News
Updates, profiles and case studies.
Service Highlight: Frontline Manager Certification
A practical certification program for frontline managers to showcase their competencies and advance their role and career. The key components of the certification include:
Current Achievements: Highlighting your current role, responsibilities and 3 key accomplishments as a manager.
Future Improvement Plans: Outlining 2 strategies for enhancing management skills to benefit the candidate’s organisation.
Personal Development Plans: Outlining the most important area of personal management skills and identifying steps for boosting individual performance.
Trainer Spotlight: Christy Smith
Christy Smith is a dynamic and engaging Senior Trainer and Coach at the Frontline Management Institute (FMI), specialising in leadership development, frontline management, project management, communication and people skills. With extensive experience across multiple industries—including hospitality, health, education, government and construction—Christy brings real-world expertise, relatable stories, and actionable insights to her training sessions.
Case Study: Delivering project management training in regional South Australia
Challenge: Improve access to project management skills development for professionals across rural and regional South Australia.
Solution: A series of interactive face to face workshops delivered to groups in three different locations across South Australia with a focus on project management.
Outcome: Engaging sessions that enabled attendees to collaborate with others, and develop confidence in managing projects and making strategic decisions.
Case Study: Software developer specialising in payroll and HR systems
Challenge: How to implement a consistent management approach that would drive performance and help nurture a positive company culture.
Solution: Tailored program for new managers focusing on equipping new managers with the skills and strategies necessary for effective leadership.
Outcome: The program successfully provided new managers with the tools and techniques required to manage their teams and enhance performance.
Case Study: Major Construction Company in Australia
Challenge: Standardised graduate development program to ensure consistency in training and to support the growth of its new hires.
Solution: Tailored graduate development program that combined expertise from both the company and FMI delivered over a three-year period to graduates across Australia.
Outcome: Over the course of 15 years, many of the initial graduates progressed into senior positions within the company, demonstrating the long-term value of the program. The initiative also contributed to higher employee retention rates and played a significant role in fostering a strong, cohesive company culture.
Case Study: International supplier of industrial gases
Challenge: The client, an international supplier of industrial gases, faced the challenge of ensuring, across the entire organization in Australia and New Zealand, from general managers to new supervisors, spoke a unified language when it came to leadership.
Solution: Tailored program that catered to managers and supervisors at every level spanning two years, fostering a cohesive approach to leadership across the company.
Outcome: The program not only unified leadership practices but also delivered substantial, measurable business value. Over a five-year period, team members implemented initiatives that delivered an AUD $108 million return on investment, as validated by senior management.
Case Study: Coaching for Performance Management
Challenge: Employee who was on a performance management plan due to complaints about intimidation and bullying.
Solution: Tailored coaching program
Outcome: A clear understanding of why these behaviours were taking place, a clear strategy for addressing them, significant improvements to workplace behaviours and improvement to quality of life for the employee.
3 tips to overcome the most common challenge for managers
How can we get people to care about their work? What can be done to help these people enjoy their work more? Given the opportunity, what quality of work are they really capable of?
How to find a great mentor
I recently sat down with Jason Santiago, an expert from the fitness industry, to uncover his secret to finding a great mentor.
Using coaching to change behaviour
Just like an athlete uses a coach to improve their performance, so too can a manager engage a coach to improve their effectiveness and efficiency as a manager by changing their behaviours.
Passive aggressive behaviour at work
What causes passive aggressive behaviour at work and what can be done to manage it?
Cross generational management
What’s the secret to managing a diverse workforce with team members from multiple generations? Cross generational management might be simpler than you thought.
Behavioural traits for success
Move over Myers Briggs, these six behavioural traits have been linked to high potential personalities for successful careers.