It was a big step for Christine McGinty when she took on the role of fire risk management officer. Excited, but apprehensive about making the shift to management, Christine knew she would need specific, professional training to prepare for her new position.
IMNZ’s two-day Team Leader Essentials course appealed to Christine because she was brand new to staff leadership. She saw that the course would give her the skills and resources she needed to feel confident stepping into her new role.
“To grow and become better people you need to be educating all the time. For me, education is what it’s all about.”
Moving from colleague to manager required a significant change in mindset for Christine. She had no experience leading staff before the course, but she knew she wanted to be the type of leader that inspired people to reach their full potential.
“As a result of the course, I realised and came to the understanding that I was no longer one of the team—I was now a teacher and a mentor and that I had to change my approach and how I dealt with them. My attitude had to change—which it did.”
Returning to her workplace, equipped with new leadership and communication skills, Christine began implementing changes in her team and in her own approach. She felt an important change, one that had a positive impact on her staff’s productivity, was the introduction of one-on-one meetings. Christine employed the structured approach she had learnt on the Team Leader Essentials course and was very happy with the results.
“The structured approach, in that manner, improved the productivity of one of my staff members because he preferred the one-on-ones. It gave him the ability to understand what I wanted. His productivity went through the roof. It was great!”
In addition to the skills learnt on the course, Christine regards the training material she received as a student of IMNZ as invaluable. “It’s fabulous” she says. “I actually refer back to it whenever I’ve got any problems or issues or if I can’t think of what it is I need to do. Having all that material there that I can go through is hugely helpful.”
Since completing the course, Christine has had the opportunity to apply her many new management and communication skills and her team have noticed her efforts. She has received very positive feedback on her leadership—one team member even remarking to Christine’s manager on the improvements in her attitude, approach to her responsibilities and the way she handles staff.
“I definitely would recommend this course for others,” she says. “I’ve actually recommended it to one of my colleagues, who has enrolled, and I’m sure he’ll get as much out of it as I did.” Team Leader Essentials is for anyone preparing to step into a leadership or management role, or those looking to build their leadership capabilities.
