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Action Learning as Personal Training: A Case Study by Barbara Bertagni and Fernando Salvetti
One of the most effective and efficient interventions of action learning for managerial development is obtained combining and integrating traditional methodologies with experimental activities, during the course of training and development planned according to the requirements of each single entrepreneur, manager or professional. In fact, the flexibility of personal training reflects itself in the possibility to structure short courses on the occasion of important changes or as support in critical or stressful moments rather than long courses to accompany the career development or personal growth. The supervision, the support and the confrontation with expert consultants, takes place respecting privacy and in full compliance with a client’s agenda, with the purpose to create the best conditions for personal development. The targets of personal training range from the improvement of the regular characteristic situations to the development of the distinctive competences as well as to the attainment of a personal wellbeing condition. To this purpose, the planning of the managerial development course (or empowerment) is supported by: A personal trainer, who is the only interface with the client, coordinator and responsible for the whole process. An interdisciplinary team of professionals, formed to measure according to client’s specific requirements. The personal training activities are lead by experts of personal resource development and of professional competences, of career development, psychological and philosophical counseling, of personal communication and marketing, of organization and management, of business administration, economy and law. Tendentiously, the structure of a personal training course is flexible and modular ,and includes interviews on coaching and counseling, self-empowerment sessions and one-to-one personalized training, evaluation moments and development of potential, “invisible” assistance to a client during his most important work activities, strategic and operational consulting. In fact, in the personal training courses the training takes place starting from direct experience, shaped according to it, continuously evaluated by direct observance, feedback conversations or a self-evaluation test. Both, the work instruments and the evaluation grids or the psycho aptitude tests are personalized according to the peculiarities of the individual requirement. Besides, the personal trainer plans and coordinates the learning environment of the person, aggregating resources (didactic notes, cases serving as guides, presentations, articles, books, electronic resources, video clips, picture extracts and work instruments) and relations, (professional networking, seminars and meetings of the relevant sector) thus as a whole, useful to professional empowerment and likely to be activated in the task, namely on the specific request by the selfformated subject (resources on demand).
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Finally, by intervening in presence and at distance, the team will supply the necessary support to clear up the essential points of the various interventions, to help morally and psychologically during the course of the change and to verify, through the project tutorship, the effective application of the knowledge acquired to the specific organizational projects. Case: An entrepreneur’s managerial empowerment course Target: The managerial empowerment of the entrepreneur, Mr. X Personal Trainer: Business Management Senior Consultant Team: Career Counselor, Business Management Senior Consultant, Expert of Marketing and Sales Technique, Psychologist Duration: 20 sessions (4 hours each) in presence, alternatively with one or two consulting + 60 hours of tutorship and online and telephone assistance. Meetings: Once a week with days and timetables fixed according to the client’s requirements. The course is structured in three stages: I.
II. III.
Development of the communicative, relational and decisional competences. Period: November – February. Development of the organizational and managerial competences. Period: March – May. Development of the sales and clients management competences. Period: June – July.
For the first session, the development program foresees an initial meeting for drawing up the balance of the individual competences, by handing over tests for psycho aptitudes, proofs of knowledge and of operational capacity. The two following meetings will be used for defining strategies for personal and professional empowerment concerning task management in the company. Then, two training sessions will be used for the development of the communicative, relational and decisional competences. A third training session foresees also working on the management of the personal and professional image. At the end of the first training stage there will be a development session for the evaluation and individual feedback on the first training stage. The second training stage is meant for the company organization and the company management instruments. Two training sessions will be oriented towards the development of business process and of the most effective marketing actions in the company context and the specific relevant market. At the end of this second training stage there will be another moment of empowerment, coordinated by the personal trainer in order to ascertain development. In the third stage, after the first training session for the management of clients and the sales techniques, there will be an on site support during a commercial action. Downstream from the intervention, the program foresees another meeting for returning the feedback on the activity and for the management of the professional image with clients. At the end of this training stage, there will be a meeting for professional development and a second meeting dedicated to a further development of managerial competences and organizational behavior. Finally, the course includes an on site support during a whole working day and a meeting for the final evaluation with regard to closing the first year of activity.
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During the stages between the room and support sessions, some material for self-empowerment will be distributed, specially planned and prepared for the personal training in order to allow a constant monitoring during the daily activities. According to the analysis of the competences, the structures will be introduced to measure: action plans, tests to verify the level of learning, grids for the self-evaluation and the monitoring of improvements, guiding cases and reports on the best business experiences achieved in organizational contexts similar to the entrepreneur’s and literature and other didactic material which will be distributed from time to time. There will be in moments between the stages a remote tutoring of the consultants and of the personal trainer.
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ACTIVITY IN PRESENCE
Stage I – Empowerment of Communicative, Decisional, Relational Competences
ACTIVITY AT A DISTANCE
Competence Balance
Management of function
NOVEMBER / FEBRUARY
Communication & Relational Mng.
Coaching & Counseling by Telephone
Image Management
Video’s Guided Analysis
Organization & Business Managem.
Organizational and Managerial competences MARCH / MAY Process Business and Marketing plans
Evaluation Action Plan
Fig. 3.a. The process of personal training.
Sending didactic material
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ACTIVITY AT A DISTANCE
ACTIVITY IN PRESENCE
PERIOD
III Phase – Empowerment Sale and Client Management competences
Sales and Client Management techniques
On site meeting Coaching and Counselling by telephone
Image Management Profess. Clients
Video’s Guided Analysis
Evaluation Action Plan
Management and Organization Behavior
Sending didactic material
On site meeting
Montoring and Verifying learning
Final interview and Maintenance plan
FOLLOW-UP
Fig. 3.b. The process of personal training.