Five reasons why CMI can make you a better leader

Blog Author
Mike Spick
Product Manager - Management & Leadership

According to the Chartered Manager Institute (CMI) poor management and leadership costs the UK economy a combined £84bn a year in lost productivity. That’s a staggering amount of money. 84 billion pounds. You could fund 1.8 million nurses and nearly half a million GPs for a year and still have four billion pounds left over.

But how surprised are you when you hear this? The link between good people management and a business’s performance is well documented, and the impact of managers, good and bad, is far reaching. A survey by the process management firm Process Bliss found that up to 45 per cent of SME employees have quit their job at some point because of their boss. While an additional 40 per cent believe that their boss interfering too much in their role adversely affects their company's productivity.

So why do we have such bad managers? Some people who get promoted into a manager’s role, just get promoted because they want the role itself. They do not prioritise the team; they think only of themselves. They do things – simply put – that aren’t very good for the whole. Great managers put the team first and think of the collective, not just themselves and their own motivations. 

As a manager you have the opportunity to make a significant difference to your team. The entire team performs better if you do your job well. So, how do you avoid the pitfalls of being a bad manager – or make sure you’re a good one before it’s too late? Here are 5 reasons why a Chartered Management Institute course can make you a better manager and leader. 

1. Personal development

Most organisations expect their managers and leaders to be good at managing themselves. The premise being that if you’re a good self-manager, then they are more likely to be able to manage other people. CMI courses look at your own personal development. We teach you how to develop your current skills and qualities based on your experiences. 

Developing self-awareness and other aspects of emotional intelligence is directly linked to outstanding performance as a manager. For example, a study of top executives at 15 global companies, including Pepsi, Volvo and IBM, concluded that success at the highest levels could be attributed to emotional intelligence rather than to technical and intellectual competence.

2. Planning for managers

Another facet of the CMI course is learning how to plan effectively. If you as a manager have a deadline and your team fails to meet it; it’s not always on them. Since many managerial duties revolve around effectively planning, a good leader knows how to plan tasks, delegate them appropriately, set realistic deadlines and check in to ensure your team is achieving those deadlines.

3. Looking after your team

Being a good manager is not a dictatorship. It’s not you versus them. You’re the leader of the team, but you should also be part of it. CMI qualifications teach you how to look after your team, and that by looking after them, they look after you. Which means that you will meet your work goals as they meet theirs. 

For example, if a policy you have put in place does not work for your team and they speak up (thankfully, your managerial style means they feel comfortable coming to you) to say it’s not working, it’s up to you as a manager to reflect and potentially adapt your strategy to meet their needs. It’s a difficult balance to strike, ensuring your team’s needs are met in line with company goals, but one way to gain your team’s trust is to show you have considered their opinion – that, when appropriate, you’ll stand up for them when they need you to and you’ll assert your influence to help them achieve the balance they need.

4. Understanding finance

As a manager the figures are front and centre. CMI qualifications allow you to understand finance and how your role as a manager plays a key part. You have to learn to manage your team and operating within budget. 

By learning how to balance a budget, you’ll not only be a better leader for your team, but you may also impress those higher-ups (whether that’s your Senior Leadership Team or your executive board) because they’ll take note. 

5. Making decisions based on information

CMI can make you a better leader by covering one of the fundamentals of management, decision-making: making decisions based on information. This statement may seem like a slight no-brainer, but you would be surprised at how many decisions are made based on minimal or faulty information.

A key skill is learning how to gather the right data, and analyse it, before making decisions that affect your team, or your company as a whole. In our daily lives, we are selective in the way we filter information and process only what is of interest to us. As a manager we have to be equally selective; but instead of focusing on what is of interest to us, we have to focus on the information that is useful to getting the job done, and be able to shut out the rest. Just because there’s a great deal of information doesn’t mean it’s relevant, useful or that it warrants any of your time. CMI teaches you how to select the information you need.

As a new manager you need to take a step back and look at your new role. Just because you’ve been promoted or hired into a management role, should you expect to be an expert from the off? There are tried and tested management principles that work, ways to be a good leader. And that’s what CMI can teach you. You can learn the right skills, arm yourself with the right tools and understand what motivates people to perform well, so that you can be a great leader.

Good leadership begins with good training. Understand what it takes to be a leader of people. To find your fit, take a look at MOL’s Management and Leadership programmes to discover which CMI course is right for you.

MOL is a CMI Strategic Partner provider and offers both corporate and individual CMI accredited management and leadership training programmes.