“Life happens, and sometimes you have to prioritise your family over personal development but my persistence and commitment to my own development eventually paid off.”
Almost 18 months ago, my manager nominated me to enrol in LearningWorks’ First Line Management course. I wanted to complete this course because I’m an ambitious person and I was honoured to be chosen.
Unfortunately for me, some things happened where I had to prioritise looking after family members and I didn’t complete the course. I didn’t feel like I gave up, but something just had to give. Despite that setback, I didn’t want to let people down because I’d been selected as a hard worker.
Once my family issue was resolved I knew that I wanted to restart the course, so I approached LearningWorks to re-enrol. It was easier the second time in terms of my time commitment because I was being selfish, I was being clearer on setting aside time to do the things I needed to do to get completed. It was easier because I allowed myself to have that time, and also had the support of my partner, I couldn’t have done it without her.
Now that I have completed the course, I see the difference in my team’s performance, I’m very much judged by KPIs and team performance.
For example, I was recently off work for a month, and I kept in contact with my team, even though I was just there as a verbal presence every couple of days they were smashing the work out and as an added bonus one of my technicians was awarded technician of the year for 2019. This guy started two years ago, and I’ve literally trained him up until now and so I’d like to credit that to things I learned in the course.
I think I’m a better manager now than I was last year because I know how to prioritise. Delegation is a big thing of mine. It’s not shifting responsibility like I initially thought it was, it’s empowering my team so we can get stuff done. I’d like to express my thanks and gratitude to my employer for believing in me and supporting me through it, they could have said no when I approached them about having another chance. Massive thanks. It’s my first leadership certificate, I can take this anywhere. From the bottom of my heart, thank you LearningWorks. Whatever benefit I get in my career, LearningWorks was a part of that.