By Pam Nellen, director of Business & Technology programs

I was in the waiting room of my doctor’s office thumbing through a magazine. I keyed in on an article that was titled, “Middle Management.” Looking closer, I realized that by middle management, they were referring to managing the middle of my body so that I could button my jeans!

Middle management (that is, in terms of the business function!) is a big topic for me. I am a business professional through and through. I have almost 40 years of management and leadership experience in business and education. A concern I hear from the many middle managers I interact with is that they are not confident in their people management skills.

Seeking lifelong learning isn’t about admitting what you don’t know; it’s about honing your craft and making you more effective in your career.

I am willing to bet that most of you were promoted into management because you excelled at the function you performed. But many people ascend through the ranks of an organization or through their career without the benefit of formal management training. Specifically, how to do hands-on people and performance management.

According to HR Dive, 43% of managers reported that they hadn’t receive any management training. With boomers leaving the workforce and a new crop of managers running organizations without managerial training, this is a concerning statistic.

Let’s face it – managing people isn’t the easiest part of a manager’s job, but getting professional development in this area can make you more effective in your role. Don’t forget – gaining skills throughout your career is about incremental learning. It’s about learning tips and tricks to help you do your job better and with more confidence. It can also include learning from a cohort of people within training through sharing of best practices.

So don’t be afraid to take a management development course. Seeking lifelong learning isn’t about what you don’t know, but rather about honing your skills to become more effective in your job and career. And, most importantly, it’s about making your job more fun!

Get the core management skills you need to be an effective manager:
New Manager/Supervisor Certificate
Emerging Leaders Certificate