The training and development of your management team is absolutely essential to successful employee recruiting and retention, often leading to more rapid and sustainable company growth. Today’s employees are more willing than ever to leave their jobs if they’re unsatisfied at work, and a major reason for unhappy employees is poor management.
According to one study of 3000 American workers, 82% indicated they’d leave a job because of a bad manager. Factors such as micromanaging and requests to work outside of regular hours were among the top reasons participants had become dissatisfied with their managers — and were more likely to quit.
Before diving into how your company can train its managers to avoid such frustrations, let’s take a closer look at why effective leadership training is so important.
Frontline managers impact most of the workforce, directly producing goods and services for customers. This means managers indirectly impact customers by just one degree of separation through production quality and employee retention. Failing to nurture a positive company culture or establishing negativity within it can quickly compound into a shrinking workforce and declining customer base.
Competent managers are capable leaders with the ability to motivate the employees they manage. They respond quickly to issues internally or externally, extending their leadership to third-party vendors and partners.
Ineffective managers, however, reflect poorly on a company's leadership, which negatively impacts employees, clients, and third parties. Poor management skills such as infrequent communication can lead to unclear employee expectations. This has the potential to compound up the chain of command, creating a situation where senior executives have no knowledge of struggling managers until it’s too late.
When managers aren’t effective leaders, everyone suffers.
Managers need to be champions for the company's good, influencing their teams to work toward its goals. Their positive influence is what drives employees’ desire to excel rather than feel like they’re being compelled to do so.
Effective management provides both tangible and intangible benefits to companies, such as positive company culture, high morale, and increased revenue. According to a leadership development study, companies with effective leadership, as rated by employees and outside observers, experience financial returns up to 500% greater than those with poor leadership.
This is due to the fact that effective management positively impacts the following core functionalities:
These business benefits are the biggest reasons leadership development training is essential for managers. Below, you’ll find four types of management training to consider, and how to create a leadership development plan that meets the unique needs of your business.
To get the most out of your managers and all other employees, you need to position them for success with a leadership development plan.
A major factor in effective leadership training is identifying a system that works for all parties. This includes both the managers being trained, their learning styles, and the senior executives or other managers training them, and their teaching styles.
Every training program is slightly different, but most management training programs fall into one of four categories: mentorship, external training, internal programs, and learning management systems.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at each type of program, then chart out a leadership development plan example that spans all four.
Having a mentor can be beneficial for any employee or manager. Even when companies don’t have formal mentorship programs, enterprising employees will often forge those kinds of relationships on their own. Still, formalizing them is the best way to leverage the benefits and have a say in the outcomes of mentor-mentee relationships.
Ideally, senior management should be flagging highly capable managers regularly. This creates a pool of talent they can draw upon to serve as active role models for their newer peers. These mentors will teach both explicit responsibilities and implicit, unspoken expectations to identified performers through regular meetings and evaluations.
The most important skill set for this model is company-specific knowledge. Mentors should impress upon mentees how the company's inner workings impact daily work dynamics.
Another approach utilizes outsourced teaching resources, such as in-person or online workshops provided by consultants or experts in the field. Training may be required as part of the onboarding process or for career progression.
These programs are best suited for fundamental management concepts, such as:
The best way to leverage these programs is by collaborating with the service provider to integrate your company-specific knowledge into the curriculum. Fundamentals are important, but they only go so far. Getting the most out of your manager training requires customizing it to your needs.
A more impactful version of the external workshop model uses similar delivery methods, such as classes or online modules, but moves their development internally. In this approach, senior staff works with HR or external consultants to devise and deliver training “from managers to managers.” This tailors the lessons to focus on exactly what the organization expects, often from the trainers’ own experiences.
For example, senior managers can formally and informally explain organization charts and reporting structures, drawing on technical documentation and anecdotes from their own time at the company. Training can be augmented with intentional but informal interactions, such as discussions over lunch or seeking out the mentee to take a break at the same time.
This method instills trust that the company is invested in managers’ personal growth.
Finally, companies may use an entirely online platform, typically called a learning management system, to train their managers. The same platform may be used for all employees, with special modules or sections focused on leadership and management. Similar to outsourced workshops, and often working in conjunction with them, these platforms are most apt for company fundamentals.
It should be noted that many fully online and asynchronous platforms are not ideal for teaching soft skills or technical skills that require practical experience. To do so, they must incorporate real-world examples and assessments that mirror the interface of enterprise software used.
Beginning in early 2023, BBSI will launch BBSI U as an additional service to its clients and partners. BBSI U is a comprehensive online learning platform that will offer a wide variety of training modules to businesses of all sizes and industries.
Regardless of the approach, companies should tailor their leadership development coaching to meet specific organizational needs. The most impactful program for your company is one that has a high degree of customization, whether it is delivered by internal or external stakeholders or a combination thereof.
The following sections map out a six-step process to design, implement, and maintain a management training and development program.
First, your company needs to identify its leadership development goals. Then, identify the intended audience and expected training program outcomes to support those goals.
Having solid answers to these questions early on will facilitate the development of subject matter, delivery methods, and assessment protocols. For example, an external workshop geared toward new hires should focus more on the departmental organization or procedural basics, whereas mentorship for staff moving upward into management roles might focus on skill and resource gaps they need to fill.
The next logical step is setting the stage for the program’s design, such as topics and sequencing, to meet the goals outlined above. Each program will differ, but some essentials include:
When designing workshop content, learning modules, or talking points for mentors, it’s crucial to remember adult learning principles. Per the University of San Diego, adult learning needs:
Once you know what will be taught and when, figure out where.
Senior management and training developers need to identify the specific venues and contexts for training. Hard distinctions should be drawn between formal and informal training, especially in more loosely defined approaches such as mentorship.
When planning for a structured training program, identify settings, activities, and tools, such as:
You should strive to replicate real-world experiences with role-playing exercises. These may occur in isolated spaces, such as designated classrooms, and in managers’ offices, cafeterias, or other more dynamic locations. Any element that makes a scenario closely mirror real-world situations is beneficial for everyone involved.
Training materials should be fully developed before the program starts to ensure instructors and mentors understand the full scope of training from the very beginning. Early prep ensures nothing important is missed.
Note: It’s easy to confuse the subject matter outline with the actual training materials, but there are important differences between them. The subject matter outline is about determining which subjects will populate lesson plans and other materials, but they are just an outline. You need to understand the context before building the actual materials.
Some examples of materials your training program may include are:
How these materials are used or delivered depends on the training approach. For example, a learning management system may depend entirely on modules and quizzes, whereas mentorship might only touch official documentation sparingly, if at all.
After finishing this stage, your program is ready for launch.
If you have thoroughly completed the above steps, launching the training program and getting managers up to speed should be straightforward. The best approach is to first test the program with a small sample size or focus group, such as one or two existing managers.
After successfully completing a run-through of the manager training program with test candidates and gathering their feedback for adjustments, you can launch with confidence. Keep in mind that you should set up the necessary infrastructure and logistics before company-wide training is assigned. Even a successful launch is not the end of the process. That success needs to be constantly sustained, measured, and refined.
Manager training and development is not a linear process; it’s cyclical. The last step feeds back into the first, as an effective program requires constant assessment and adjustment to get the most out of your managers and, by extension, everyone they manage. That all starts with a survey to gauge immediate impact, ideally completed right after each training session or module.
Senior managers and mentors should be checking in with managers in training at regular, longer intervals. For example, setting up monthly calls at the 30-, 60-, and 90-day marks can help determine if and how managers are using the skills they’ve learned in training. Any indication to the contrary is cause for revision. These calls can also be used to monitor and optimize managers’ long-term career development.
If you determine the training is not meeting the goals set in step #1, there’s a good chance that steps #2-4 need to be revisited. In addition, if the goals are being met, but there are other inefficiencies in new managers’ workflows, the goals themselves may need to be reassessed.
A question like, “What are top leadership skills?” is less impactful than, “Which leadership skills are most useful for my company?” But no matter what your company’s leadership development goals are, you need to account for core competencies, including, but not limited to:
Just as employees are likely to leave companies with poor management, potential managers are likely to leave companies without opportunities to build their skills.
When managers feel their company invests in their development, they are more inclined to stay with the company, perform at higher levels, and feel a sense of pride in their work. Taking it a step further, a manager’s commitment often translates into happier direct reports, better culture, and improved productivity.
When your business partners with BBSI, you get paired with a dedicated, local team of professionals who seek to learn the unique dynamics of your company. This allows BBSI to align with your goals in order to tailor training initiatives and programs to fit you.
To get the most out of our services, we’ll need to find out:
Whether you want to improve your management training program or get support for HR, safety, or other administrative functions, BBSI can help.
Contact your local branch to learn how BBSI can help you spearhead your management training and development.