Effective managers aren't born, they are developed. A management development program is a powerful tool to develop your people managers and ensure long-term success in your organization.
Let's look at why and how you can design your own program that creates positive behavioral changes.
What is a Management Development Program
A management development program is designed to improve managers' skills, build their knowledge, and help them become more confident leaders. It includes a range of activities such as workshops, mentoring, coaching, peer learning, reflection exercises, on-the-job learning, and more.
The purpose of management development is to help close skills gaps at an organizational and personal level. For new and up-and-coming managers, these programs help upskill them, maintain a common management language, and get them up to speed quickly.
But it is so much more than that. A good management development program gives your people managers the boost and skills they need when they’re facing day-to-day challenges like stress, overwhelm, or burnout.
What is the Difference Between Management Development and Leadership Development Programs
Management development programs focus on technical managerial skills such as running inclusive meetings, giving feedback, running 1-1s, building trust, and more. Think of it as the hard skills of a manager.
Leadership development programs focus on the soft skills of managers such as inspiring and motivating teams, building relationships, solving problems, making decisions, and so on.
Not sure whether you should buy or build your management development programs? Use the ‘Buy vs Build Analysis Framework’ to help you make an informed decision.
Find Out More About ‘Buy vs Build Analysis Framework’
How to Design an Effective Management Development Program
If you're ready to create a management development program that creates positive behavioral changes, here are 4 steps to get started:
1. Assess Your Organization's Needs
The first step in developing a training program is to identify and assess your organizational needs. This is a big piece in and of itself, so to keep this article short and precise, here’s an overview of the Management Development Needs Assessment Process.
Step by Step Needs Assessment Process
- Determine where your organization needs to be. Think about business outcomes and goals.
- Perform a Skill Gap Analysis. Assess the current performance of your people managers and compare it to the desired level. The analysis will show you the skills people need to achieve business goals.
- Come up with a few hypotheses based on the skill gaps and how people like to learn.
- Design a questionnaire to collect information from your people managers. Decide how you're going to roll out the questionnaire and to whom.
- Collect the data and look for the key themes.
- Align the key themes with the organization's goals.
2. Set Clear Development Objectives
The Needs Assessment process above will identify any gaps in your current development initiatives and manager skill sets.
These skill gaps should be analyzed, prioritized, and turned into the organization’s development objectives.
For instance, if you notice that your managers are not delivering consistent feedback to their team members because they are afraid of messing up the delivery, you could turn that skill gap into an objective, “all managers will confidently deliver feedback on a regular basis using a simple, consistent framework.”
The ultimate goal is to bridge the gap between current and desired performance/knowledge through the development of a training program that has the organization’s goals at its core. At the manager level, the development program should match the identified areas where improvement is needed.
3. Design the Management Development Plan
The next step is to design a comprehensive management training plan which includes the following:
- Skills to develop
- Learning content
- Delivery method
- Outline
- Supporting materials
- Yearly development calendar
- Development plans for individual managers
- Ongoing activities to support learning such as mentoring, peer learning, and others
This step may seem a little daunting, but don’t worry. We’re here to help.
At Elevate Academy, we can help you design a management development plan customized to your skill gaps, business outcomes, people managers needs, and budget.
After working with hundreds of People leaders, we have tried-and-proven learning content, delivery methods, supporting materials, and calendars that work. And they’re all highly customizable to you and your organization.
4. Measure the Results
This is the most important, yet often overlooked step. Most people leaders know they should measure the results, but they lack the method or understanding to do it.
Well, in our experience, it is not that difficult to measure management development, if you know what to measure. Here are a few key metrics that we recommend to keep track of:
- Participant engagement
- Participant satisfaction through surveys
- Behavioral changes. Measuring changes in behavior or performance on the job to determine if the training had a measurable impact.
- Return on investment. Compare the cost of the program to the benefits generated by the improved performance of the participants
- Business Impact. Evaluating the business performance metrics such as productivity, customer satisfaction, sales, and employee retention
- Long-term impact. Measure the performance of the participants over time
- Transfer of learning: Evaluating whether or not the knowledge and skills acquired during the training are being applied on the job.
Why are Management Development Programs Important?
According to SHRM's State of the Workplace Learning and Development Executive Summary 2022, the majority of the HR managers agree that training employees is their primary method of addressing skill gaps.
To HR managers, development programs help the organization:
- Reinforce a positive employee experience
- Build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace
- Improve employee engagement
- Create a growth mindset
- Build a highly skilled workforce ready for change
- Reduce employee turnover
When you develop your people managers, they are better equipped to drive the organization forward and achieve its goals. However, effective managers don't simply appear. These critical managerial skills need to be developed and nurtured. For example, not all managers are equipped to give constructive feedback or meaningful praise that lands.
What are the Common Challenges of Implementing a Management Development Program?
Creating and executing a management development program can be intimidating. But it’s going to be so worth it. Your people managers will be grateful for you and everything you’ve done to help them become better managers.
1. Assembling the Resources
Management development programs require a tremendous amount of time, energy, knowledge, and resources to make it work if you are building the program within your team.
For instance, your team will need to plan and create the program content, calendar, training resources, and more while making sure everything fits the organization’s goals.
Fortunately (humble brag) it's possible to simplify this process by partnering with providers specialized in delivering scalable, relevant, and accessible management development programs such as Elevate Leadership.
2. Measuring the Effectiveness of a Program
Most HR and People leaders struggle with measuring the effectiveness of their development programs. One of the biggest reasons is that management skills are highly subjective and often the results play out over a number of quarters.
However, tools like performance review evaluations, engagement surveys, exit interview feedback, NPS score, and more can help inform the success of a program.
3. Obtaining Buy-In from Stakeholders
Most management development programs need to get a green light from your stakeholders before they can start. However, getting their buy-in can be tricky because they’re evaluating your management development proposal through a time and monetary investment lens.
To help you put together a successful pitch, we’ve created a guide on how to write a management development proposal that resonates with your senior leaders.
The Key to a Successful Management Development Program
It’s not one training session that makes the difference. It’s not one exercise that creates behavioral changes. It is continuous development over time that creates effective managers.
The 70-20-10 model is one of the best guidelines for People and HR leaders seeking to create more tangible results from their development programs. The model shows that:
- 70% of knowledge comes from job-related experiences
- 20% from interactions with others
- 10% from formal classroom training sessions
To maximize the effectiveness of your management development program, there needs to be ongoing training sessions, mentoring, peer learning, reflection moments, reinforcements, discussions, and so on.
