Promoting staff into managerial positions represents an investment in your company’s ongoing success and your people. To some degree, you are taking a leap of faith in believing that as well as the right technical skills, they have the people management skills needed to excel in their new position. You provide your new managers with a team and a set of objectives, but do you take that extra step and provide them with leadership and management training, ensuring you are setting your managers up to succeed?
Engaging new managers without the necessary levels and types of support in their new role could leave them demotivated and less likely to take action. It could also lead to resentment and unnecessary conflict in the organisation.
This article looks at how you can ensure that you aren’t setting your managers up to fail.
Management Skills
A recent study showed that a shocking 58% of managers had not received any management training following promotion into their first role at a management level. It is common to promote valued employees because of their technical ability. However, the skills they will need in a management role are typically very different from those required to succeed within their specialised role. Although individuals may do something well, it doesn’t automatically transpire that they can teach and motivate others to perform at a high level. They may lack confidence, strong communication skills and authority or have a crippling fear of failure, all of which can negatively impact how well they perform in their new position.
A lack of confidence or people management skills can lead to issues such as micro-management, a failure to challenge poor performance or inappropriate behaviour within the team or an inability to motivate their team and reach targets. Such issues can escalate into conflict within an organisation, which must be resolved.
Continuous development of management skills and leadership skills
People management can be a steep learning curve, and, as with learning any new skill, there is the potential for mistakes. Sending managers on a short management or leadership training course is a good start, but it will not equip them with all the skills, experience and confidence needed to excel as a people manager and leader. Such skills take time to develop and grow. Your people managers will need help and support to continually develop both while training and afterwards when they practice management skills in the workplace.
Often, managers fail to take action because they are afraid to make mistakes. Therefore, new managers need to feel assured that they have your support and can approach you or another appropriate individual for further advice. They also need to be confident that should an error occur, they will receive support, without judgement or blame, to help resolve the matter and use it as a valuable learning experience. Arranging a coach for new managers or implementing a mentoring programme to ensure they receive ongoing support will give managers the confidence to practise their leadership skills in your company.
Champion your managers
Ensure your managers receive regular feedback, making sure you praise and compliment them when they do something well, and not merely criticise them for doing something poorly. It is important not to wait until they come to you needing support but to work closely with them, providing positive encouragement and support. Giving feedback regularly can instil your managers with confidence in your support, so they are more likely to come to you before things go awry, nipping potential problems in the bud.
When providing feedback, it is good practice to do it as soon as possible after an event occurs because the incident is fresh in the minds of both parties, ensuring a productive discussion. Encourage managers who lack confidence to keep a success inventory or journal. As the items in the inventory build-up, their confidence will increase and provide documentary evidence of their successes that they can refer to repeatedly. These documents can also be invaluable for appraisals. Because they were written at the time, they can help to give a balanced view of a manager’s performance, rather than focusing on skills they need to develop. Too much emphasis on developmental needs may leave a manager feeling demotivated and demoralised.
If you would like to talk to us at Delphinium about setting your managers up to succeed and how we can help you to support their ongoing development, please get in touch to discuss your requirements.
Author: Gemma Rolstone | Published 30th September 2019
