Continuing with our People Focus theme for January, Steve Downton looks at the next generation of leader who might be right under your nose.
Learning Management From WithinService is gradually assuming an impressive and recognised role within the whole business.
Consequently an increasing number of companies are welcoming more senior staff into the service arena from other departments within the business, to gain experience as part of their overall management training.
The concept of developing service staff from engineer-level, learning at the hand of the master, has become outmoded. Training and development has become much more formalised and broad-based, while not losing sight of the value of understanding the role from the ground-up.
The training and development of the service manager must be more than simply increasing technical and trouble-shooting capability, and needs to include awareness of the bigger picture to understand the service needs of customers, and be in command of the growing IT capabilities and applications required to support a service organisation fully.
What might once have been considered the "right" personality and track record is now far removed from the ideal candidate's CV.
Experience and training has to be broader, and ideally combine a number of skills; experiential learning (learning from experience) is a relevant and valuable resource that should not be disregarded - there are excellent senior service staff eminently capable of running large complex service environments.
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