I have learned a lot of skills in my life. Some simpler ones- like frying an egg- have taken one try. More complex ones- like designing a website- have taken months or even years. Regardless of their complexity, these kinds of skills had clear steps to learn and follow. By following these steps the results were pretty much guaranteed. Lots of skills work this way, but other skills, those often referred to as more art than science, simply do not.
Managing other people is sometimes referred to as a skill, but it is really more a combination of multiple skills, some commonly referred to as hard and others as soft. Managing other people effectively is not a simple step by step process like those mentioned above and is made further challenging by the fact that most of it cannot be practiced ahead of time.
If I want to learn how to fry that egg or build that website, I can do it on my own and practice until I get it right. Management does not work that way. There is no way to practice running a meeting for the first time without actually running the meeting. There is no way to practice giving someone critical feedback until you actually give critical feedback. There is no way to practicing letting someone go until you actually let them go.
Further, management requires constant adjustment and flexibility depending on the person and the situation. There is no way to create a step by step process.
Despite this, too many management training programs focus on skills. They try to teach new managers how to fry that egg. They create checklists and top ten steps and none of it works. It can’t work. Because management doesn’t work that way.
Of course, there are skills to be learned as a new manager. Skills like running a meeting, and giving critical feedback, and letting someone go. It is important to learn these skills, but not in isolation. These skills must be learned within the bigger concepts of effective management, primarily, effectively leading others.
These bigger concepts necessarily include: the purpose of management, the respective roles of managers and staff, leadership styles, communication, relationship-building, individual strengths, goals, shared vision, team culture, diversity and inclusion, just to name a very important but very few few.
Learning how to be a manager doesn’t start with the individual skills. It starts with the bigger concepts- understanding why you want to be a manager and what that means. It starts with a vision for what you and your team are trying to accomplish and the culture in which you accomplish it. It starts with the systems you build, the expectations you uphold, and the voices you include.
Many managers are offered their role because of their success working independently. They are then expected to completely shift focus to working collaboratively. Many struggle with this, and for many, these feelings of failure and imposter syndrome are new and made worse because they did not know to expect them. Part of management training must share this message that managing people is hard and not something people do naturally well. That you cannot learn to lead ahead of time but instead by leading. That the learning inevitably comes through the experience and that there is no way to become effective without lots and lots of mistakes along the way.
Concepts, then, that ground the skills should be at the center of management training and support, and this support should be ongoing. Effective management training and support requires an ongoing opportunity to reflect, discuss and receive feedback and coaching along on what you are doing. This support can and should come from supervisors, mentors, and colleagues.
To implement this, you need to have a plan for what to do when you have a new supervisor- either through an outside hire or through promotion- and what to do on an ongoing basis. Your plan may include certain trainings, conferences, books, articles, and courses to provide important information, but it should also necessarily include consistent one-on-one support through mentors or supervisors as well as consistent group support with fellow managers.
This is what management training should be. Broad concepts, ongoing, with lots of opportunity to reflect and discuss.
This is the design of our new online platform, The Supervisors Circle, a virtual community filled with resources and opportunities to connect with fellow supervisors. We hope you consider joining us.
