How NHS manager Sarah boosted her confidence with a CMDA

“I can remember having one conversation with a member of staff – and it still haunts me to this day,” says Sarah Hulme CMgr MCMI, cancer performance manager at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. “I said: ‘Right, I’m going to sit down and talk to you about your performance. I don't want you to say anything. I just want you to listen.’ 

“But if you tell someone that they're not performing well, and you then tell them they can't talk back, there is only one thing that is going to happen.” 

The member of staff got up and she walked out of the room. 

• More from Bolton: From completing to teaching a Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship

“If I was going to have that conversation now, I would never do it like that and not give them the opportunity to respond. But I was told by my manager how to have that conversation. 

“At that point, I didn’t have the confidence to say to my manager: ‘No, actually, I'd like to deal with it a different way.’”

The path to senior management

If Sarah was lacking in confidence earlier in her career, she has it in abundance now, having completed the Level 6 Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) at the University of Bolton in February 2024.

But her path to Chartered Manager status and the “validation” it brings was a long and winding one.