Free CPD: essential skills for people managers

Paul Guess, a mental wellbeing expert at caba, the occupational charity supporting ICAEW accountants, believes that one of the most important contributors to a person’s wellbeing at work is the relationship they have with their line manager. 

In this article, Preventing and navigating burnout: a manager’s guide, Guess says, “Use one-to-one opportunities to start exploring what might be driving any difficulty. If your conversations with individuals are purely task focused, you’re missing out on an opportunity to support your direct reports and ensure that they feel heard and listened to.”

Plus, research published by caba found that four in five accountants said they believed stress and poor mental health was a problem within the accountancy industry, and 55% of accountants admitted to suffering from stress and burnout. How managers help employees navigate these stresses is critical and this recent article provides advice on how to best support your team.

If you’re a new manager, this article has six fantastic tips to get you started. But even experienced managers will often face situations that are new to them, so it makes sense to read up on different scenarios ahead of time. For example, this article looks at how managers can be allies to neurodiverse team members. Another looks at how to manage mental wellbeing when your team is working entirely remotely.

You can explore a full range of free CPD resources, many of which can be counted towards your verifiable hours, in our section on managing teams. As well as articles, you’ll find eBooks, webinars, reports, guides and factsheets relating to people management.

Our sections on communication and presentation skills and managing meetings may also be useful.

Want to feel more comfortable dealing with business change or handling conflict? Below you’ll find some additional ICAEW content that can be counted towards your verifiable CPD hours:

• If your organisation is going through change, we have a series of transformation webinars to providing practical advice to help you deliver change confidently.
• Fostering a mentoring culture ensures the soft skills needed for the job are passed to the next generation of new management. Here’s why mentoring should be top of your agenda.
• What makes a culture ethical? And how important is it to get this right? Read How to build an ethical culture to find out.
• Help your team manage stress and deal with pressure points by mastering the art of cadence.
• Building relationships, networking and dealing with negative feedback well are just three of the key skills Joanna Gaudoin recommends managers should harness in The non-technical skills you need to get ahead.
• Want to see how not to do it so you can learn from others’ mistakes? This article explores the seven failings of really useless leaders.