Creating the Best Management Development Program Possible

Your management team will need as much development as the employees they’re managing. Leadership is partially something that grows naturally over time. But it’s also something that can be specifically targeted for development. Your regular training plan isn’t going to work as a dedicated management development program. It’s also not easy to simply re-adapt your current materials into a development plan for managers. 

The best manager training needs to be designed from the ground up to serve your new managers. Here’s what you need to consider.

What Skills Managers Need

It’s estimated that 60% of all new managers fail in their jobs. If you flipped a coin to guess if a manager will make it, well, you’d be an optimist. This isn’t generally the fault of the people being put into these positions. It’s just that success as a manager involves mastering an entirely new set of skills they may not be familiar with. They also need to get used to using their existing skills on a much larger scale.

For example, communicating as a manager is no longer about talking one-on-one with supervisors or teammates. Instead, it’s about ensuring ideas are clearly transmitted across the entire organization. 

Networking and coaching take on new importance for managers, as does organizational skills. A good manager is no longer just organizing for themselves, but for everyone, they’re responsible for. They also need to become more adept at setting future goals and meeting them. More than regular employees, a manager must be proactive rather than reactive. 

This isn’t even touching on all the soft skills t a good manager needs to develop, such as active listening and improving employee engagement. It’s clear then that any management development program will need to be fine-tuned and modified to suit managerial positions. But how do you get a development plan for managers that works?

What You Need for a Management Development Plan

So we’ve established that managers need specific skills. Then a management development plan should come with specific features as well, right? But what sort of things should you incorporate into a management development plan?

 A good development plan for managers absolutely needs to incorporate mentorship along with the training. A good mentorship program is one of the most effective ways to transfer vital information to a new batch of managers.

A management development plan also needs to be consistent and regular. Management training involves you leaning heavily on soft skills. These aren’t the kind of things you can pick up as “interesting facts.” Constant small tests are better than long, dull management seminars. 

Lastly, management development programs need to be customizable. This means being customizable for what your company needs and customizable for what an individual manager needs. You need a development plan for managers that can be nimble and adjusted for whatever set goals are on the table.

With 1Huddle, you can build the perfect management development plan with ease. Developing coaching skills or education on company culture becomes is simplified with our employee engagement app. So don’t wait — start developing the managers of the future today.