Director Development Programme

Five day programme – commencing 21 January 2025

The Director Development Programme is designed to support directors or senior managers within businesses to support and grow their business or the department they lead. The objective is to equip you as a director or senior manager with the skills and confidence you need to drive your business forward and achieve your objectives.

How will the sessions be run?

This is a five day modular programme covering the following topic headings:

– Developing Vision, Values & Strategy Leadership
– Planning, Direction & Priorities
– Finance for Non Financial Directors
– People Management Approaches
– Driving Performance & leading change

Each section is delivered roughly 2 weeks apart to give you chance to apply the principles covered, back in your workplace, before the next session.

These main areas are all interconnected as part of one process, which is primarily the setting and achieving of an agreed culture within the business context.

Day One – Developing Vision, Values & Strategy – 21 January
– The means used to identify and gain agreement with the board on the current situation, and future business culture objectives and possible changes in the Mission / Purpose / Identity, at all levels of the business
– Identification of the ‘big picture’ objectives as a description of the business, and the way it will be perceived by all stakeholders
– Agreeing the beliefs and values that the organization will be expected to act upon and uphold, this may also govern the kind of personnel that are retained or recruited
– Identification of the marketing objectives, and the required market position and identity
– The main principles of the marketing mix – managing promotion, pricing, product mix, channels of distribution, people and profit
– Interaction of different elements of the marketing mix and their combined affect on the identity and culture of the business and on the creation and maintenance of a consistent market identity

Day Two – Planning and Direction – 4 February
– Designing the structures / processes that will enable the identified culture to flourish
– Defining the strategic and tactical priorities within the business and within the senior team
– Determine the level of capabilities / skills required at the appropriate levels of the organization to support and build upon the culture required
– Identify and reinforce the behaviour required at all levels of the organization, to create the required environment that will be observed and experienced by the stakeholders thus engendering trust throughout the organization
– Establishing priorities of work-life balance – identification of the values of the individual, and how they affect time and work allocation
– Creating a plan – achieving short, medium, and long term goals through a daily plan

Day Three – Finance for Non – Finance Directors – 18 February
– The main financial statements, their use for the business, the categories within statements and what they mean.
– How to construct and develop a simple set of financial statements
– Evaluating the financial standing of a business or department using a variety of evaluation methods
– Understanding the flow of cash in relation to the other financial statements
– Creating and monitoring a simple budgetary system
– Identify and calculate appropriate financial ratios as a short cut to understanding the performance of a business

Day Four – People Management Approaches – 25 February
– Different management styles that can be used to develop the identified culture, and how to identify the current management styles structures and processes that have created the present culture
– The role of coaching in business capability and skill development, and the effect of a changing management style
– Recruiting and keeping people that will align with, and support the culture
– Keeping people motivated to maintain and build on results
– How to keep building your team morale and performance
– Recognition of the benefits of diversity in the workplace
– Understanding values differences and how to align people with differing values to support each other in achieving the same objective

Day Five – Driving Performance & Leading Change – 11 March
– Measuring the outputs of the processes put in place to ensure that the identified culture is embedding and self sustaining
– Measuring the level of capabilities / skills exhibited at the appropriate levels of the organization to support and build upon the culture required
– Measuring and reinforcing the behaviour required from stakeholders at all levels of the organization, to sustain the environment that will be observed and experienced. Giving feedback to key stakeholders on performance and improvement
– Identification of the drivers for change – how to spot them, identify the natural consequences of the status quo or change, and use them to lead change
– Creating a powerful team to lead the change, the skills and attitudes to look for or create within the team, and how to develop the team to ensure that the delivery is possible