The 30 Minute Manager!™ | Managing People Training Activity

• The key attributes of effective managers and supervisors
• What new managers need to know about their role
• To appreciate the concept of the 'whole' manager
• To reflect on participants’ own strengths and weaknesses
• To pinpoint areas for performance improvement

Each team has a set of 62 cards, each stating a characteristic that a manager or supervisor might possess - some desirable, some less desirable, some irrelevant.

First, teams must sort the cards into four groups of attributes: Personal, Organisational, Interpersonal and Irrelevant. They then reduce the cards to just 30 (spread roughly over the three categories) that best describe their view of the perfect manager.

They score their profile against the ‘definitive profile’ supplied. (Teams may suggest that ‘the definitive profile’ can be refined – which all makes for good debate.)

How do individuals match up to the profile? What are their strengths and weaknesses? The act of sorting the statements and the elimination process stimulates valuable discussion about manager attributes and creates a view of the ‘whole’ manager.

The timing for this activity can be flexible from 30 to 60 minutes.

1. Issue a set of cards to each team and allow up to 20 minutes for sorting into the four categories. You can allow teams to take longer if you have more time, and equally give them less time if not.
2. Allow teams a further 10 minutes to select their top 30 cards.
3. Issue Profile Forms for teams to 'profile' their ideal manager.
4. Use the secret code to double-check teams have put cards in the right categories.
5. Score each team and lead a discussion on each team’s profiles and the key ‘manager attributes’. Was there much agreement between team profiles? If not, why not? Get participants to reflect on their own manager attributes: their strengths, where can they improve - and how?

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer’s Notes
• Card Sets x4
• Header Cards Sets x4
• Profile Forms
• The Ideal Profile

This activity is for face-to-face classroom use. It is supplied as a hard copy pack and the digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

Our licence offering is designed to provide exceptional value and flexibility for your organisational training needs.

Upon purchase, each Northgate activity includes a five-year licence for repeat use, with up to a maximum number of delegates per training session. The maximum number of delegates for this activity is 24 per licence. This grants you the freedom to use the activity repeatedly, with the specified maximum number of delegates, for five years.

All Learning and Development (L&D) professionals based at the same site (or
‘remote hub’) as you are granted access to these resources, including to the digital files on the Trainerhub via your site-specific Trainer Dashboard, fostering a collaborative spirit within your immediate team.

Should you wish to make this activity available to a wider audience within your organisation, additional licences are required. We understand the varying needs of different organisations and aim to provide flexible options to suit your requirements.