When I talk to companies, I regularly get asked to help support manager and leadership development.  Often the issue is relayed as generic things such as “we promoted a number of people to managers but they have no experience” or  “our management skills aren’t very strong”” and “our engagement survey indicates we need to improve our management skills”.  Now, the obvious answer often is…..  ‘let’s put everyone through a management development programme’. But, when you scratch beneath the surface, it’s not so always so simple and a sheep-dip approach might not give the targeted solutions they really need.

Using the analogy of medicine for a moment….

If you have an infection in your body, two options are typically available to a doctor. Firstly, they could prescribe a broad-spectrum antibiotic in the hopes that it might work. Option two, is to take a sample, culture (grow) the bacteria in a laboratory, work out scientifically which antibiotic will treat the infection, and only then prescribe the right one. Yes, Option two takes a few days to fully diagnose the specific needs of the patient. But, Option two delivers a more targeted therapy which will address the needs of the patient and spends valuable resources only on the right drugs (and minimises risk of antibiotic resistance). Further, in this diagnosis phase they may discover that the issue is caused by a viral, not bacterial infection – so antibiotics would be the wrong solution. [If the patient is about to die or in a critical condition, Option 1 is the right approach – you haven’t got time to do option 2!]

What’s this got to do with management development?  Well, often there are a blend of people – some with more experience and some with less. There are people who are technically super-talented and yet struggle to read the emotions of the people around them. There are people that are work really well with individual DRs, but cannot get a team to work together in their absence.  There are people who are brilliant at setting goals and driving / reviewing performance, BUT they cannot have a development conversation for love nor money.   There are people (often the most senior) that think they are personally particularly good at management, but everyone else needs to develop.  There are people that find it hard letting go of and delegating operational work and burn themselves out trying to do it all. The truth is, great managers demonstrate a range of subtly different capabilities.

I believe the following subsets of skills are key to making a well-rounded set of management capabilities:-

  • Growth mindset
  • Adapt to get the best from others
  • Drive for performance
  • Coach for performance & development
  • Communicate courageously and with radical candor
  • Engage & inspire others
  • Build a cohesive team
  • Delegate effectively

Sometimes senior HR or other leaders in organisations think they ‘know’ instinctively the gaps at an organisational level, but often they cannot back up this knowledge with any specific data, and they rush to prescribe a generic management development programme to address it.

Perhaps, this level of diagnosis is OK at an organisation level, although you risk spending a lot of money building skills that are already in place, or worse, missing critical capability gaps.   But at a micro level, how does the individual connect with why they personally are being expected to develop these management skills? I can attest that ‘HR tell us we have to attend this management course’ – does not result in the most motivated of learners.  Worse still it wastes money in last minute no shows!

‘Sheep-dipping’ everyone with the word ‘manager’ in their job description through a prescriptive programme is not always the best answer, even though it might be the easier and more cost-effective route.   My counsel? It would be to seek to enable a more personalised learning experience that targets the specific gaps or capabilities that someone has, and that they have been engaged in determining.

If they are genuinely new to management, perhaps the learner does need a bit of everything (albeit with individual focused learning goals). But for those with experience or prior training, using the sheep dip can put people off learning and can feel like (and actually be) a waste of time and money.

So, before HRO design or recommend implementing any management development intervention, we much prefer to start by taking the temperature of management capabilities at both organisational and individual levels – this begins with a self-assessment diagnostic and 180 degree feedback survey.  Then we analyse the results and make recommendations:

  • At a Company level – here are the true specific capability gaps (and strengths)
  • At an individual level – here’s your personal diagnostic report, and we recommend you personally focus on these specific sub-skills (and keep leveraging these strengths)

Just like with prescribing antibiotics, surely a more scientifically based recommendation on how to build management skills is better than a broad-brush approach?  The client gets better return on their investment, and the individual learner is bags more motivated to develop the skills that matter most to them.  With management development, the business is usually not about to die, so let’s stick to option two!

If you would like help with your manager and leadership development diagnostics and development planning why not get in touch for a no obligation chat.

 

 

 

Hannah Powell