{"id":725,"date":"2011-07-22T14:56:19","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2011-08-07T20:57:41","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T20:57:41","slug":"management-development-tea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterjohnsononline.com\/index.php\/management-development-tea\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your management development worth the price of a tea?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some while ago I wrote an article on the fact that most managers spend more on their daily coffee than they do on their own management development. I thought at the time that this would cause a few raised eyebrows. I also hoped that people would \u00a0realise that it does not take that much money to make a difference in one’s own development. Clearly I was wrong!<\/p>\n

I have been doing some very casual research recently regarding how much people are prepared to spend. The general answer is very little. A rather more comprehensive review shows that the extremes are vast. I have met with people who are investing many $000s (these are the very rare exceptions, by the way) and many who consider it an cost and spend nothing at all.<\/p>\n

I have also discovered that it is the people who are employed who spend the least. They have a mindset that it is their employers responsibility to ensure that they are developed well enough for the role they perform. In ‘transactional analysis’ language this is called a child:parent relationship, with the employee not taking responsibility for their actions. The ideal relationship is adult:adult, by the way.<\/p>\n

I had firsthand experience of this a few weeks ago when I was attending a business seminar with about 200 other people. One of the people I met praised one of my publications saying how useful it is and it had really helped in his new role. I was delighted with the feedback and asked him where he had got a copy from. Apparently his manager had passed the publication to him. A few minutes later we were joined by the manager who had passed over his copy of the publication I had gifted to him a year or so before. I tease and remarked that in his new senior position couldn\u2019t he have afforded to buy a new copy for his more junior colleague…..it is only \u00a35.<\/p>\n

Apparently their budgets do not stretch to this sort of expenditure, something I was rather shocked about in view of the size of the business. I also teased that he could have purchased a copy himself and passed it over……<\/p>\n

Well, I am writing this article in a Cotswold tea room. The cost of afternoon tea is \u00a37.95, not an unreasonable price in this day and age, and in such a beautiful part of Britain. I am sure many people think little of indulging in this short lived luxury. Sadly it seems that few see the \u00a35 as a whorthwile investment\u00a0 in their mind. Interesting!<\/p>\n

As Benjamin Franklin said \u201cAn investment in knowledge always pays the best interest\u201d<\/p>\n

So a thought or two to ponder:<\/p>\n