You just promoted someone to manager, and you have every intention of getting them some training (you learned your lesson after the last time). But you are planning to promote someone else in the next couple of weeks and it makes sense to train them together, so you might as well wait. Then after a couple of weeks, something comes up and the training gets put on hold. When you try again, the first manager gets sent off to a conference, and when they return, the second one is called to jury duty. Suddenly there is a budget freeze and right around the corner is the holidays (you certainly do not want to start anything then). With all the best intentions, the training gets delayed and delayed, and in the meantime, your managers and their teams suffer.
Sound familiar?
The details might not be exactly the same, but if you are responsible for hiring, supervising, or supporting managers, I am guessing that you have experienced some version of this. You appreciate the importance of training and supporting your managers and have every good intention of doing so but the coordination is so much more challenging in practice. I have been there, and I share your frustration. Budgets, time constraints, unexpected absences, and the general busyness of work life can all too easily take over these good intentions. Before you know it months and even years go by and promises of support go unfulfilled leaving people frustrated, unsupported and unprepared.
Waiting to train your managers until there is some level of critical mass makes sense in a lot of ways. There is power in numbers, as the cliché goes. Leadership can be lonely and isolating, and providing a dedicated time and place for your managers to connect with other managers and work through some of their challenges can be invaluable, not to mention the cost savings. But all your management development should not be put on hold while you are waiting to assemble a group. Supporting your managers should begin from the day they become managers, and ideally, even before that. Even with all the challenging logistics, you must have a plan in place for how to provide support from their first day until their last one and all the other ones in between. To do that, you need to have different types and levels of support. Here are some examples.
Regular One-on-Ones
As with all staff, it is important that managers are consistently checking in with their direct supervisors for one-on-one meetings. The frequency and duration will depend on the environment and experience level and a number of other factors, but in general these should be at least monthly. With new managers, it may make sense to start out bi-weekly or even weekly while they work through some of those initial growing pains.
One-on-one meetings can quickly go by the wayside if treated as expendable or not that serious if they are missed or scheduled over. They can also be a huge waste of time if they are simply used as de facto check ins. On the other hand, when they are used effectively, they are an invaluable asset, including for your new managers. Most new managers need time and space to talk through the many new challenges (and joys!) they are experiencing, and one-on-ones are a great place to do that. Set them up from the beginning and be diligent about being consistent. For support, you can check out this free ~ 1 hour training / mini course that provides some guidance and lots of great resources on how to facilitate effective one-on-one meetings.
Trainings / Conferences
Trainings and conferences can be great and not so great. They can be cost-effective and not worth the money. It is so hard to know. When you find a great one, keep track of it as well as those that are not so great. Talk with other people who support managers and get suggestions from them. There is a lot that is available online these days, and there are also limitations to the effectiveness of virtual options. Be open to your staff seeking their own training and conference options. If it is in your authority to do so, give them the autonomy to use their own budget on some opportunities they wish to explore.
Groups
Connecting with other managers is an invaluable and frequently overlooked component of effective management development. Often people undertake management training in groups but outside of that, the options are limited. There is great missed opportunity in being able to connect with other managers outside of trainings to simply discuss and work through some of the challenges and share some of the things they simply cannot share with anyone else on their respective teams.
I have always loved the idea of book groups and discussing articles, podcast episodes, TED talks, etc. Perhaps like a Mastermind or simply a place to just connect. It is a balance between having it really structured and making it feel like one more thing to do and letting it devolve into a place that feels like an outlet for complaining or something that seems to lack purpose. Knowing who is part of it will help guide how structured it should be and in what way. Generally as with most other things, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Coaching / Mentoring
As the person in charge of developing managers, you certainly have a coaching role and even a mentoring one. There is also great value in having a separate coach and/or mentor for your managers that is outside of your department or even outside of the organization. Coaches and mentors are not one and the same and each provide their own function. It may make sense to offer one or the other to your new managers or even both. Coaches are more for helping your new managers work through some of their challenges and decisions. Mentors are more for providing a model and sharing their experiences, resources, and connections. Perhaps one at one point and one at another. You do not want to overwhelm your new managers and you want them to feel supported. Each will want different levels of support so be prepared to respond accordingly. Having someone at the ready when your new manager begins is another great way to ensure that they are receiving support from the very beginning.
Shadowing / Observing
Depending on the type of work you do, shadowing and observing can be the most impactful type of on-the-job training (even if it is a little boring at times). As part of a new manager’s development, set up opportunities for them to sit in on meetings and phone calls and other situations where they can observe other managers doing what they will be doing. Again, this will depend on the nature of your work but getting to see things in action and then ask questions can be helpful especially when just getting started.
Self-Paced
There are so many wonderful management development options out there that managers can explore on their own. It is a good idea for you to provide some options and also allow your managers to explore their own options as well. This will satisfy people who will not know where to begin if you just tell them to find their own as well as people who already know what options they want to explore. These self-paced options can include anything from the group section above (books, podcasts, articles, online courses, webinars, TED talks) and then some. Build time into new managers’ schedules where they can explore these as part of their new manager training, so they do not need to wait to get started. Depending on how your team and organization operate, you may have a set number of training hours in mind for each manager (e.g., a broad recommendation from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy is 50 hours or professional development per year for managers) of 1 hour per week or whatever makes sense for you and your managers.
The Supervisors Circle was designed for these very reasons. It is filled with training videos, downloadable resources, an interactive forum, and so much more. From day one, your new managers can have a place to go and can go back to again and again throughout their time in management.
Investing in your managers is one of the most important investments you can make. This has always been true and is perhaps true now more than ever. In post-pandemic life, Gallup states, “managers now have more work to do on a tighter budget with new teams, and only 48% of managers strongly agree that they currently have the skills needed to be exceptional at their job.”
Gallup has further found that having a great manager is nearly four times more important than an individual’s work location when it comes to their engagement and wellbeing.
You cannot afford to wait to train and support your new managers. The good news is you do not have to.
