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GFTU leadership and management course
The leadership and management course is ideal for anyone who seriously wants to progress upwards
within the movement. It covers all aspects of managing a trade union professionally, consistently
and fairly.
The course started with us getting to understand the management role and how to use it to improve
performance. It’s worth mentioning here the course is from the institute of leadership and
management which is designed for businesses not trade unions. However there are many cross
overs between the two even if they aren’t clear cut and the difference in perspective has been
incredibly useful. We looked at the difference between managers and leaders and the different
levels of each that occur in standard businesses and our own organisations. We recognised the
formats of both are not the same fundamentally but similar roles are needed in both such as
finance, middle managers, senior managers etc
Throughout the course we identified different theories and models and looked at which
characteristics would fit into our organisational model and which wouldn’t work at all. We also
looked in this section at the importance of communication both verbal and non-verbal, active
listening and the barriers to achieving effective communication coming up with ideas to overcome
them. We reflected on our own managerial skills and identified the need, especially in officer
positions (of any level) to mix leadership and managerial skills, ensuring that we have the ability to
adapt to the situation at hand
We covered managing workplace projects concentrating on planning, costing and evaluating them.
We looked at setting key objectives and performance criteria, identifying tools to work with as well
as models and theories. The members of the group who had involvement with their unions learning
services helped a lot with this section sharing their experiences and knowledge
The section on health and safety management responsibilities was particularly interesting (not being
from a health and safety background myself, I found this section really useful). Whilst we agreed
having up to date knowledge of all health and safety legislation is not needed (as it’s literally
fingertips away with modern technology) an awareness of how legislation is implemented into our
organisation is. Organisations within the trade union movement hold the employers we deal with to
the highest regard when it comes to the health, safety and wellbeing of our members. We provide
excellent training to our representatives, regular site checks are encouraged and risk assessments
monitored. However we don’t always perform at the same standard within our own organisations. A
few examples we spoke about during this session were risk assessments around the amount of
driving/travelling undertaken by officers, the use of hands free devices in company cars. One thing
we all spoke about was the difficulty in recognising the signs a colleague/employee was struggling
with stress or mental illness especially when the majority of employees spend extended periods of
time working alone.
The next section referred to managing equality and diversity and we were asked if our organisation
reflected the membership. One thing all attendees agreed was that the movement as a whole does
not have a consistent path which allows young people to come in and develop upwards. It happens
in lots of unions but is usually not structured and people find themselves thrown in at the deep end
with little or no training which can at times end up being counterproductive. We looked into
recognising bullying and harassment behaviours and how as individuals we can make a difference
daily as well as the organisation as a whole.