Mark Turner FBDO SMC(Tech) – Level 5 Diploma

I first heard about ABDO’s Management and Leadership course at 100% Optical when I spoke with Nick Walsh, who knew I had previous experience as a practice manager and asked if I’d consider enrolment. I liked the potential of the course and could see how it would be beneficial to individuals, organisations and my own development. 

As we all know the world turned upside down in March 2020. Suddenly I found myself at home on furlough and felt the need to do something positive. Within my role at the college I have a young technician who I am mentoring and thought doing this course would help me support them in their development. I could have chosen other courses but at my age and with 30 years in optics, this felt like the right one to do. 

Like any course, I found the work a little daunting at first but once I got to understand the format and begin working through the process it becomes less so. The help and support from the tutors is superb and they are always there for guidance.  

Learning is all online. The diploma has eight units over 10 months with a two-month break in between so has a manageable timescale. You need to submit a unit at the end of each month’s deadline. If unsure about committing to the full diploma straight away, there are three separate certificates available over a period of just three months which can allow an individual a taste of the course and the chance to transfer to the full diploma when they have completed two units. I would say to give yourself 16 hours per week to complete the course. 

The coursework has some fascinating insights on helpful tools and techniques to deal with changing scenarios and challenges within an organisation and how to progress through them. Some that spring to mind are SMART objectives, SWOT analysis and the GROW model. These techniques offer practical approaches for effective team management and leadership through setting out objectives in order to achieve goals and coaching to help individuals to develop in their roles, careers and provide self-ownership. 

I was particularly interested in learning about conflict management as I’m generally not a confrontational person and felt I needed to manage this better. The course has an in depth look at how conflicts evolve and the key stages and provides ways to investigate and resolve them. Transactional Analysis and Thomas Kilmann’s Conflict Mode Instrument are great examples of approaches, developing personal awareness and understanding of initial reactions. It was worth learning not all conflict is negative if resolved with a positive and constructive outcome, which can also be productive. I now feel more confident in approaching conflict situations. 

I enjoyed the personality test at the start of the course which eases you in gently, this helps in gaining useful understanding of individuals within a team, through cross examining questions of principal psychological functions. My result turned out to be a protagonist apparently the same as the late Sean Connery so perhaps I should address myself as Turner, Mark Turner from now on. 

I enjoyed reading up on and recommend learning about Emotional Intelligence and Thinking Fast Thinking Slow. There’s even a unit which provides more clarity of the functions of financial management, with Zero Based Budgeting and Incremental Budgeting and how to conduct a budget sheet which is all very useful knowledge to have.  

In the meantime, within my role at ABDO College I’ve provided a skills gap analysis to help in developing our younger technician and have been supportive to our students past and present who have been interested and are currently doing the MLT course. Dispensing opticians often are or become practice managers, business owners or directors in the optical trade. 

Any negatives doing the course? No, I would recommend it to anyone who is considering enrolling, whether they are a manager, departmental or line, aspiring to become a manager or own a business, or are looking into coaching/mentoring. It’s a great platform for an individual wanting to improve their knowledge in the role of management, leadership and the functionalities within organisations.