Management versus leadership: This is a discussion we recently experienced with a Learning and Development Manager from a co-operative we are working with.
It’s a relevant and interesting debate within the learning and development field. It’s clearly important to ensure that during the planning stage of learning the desired outcomes are clear. Some questions we pose to our clients are “Do you have managers or leaders or both?” “How many people does someone have to lead before they become a leader?” “How early do you identify and develop prospective leaders to become leaders?”
Do we need to differentiate between leadership and management? As co-operators it’s worth considering that whether we’re managers or leaders the way we work should demonstrate the integration of the co-operative values and principles. For example, being fair, honest, open and transparent. Coaching our team, helping individuals to grow in their role, promoting self-help and encouraging others to take self-responsibility.
Unlike some organisations who may see training as a useful ‘add on’ which can improve staff performance and moral, co-operatives have a belief in the importance of education being embedded in the values and principles that shape them. All of our courses are carefully designed to ensure they reflect this co-operative difference whether that be training for emerging managers, helping pharmacists to become shop managers and team leaders, through to each and every one of our CMI accredited programmes. Co-operation and co-operative learning is what makes the Co-operative College different to other learning providers.
As we seek to put the values and principles of co-operation at the heart of what we do this is exemplified in the training and development we provide. For example we are currently working with a large Co-operative to develop a one day programme that includes co-operative identity and the integration of the co-operative values and principles into leadership skills.
A second example is the development of a European Training Pathway for managers within the third sector. The MoSE project that we are working on with partners from Italy, Greece, Poland, Spain and Italy has identified learning needs within third sector managers by completing desk and field research in each partner country.
The main learning needs highlighted were “marketing and communication”. The research also showed that the strength of the third sector is the values, the reason for existence and how these values are “seen” by customers, members, employees and managers.
Therefore the learning need alone isn’t about “marketing” or “communication”, it’s about marketing and communication in a “co-operative way” that supports and integrates the values and principles. This makes learning and development of managers within co-operatives different, and a difference that threads through our development programmes.
