While mentoring has obvious benefits to the protege, benefits to the mentor and to the organisation are often long term or invisible. A procedure named Mutual Mentoring on Projects is proposed which produces observable short‐term benefits for protege, mentor and organisation and minimum costs.

Reflects on the practical experience of the author in introducing competency‐based action learning into Australian public and private sector organizations. Contains a series of interviews with graduates of an action learning Masters programme in the Health industry. Suggests that early and...

A key feature of management development is the policies and practices adopted by organisations. As part of a series we have invited executives accountable for introducing management development policies to outline their approach. Barry Smith of Mobil Oil starts the series.

Vast amounts of money are spent on management development. This includes not only formal courses, whether they be in educational organisations or within companies, but also the job related efforts that continue from day‐to‐day. If we add to that the support systems such as the salaries of...

This article outlines the factors Chief Executive Officers consider critical in the development of their own careers. In a study of British CEOs five major factors were identified: interpersonal influencing skills; responsibility for a business sector; a need to achieve results; early leadership...

The Team Management Index, a 60‐item self‐completion questionnaire, generates a 3,000‐word profile (after the answers have been fed into a computer program) which outlines the individual's work preferences in the areas of decision making, team building, leadership, information management,...

A good starting point for management development staff is to interview company “high flyers” to establish their views. Research carried out among 711 American client executives (CEOs) to discover their perceptions of management development shows that managers with a high need for achievement...

The key features of the Air‐crew Team Management Workshop, designed for and in consultation with Australian Airlines, is described. The programme was decided on to introduce special training for crew members on teamwork issues, given the evidence that human factors are a major cause of...

Management development is seen in many organisations as an added luxury. In this article, management development is discussed as a long‐term process which requires a tough business‐like approach. Drawing on observations made over a number of years of working with various organisations,...

Consider the following companies in terms of the leadership adopted by the top manager. They have very different approaches to their job. These differences are not accidental and can be explained in relation to a major study of Managerial Work Preferences conducted during the last five years....