SAN DIEGO, Feb. 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ken Blanchard Companies®, a global leadership development and management training firm, today released First-time Manager—its new training program built on the time-tested secrets of The New One Minute Manager. The program extends the best-selling book's secrets into essential skills and conversations that prepare high-performing individuals to transition into the role of manager for the first time.
With more than 13 million copies sold worldwide and translated into 37 languages, The One Minute Manager has been the go-to business book to help guide new managers through what can be one of the most exciting, yet challenging transitions in one's career.
New managers are usually chosen from highly proficient individual contributors and often promoted without the skills to be successful in the new role. According to Corporate Executive Board, sixty percent of new managers underperform during their first two years, which causes performance gaps and employee turnover.
A Great Start Makes All the Difference
"Blanchard® has developed a program that will provide the most critical skills to get first-time managers off to a great start," said Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and chief spiritual officer at The Ken Blanchard Companies. "First-time Manager will help new managers and their people reach their full potential sooner."
Four Essential Skills based on Blanchard's coaching model have been built into the new program: Listen to Learn, Inquire for Insight, Tell Your Truth, and Express Confidence. Coauthors Scott Blanchard, principal of The Ken Blanchard Companies, and Linda Miller, global liaison for coaching, believe these skills will equip new managers to have productive conversations with direct reports.
Management Is Done Minute to Minute Through Conversations
One of the most critical skills a new manager can develop is the ability to hold meaningful performance-related conversations to help them balance relationships and results. First-time Manager teaches Four Core Conversations. "We realized that the One Minute Manager skills needed to be taught as conversations," said Scott Blanchard. "A new manager's ability to hold these conversations is vital to their success and becomes a foundation for their career as a leader."
First-time Manager lays out these essential skills and conversations in a six-hour workshop design with engaging activities, entertaining videos, and skill practice, as well as access to a learner portal that provides key assets for practice and reinforcement back on the job.
As managers are ready to take their management skills to the next level, they can progress into other Blanchard leadership programs, such as the widely taught leadership model Situational Leadership® II.
Product Availability: First-time Manager is now available by contacting a Blanchard sales representative at 1.760.233.6725. The training is offered as a public workshop; for dates and locations, visit http://www.kenblanchard.com/Events/Workshops.
Note to editor: Scott Blanchard, principal of The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of First-time Manager, is available for interviews.
About The Ken Blanchard Companies
The Ken Blanchard Companies is a global leader in workplace learning, productivity, and leadership effectiveness that is best known for its Situational Leadership® II program—the most widely taught leadership model in the world. Because of its ability to help people excel as self-leaders and as leaders of others, SLII® is embraced by Fortune 500 companies as well as small to mid-sized businesses, governments, and educational and nonprofit organizations.
Many Blanchard programs for teams, customer loyalty, change management, and leadership development blend the use of assessments with elearning and instructor-led training. Self-paced elearning modules are available via Blanchard Online Learning—a cloud-based curriculum that is interactive and easy to use via mobile tablets.
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