Learning to Lead: Leadership Training for Managers

Getting skilled managers is vital to the survival of any business. However, turning those managers into coaches is essential for the success of any business. Nevertheless, leadership and coaching aren’t easy to teach in a classroom setting. They’re skills that need to be carefully developed and reinforced. If you’re interested in leadership training for managers and how to build your own team of coaches, we’ll explain some of the basics here. 

What Does it Take to Be a Coach?

You can’t start your management development program (or any employee development program, for that matter) without a clear goal in mind. Leadership training for managers is all about developing a skill set your managers can rely on as their “coaching toolbox.” But what sort of tools go into that toolkit? Many leadership training skills in managers translate over to training for coaches. Still, coaching isn’t just about leadership ability.

A good leader always listens to their employees. However, soft skills are especially important for someone taking on the role of a coach. A good coach needs to not only listen to the concerns of employees and new hires but also understand their needs and wants. Developing finely tuned emotional intelligence is key to thriving in a coaching role.

Like most upper-level manager positions, organization is important to being a good business coach. However, the purpose of organizing changes somewhat. You can’t think of yourself simply as a manager of employees, designing goals for productivity. Instead, goal-setting needs to be personalized. You should always be on top of what every hire needs and how they progress in their training. You also need to be able to make recommendations for training and spot new development opportunities. 

A good coach also ensures they’re always on top of their own training. Coaches need to be an expert among experts when it comes to their own company. This doesn’t mean just information about a company’s operations. A good coach has to be well-versed in brand, culture, company history, operations, and values. 

How Do I Promote Coaching Skills?

The best way to turn your managers into coaches is, unsurprisingly, through good coaching. Your business should be operating a constant leadership and management program. This means that leadership training for managers should be cyclical, where established coaches pass on their skills to the next generation of coaches. 

Keep in mind you might run into the issue of employees not seeing the benefits of leadership training for managers. Many managers are independently minded and figure that if they’ve made it this far in their career without coaching, why put in the time and effort for others. You need to make sure you frame coaching as an integral and mandatory part of your business culture. Reward those who show initiative in coaching.

Remember, the best way to teach coaching is through coaching. That’s why mentorship programs are crucial to facilitating managers’ leadership training. If you’re in charge of your management development program, a good portion of your effort and planning should be toward setting up these kinds of mentor relationships.

Of course, the soft skills of mentorship need to be backed by a rigorous education in the hard facts of your business. That’s where 1Huddle comes in. If you’re a C-level executive in charge of manager development, 1Huddle will be your new best friend. It has everything you need for employee training and development in one convenient and easy-to-use package.