What is Manager Training?
The definition of manager training is a type of learning and development program that focuses on developing the skills and knowledge of individuals who are responsible for leading and managing others in the workplace. Manager training programs can cover various topics, from basic supervisory skills to more advanced leadership development.
Manager training aims to help individuals acquire the skills and knowledge they need to be effective in their roles as managers. This can include communication, delegation, coaching, performance management, conflict resolution, and more. Manager training can also include training on specific tools or systems used in the organization, such as performance appraisal systems or time-tracking software.
Manager training programs can take many forms, including classroom training, online learning, coaching, mentoring, or a combination of these. They can be customized to the specific needs of the organization and the individuals who will be participating.
Effective manager training can have many benefits for both individuals and the organization as a whole. It can help individuals develop their skills and increase their confidence in their ability to lead and manage others. For organizations, it can help improve productivity, reduce turnover, and create influential leadership culture.
Why is Manager Training Important?
Organizations hire and promote employees for supervisor jobs. But first-time managers and other individuals may need to learn how to lead direct reports effectively. Additionally, managers can develop leadership skills to engage better, empower, and motivate their employees.
Manager training courses can be beneficial for:
- Aspiring managers: Workers can prepare for managerial roles by learning about leadership styles. Employers may offer manager training as part of succession planning, such as the internal mobility of high-potential employees.
- First-time managers: Learning and development (L&D) initiatives can get new managers up to speed with essential managerial skills. L&D training can enhance their confidence to lead and teach them how to delegate. A management course may be part of the onboarding process.
- Seasoned managers: Manager training sharpens the skills of experienced leaders. Leadership courses teach more than the basics. Participants can discover new perspectives, techniques, and strategies. They can also prepare for transitions from middle to upper management. Additionally, newly hired managers can learn the company’s preferred management style.
Some organizations seek out manager training for specific hurdles. Professional courses can help leaders navigate crises, conflicts, and change.
9 Types of Manager Training Courses
1. Communication & Giving Feedback
Managers must communicate effectively with their direct reports, peers, and supervisors. Communication skills include listening, writing, and speaking. Individuals with strong communication skills can influence others, have favorable negotiations, and better facilitate business matters.
Likewise, feedback training helps managers prepare to deliver advice and constructive criticism. It explains feedback’s value and impact on employee engagement. Again, coaches can provide a model.
The following include some classes for enhancing communication and feedback skills:
- Ask Powerful Questions
- Communicate Powerfully Around Change
- Create Effective Presentation Decks
- Lead Compassionate Conversations
- Give Feedback That Lands
- Personalize Motivation to Your Team
Communication and feedback are essential parts of managers’ responsibilities. They are how supervisors lead employees. Training can make these managers’ qualities more effective.
2. Coaching
Another managerial role is employee coaching. Internal training involves instructing others on the organization’s policies, practices, and compliances. Additionally, supervisors should encourage their direct reports to their attainable limits.
Below are some class titles relating to manager coaching:
- Coach Towards a Goal
- Influence Without Authority
- The Coach Approach
Most managers don’t know how to coach people, but they can learn. Many supervisors think simply answering employees’ questions is coaching them. But it involves more than telling direct reports what to do. Coaching increases employee engagement and expertise.
3. Relationship Building
Strong professional relationships boost managers’ success. However, building them requires authenticity and strategy. Existing and prospective leaders could benefit from classes like “Build High Trust Relationships” and “Collaborate in a Dynamic Workplace.”
Relationship-building courses can help individuals identify career-helping connections. They can plan for opportunities to deepen these associations with strategic communication.
4. Performance Management & Motivation
One of the managers’ top priorities is their direct reports’ performance. Leaders who motivate their employees to do their best work help the organization. They also pave their employees’ career paths.
Some courses to improve managers’ ability to motivate their employees’ performances include the following:
- Delegate Like a Pro
- Evaluate Performance Fairly and Accurately
- Manage Your Team’s Strengths
- Measure Individual Performance
- Run Effective Performance Review Meeting
- Set Powerful Goals
Businesses can measure employees’ performance through periodic assessments. Like providing feedback, managers should conduct job reviews frequently. Learning how to properly perform employee evaluations during performance reviews is part of goal-setting and employee motivation.
5. Workplace Conflict
Managers often obtain their position because of their performance abilities. But they may need the training to handle difficult situations like workplace conflict. For example, they need to de-escalate team turmoil calmly, confidently, and fairly.
The following are some classes that could help leaders navigate these circumstances:
- Address Microaggressions on Your Team
- Identify the Right Conflict Style
- Transform Conflict into Collaboration
Even better than resolving conflicts is prevention. Managers who can avoid negative encounters through improved communication and collaboration can have more productive teams.
6. Business Strategy
Managers typically need to develop new business strategies. Even simple project plans require skills. With the proper training, leaders can determine the best methods to implement.
Here are some classes that can help improve managers’ business strategies:
- Develop an Effective Team Strategy and Plan
- Prioritize the Right Work
- Strategic Decision Making
Businesses need to monitor, evaluate, and adjust their initiatives constantly. And managers provide this examination and adapt it to their level and department. Without the necessary skills, companies can lose profits through decreased productivity and outdated strategies.
7. Collaboration
Collaboration training teaches managers how to capitalize on their team’s strengths. Colleagues can share their expertise to teach and learn from one another. In addition, organizations with collaborative teams are better equipped to share knowledge across multiple groups.
The following are some courses that can improve team collaboration from management down:
- Collaborate in a Dynamic Workplace
- Manage Remote Teams
- Manage Your Team’s Strengths
- Meeting Mastery
Collaboration provides countless benefits. Managers build a learning culture, and employees increase their knowledge and skills. This environment is also better for teamwork and employee and knowledge retention.
8. Inclusion
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) training cultivates acceptance environments. As a result, managers can build a thriving team dynamic that embraces diversity through inclusion.
A few topics available through DEIB training include the following:
- Bridge Cultural Differences Across Your Organization
- Embrace Allyship in Your Organization
- Explore Power, Privilege & Inequity at Work
A monogamous workforce poses risks. Companies should be aware of the dangers of conformity in the workplace. In addition to creating a culture of belonging, managers can better navigate group dynamics. Training can make leaders aware of conscious bias in the workplace, including their own.
9. Change Management
Change is inevitable. Employees handle transitions differently, and managers can learn the best practices for managing different mindsets.
Organizations can future-proof their business by preparing their staff for impending changes. Managers lead the charge and can help employees with transitions.
Titles of classes that can improve change management are below:
- Communicate Powerfully Around Change
- Master the Process of Change
- Overcome Resistance to Change
Change management training gives participants the tools and knowledge to lead their teams. They can practice communicating strategies that reduce opposition.
What is a Manager Training Plan?
“How should we train managers?” is a common question when exploring training solutions. Organizations need scalable manager training programs for their teams. Scalable training solutions have a structured foundation with flexibility to meet business needs.
Likewise, content must be inclusive, engaging, and effective. Manager training is only beneficial if it is impactful and can measure transformative behavior change.
The following are some training considerations:
- Live and online cohort-based classrooms
- Comprehensive content catalog
- Instructors offering localization and language support to capture cultural nuances
- Tailored content, customized curriculum, and modified learning experiences
- Manager training budget and costs
L&D personnel and external professionals evaluate the organization’s strengths and areas for growth. Then, they can set a baseline to track progress throughout training.
Participants engage in learning tracks for 1-3 months. After, a post-program assessment measures their skill development, accountability, and commitment to action.
Participants reinforce their new skills with continuous development in months 4-12. Additional coaching and elective content support initial efforts. At the end of the year-long program, a re-evaluation of their strengths and areas for growth determine the next steps.
What Training Do New Managers Need?
First-time managers need most of all the training topics mentioned above. However, companies may consider classes that match their specific needs in addition to those courses. For instance, an organization that deals with highly classified information may want to train managers on cybersecurity and handling sensitive documents.
Depending on the managers’ responsibilities, some other topics may include the following:
- Industry-specific regulations
- Hiring and firing
- Emergency procedures
Organizations can customize management training courses to match their culture. Programs should also fit the executive teams’ personalities and learning styles.
What to Include in a New Manager Training Program
Instead of a one-time information dump, organizations should consider the more effective cycle of training-application-assessment-training. Individuals can retain knowledge better over months of learning than a one-time boot camp-style training session.
Ongoing training does more than transmit information. It builds skills that managers can apply in multiple situations.
Likewise, first-time managers may benefit from having multiple training methods. For example, live cohorts are great opportunities for onboarding groups of managers. And busy new leaders can learn at their pacing through online courses. Additionally, individuals can review them to reinforce new concepts days, weeks, and months later.
3 Challenges New Managers Encounter
First-time managers face different challenges than seasoned managers in new positions. The most common include the following:
1. Developing a Leader’s Mindset
First-time managers must adjust their way of thinking. Many new managers were promoted because of their high performance. However, they need to transition from a high-performing individual contributor to a leader.
Manager training programs should start with the basics to help new managers develop a leader’s mindset. New leaders can avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes if they have a foundational understanding of leadership. In addition, training can help them navigate their roles with a leader’s confidence, perspective, and wisdom.
2. Managing Former Co-Workers
Further, leaders promoted from within teams may face additional hurdles. Many new managers oversee former colleagues. First-time managers must balance remaining collegial and developing authority over them.
The new power dynamic can be awkward for some individuals who want to remain friends with their former co-workers. Training can put new managers through simulated situations that address these relationships.
3. Identifying and Bridging Skills Gaps
New leaders must have the self-awareness to recognize their innate strengths and weaknesses. Training can help individuals identify their skills gaps and areas of improvement.
First-time managers may have technical or hard skills. But they need soft skills to relate to their direct reports. In addition, soft, or power, skills help them build relationships marked by trust and mutual respect.
4 Skills a New Manager Should Develop
Management skills are essential for running a team and department. The basic skills leaders need to manage people are below:
1. Planning
Planning is one of the essential skills for managers. Planning involves defining the goals and determining objectives concerning the goals. The manager should have a vision and plan for the future. Then, they must finalize plans, strategies, and actions to achieve the goals.
2. Organizing
Organizing is one of the essential managerial skills. The manager needs to allocate and arrange resources for plan implementation. Resources include both human and non-human resources. Organizing helps managers determine the list of pending tasks and combine them into jobs.
3. Leading
A manager ensures the timely completion of all tasks and strict adherence to policies. They can improve performance and boost morale by creating a positive work environment.
Great leaders can lead by generating motivation. Leadership skills help them create and communicate organizational objectives. In addition, they inspire direct reports to perform better.
4. Controlling
Control and regulation involve monitoring ongoing activities. Managers must ensure that the performance conforms to the expected goals. Additionally, they compare results with the standards to identify areas for improvement and develop corrective action.
