Based on the five key behavioural areas that that support good health, wellbeing and engagement in your team the following exercises will help to develop your management capabilities.
Each exercise focuses on a particular behaviour and can be used alongside the action plan to help you develop your management approach.
Exercise 1: Taking a positive, respectful, open approach
This exercise provides ideas and inspiration relevant to taking a positive, respectful, open approach, which is part of Being open, fair and consistent.
Taking a positive, respectful, open approach is about 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.
Exercise 2: Remaining calm under pressure
This exercise 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.
Exercise 3: Handling conflict and people management issues
This exercise provides ideas on handling conflict and people management issues, which is part of Handling conflict and people management issues.
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.
Exercise 4: Providing knowledge, clarity and guidance
This exercise 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.
Exercise 5: Building and sustaining relationships
This exercise 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.
Exercise 6: Supporting development
This exercise 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.
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.
CIPD Trust
Tackling barriers to work today whilst creating inclusive workplaces of tomorrow.
Bullying
and harassment
Discover our practice guidance and recommendations to tackle bullying and harassment in the workplace.
Advice for line managers on supporting and enabling hybrid working
Practical advice and guiding principles for effective support
Find out more about the role of line managers and their relationship with people professionals
Practical guidance to help managers respond to suicide risk and promote good mental health
Use our flexible working quiz to receive tailored recommendations
Use this flowchart to work through how to respond to flexible working requests made during recruitment
Checklist to assist people professionals in measuring, monitoring and evaluating flexible working
Use this checklist and evidence overview to help build a convincing business case for flexible working