management styles to fit different situations.
Earlier this year, BNG Training announced it was moving into the online training market. Among its offerings are introductory and advanced leadership courses.
The online courses are aimed at managers who don't have much time, or who are based in a remote location. The company also offers a face-to-face version involving group work. Tony Houghton, a BNG development and training assessor, says the advanced course is aimed at managers who have been in the role for several years and want to refresh their knowledge.
Both courses contains a module on the delegating, with the advanced course looking at when to delegate and how to deal with difficult relationships.
Karen Sweeney, manager of Little Flowers nursery in Renfrew, near Glasgow, took both leadership courses online. She says she was looking to complement her BA in childhood practice, which she is currently studying one evening a week. 'We have a lot of other training coming up and we work 40 hours a week and I'm also at uni one night a week so we don't have much time,' she says. 'I sailed through the introduction course but for the advanced course, which I did in about 20 minutes, I had to write things down and think about them. I actually found it enjoyable to do.
'The course made me think about different management styles [which are classed as autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire and bureaucratic]. I am probably a bit of them all and it gave me the confidence that it is acceptable to dip in and out of them.'
According to the course, a bureaucratic style of leadership can be useful in situations where systems must be adhered to by law, such as safeguarding issues. Being autocratic, often thought of as a negative trait, is sometimes necessary in situations where a decision needs to be made fast. Conversely, being democratic, while having many positives, can be a disadvantage in a team where roles are not clearly defined.
Ms Sweeney says, 'I have just got a new deputy and I think she should do both the courses as well. It just makes you think about the little things.'
