving, follow-up and planning.

Building and sustaining relationships

This exercise (relating to quiz statement 6) provides ideas and inspiration relevant to building and sustaining relationships.

Building and sustaining relationships is about interacting with employees at a human level, showing concern for their wellbeing, being interested in them as individuals and providing regular opportunities to speak one-to-one.

Supporting development

This exercise (relating to quiz statement 6) provides ideas relevant to supporting development.

Supporting development is about taking time to discuss career development with team members and actively supporting them, for example, through offering opportunities for career progression, arranging time off for development and arranging development activities.

Line manager

Action plan

Use the action plan to identify a few simple actions to build on your strengths and address the behavioural areas you want to develop. As outlined in the step-by-step guidance, it is designed to be used by those who have completed the quiz and received a recommendations report from which to identify their strengths and areas to develop.
Line manager

Questions to help you reflect and get feedback

These questions can be used to reflect and gather feedback on your capability to manage employees in ways that are good for their health, wellbeing and engagement.

Explore our related content

Support materials

How to use the support materials

This step by step guidance will guide you through using the support materials to help you explore and develop your management capability to help you support the wellbeing, health and engagement of your team

Find out more
Top