Management Development: A Primer

Photo by Daniel Öberg on Unsplash

We’ve discussed the importance of identifying and cultivating management skills in employees. As a leader, it’s important to remember that being an excellent individual contributor does not automatically translate into management success. To maximize the effectiveness of your management team, you need to actively support their growth. This begins with a well-structured training process. One that clearly communicates expectations, provides targeted training, and offers ongoing mentoring, so your new managers can thrive and flourish in their expanded roles.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have laid the foundation for this type of program. We have identified key leadership characteristics along with providing reflection questions essential for building a leadership development program.

Today, we are going to flesh out this framework by giving you some skill building activities. Choosing what becomes part of your management training program will depend on your industry, available resources and the skill level of the future managers. Listed below are the leadership skill categories that we have presented in previous posts and ideas for how they can be put into action.

Communication 

Skills: Clear messaging, Listening, Conducting Difficult Conversations, Leadership Poise

• Prepare a presentation: Ask your employee to present to the team. 

• Lead a Meeting Rotation: Create a process where employees take turns running a standing meeting and send a follow up summary. 

• Role-Plays: These can become part of staff meetings or brown bag lunches. Create scenarios where employees can practice performance feedback, boundary setting, and conflict scenarios.

• Shadow and Debrief: Have an employee observe a senior manager or a manager in another department. After they have completed the observation, have a debriefing conversation with them where they highlight key details.  

Strategic Thinking 

Skills: Systems thinking, Long-Term Planning, Solution Development

• Cross-Department Projects: Involve staff in projects that impact other departments or lead discussions on how your team’s decisions impact other teams.

• Strategy Translation Exercise: Take a high-level goal and break it into team actions. This can be done at a staff meeting or in individual supervision.

• “If You Were the Director” Exercise: Present an issue and ask employees to redesign a process or initiative. Again, this can be done as part of a staff exercise or individual supervision.

Initiative

Skills: Self-Management, Decisiveness, Resourcefulness

• Shadow and Improve: Have employees shadow a leader or another department for a day. They later suggest at least two improvements or innovations based on what they observed.

• Project Management Exercises: Integrate fun, group activities into meetings, where leadership changes throughout the activity. This gIves you a chance to observe initiative in action. We have conducted a building bridge exercise that not only underscores different leadership approaches but is also great in highlighting different communication styles. Any group activity that requires someone to lead people to work together, with minimal instruction can uncover initiative. This can be a regular part of team meetings.

• Management Observation:  This is not a skill development activity. It is an information gathering tool. Initiative is often much better seen in the “wild” than in a  meeting. Gathering information from people who observe the employee in action on a regular basis can be a very useful tool. This can be through meeting with current supervisors of the employee, talking to other people who come in contact with them (i.e., vendors, customers) or spending time observing employees in a variety of work situations. Employees who show initiatives often go above and beyond solving an issue by themselves, but that is not the only quality necessary for initiative. Initiative is also being able to recognize that something needs to get done and bringing it to others attention.  

Adaptability

Skills: Critical Thinking, Openness to Change, Desire to Learn

• Scenario Based Simulations: These can also be done on a regular basis at staff meetings. Put people into groups and give them a problem to solve. Throughout the process, change some parameters and see how the group adapts. (e.g., staff shortage, policy change, upset client). Employees must adjust plans in real time and explain their reasoning. This is similar to the Project Management Exercise, but uses real work life situations and changes parameters of the situations as opposed to the leadership.

• Cross Training Rotations: Create a program where identified employees do short rotations in different roles or departments. Not only is this useful because it allows people to cross train, but it also allows you to see how people adapt to unfamiliar tasks or systems.

• Organizational Change Reflection: After a real organizational change, hold structured discussions:

  • What changed?

  • What was difficult about the transition?

  • What  benefit can you see about the transition?

  • What strategies helped you adapt?

  • This type of discussion can help you identify how people process change and their level of adaptability.

• “What Would You Do?” Drills: Present fast-paced hypothetical scenarios requiring quick judgment. This can be a great ice breaker for staff meetings. 

Integrity

Skills: Honesty, Consistency, Helpful, Hardworking

• Case study Discussions: Use realistic workplace scenarios involving confidentiality, honesty, or policy adherence. Employees explain what they would do and why.

• Accountability Partnerships: Pair employees to check in weekly on commitments made. Have them review each other at the end of a set time period. 

• Policy Interpretation Workshop: Review gray-area situations in company policies. Have employees discuss not just what the rule says, but how they feel about its efficacy and how to apply it ethically.

  
  

Another way to receive information on managerial aptitude is to keep your ear to the ground. Listen to how other people talk about this employee and ask for specific feedback in relation to the listed leadership skills. This can be through informal channels or through processes like a 360 review.

These activities can be implemented by individual departments or supervisors as well as company retreats. Alternatively, they can become part of a more formalized Manager Preparation Program where employees are selected to participate. 

You will notice in a lot of these activities there is an engaging or game element to them. Infusing this aspect into these experiences stimulates more engagement and discussion. 

Developing leadership from within is a powerful way to foster a company culture where both employees and the business thrive. A management development program can be expanded to also include real-world assignments, ongoing mentor engagement, and a management readiness review, ensuring your future leaders are fully prepared to step into this role with confidence and skill.

G2 Solutions loves helping leaders create dynamic management development programs. contact us and we will show you how!