5 Important Parts of Management Training and Development

• Aug 10

Having a strong management team directly impacts your company’s productivity and employee satisfaction. In fact, the managers in your business can make or break the careers of their teams. A good manager supports, structures, and helps subordinates, while a poor manager can create a difficult, stressful work environment. Sometimes, they can even push employees to leave. So, favoring the former rather than the latter is vital for business cohesion, and good leadership requires management training and development.

Regular recruitment, due to a low employee retention rate, is expensive. Loyal, long-term employees hold a lot of value to business, as they know your company and internal processes. What’s one solution to increase employee retention rates? Regular management training and development.

In order to improve and upskill managers, provide them with the necessary training. Whether training a group or individuals, the sessions must have a purpose and plan to produce the desired results. Ultimately, training benefits both you and your employees by enhancing the workplace environment and increasing productivity. It also means managers are likely to stick with you. Development is something most people want from their employer, as it allows them to keep learning and climb further up the career ladder.

The Aim of the Training

Before starting the training, clearly define its aim. Are you training a new manager on the basics or focusing on something more specific? Create a detailed plan outlining how to introduce the training, what you want them to learn, and how to implement it. Consider incorporating follow-up sessions as well if needed.

If the training has a clear objective, such as teaching basic accounting, then it can be easier to measure the success. For instance, if someone has shown an interest in learning how to invoice, or they need this skill for their role, it’s less of a gray area, and there’s an end product to work towards. Essentially, creating accurate invoices efficiently. At the end of this, you can easily assess whether they’ve picked up the necessary skills by asking them to create an easy-to-read invoice with all necessary information.

Again, if the training is successful, they can then take the information and share it with their team as needed. Building interpersonal skills is yet another example. However, it’s also a trickier form of training to measure, as it’s more vague. Even so, you should put KPIs in place to serve as guidelines.

With any training, you must ensure trainees understand the material. Providing opportunities for them to demonstrate their understanding allows you to assess whether the training has been successful or if additional time and support are needed. Having a way of testing your managers means you can see if it’s been effective or not. And you could handle this several ways, whether through an online test or something more practical.

Generally, training represents something that you trial and improve over time. No two training sessions should stand the same, as you’re dealing with different people each time. And these individuals bring a variety of different experiences and skills. With this in mind, it’s always great if you can personalize and even adapt your material as you go along.

1. Personalization (When Possible)

If you can, personalizing the training can make it much easier for the trainee to learn. It’s always nice if you can consider the individual’s personal career goals, as well as their department and company objectives. By taking all of these into account, you can create tailored training that will help and encourage them. It also shows you listen to your employees and want to develop them in ways that can benefit their careers.

To have more of an understanding of where they might need training, it could be valuable to get constructive feedback from the people they currently manage or have worked with recently. This can further help show where gaps might exist in their knowledge or skills. If possible, it’s better if you keep feedback anonymous, so it doesn’t cause unnecessary friction within the workforce.

Ultimately, the aim isn’t to get negative criticism lined up. It’s to understand their current management style and what others thing they’re doing well, and perhaps, not so well. It’s also worth having a conversation with the individual beforehand to understand their learning style. For example, would they prefer an online course? An in-person workshop? In a group or one on one? Whilst this might not always be possible, if you can make tweaks based on the person in question, this can make your management training and development as effective as possible.

You may not have information on the people you’re training before the instruction, which means you’d have to approach things a little differently.

2. Planning for Different Management Types

You may have little to no information about the people you’re training beforehand, so in this case, you should prepare for different types of managers. Moreover, you need to focus on what the training itself needs to achieve. This is also applicable when training groups with mixed individuals. Consider the following:

• How long they may have been a manager
• What skills and experience they may already have
• The stage they could be at in their career
• What training they may have already had
• How you can engage with a variety of people
• Varying personalities and management styles
• Different departments and knowledge
• Current challenges
  
  

And that’s just to name a few! This is why you need to have a detailed plan for the training, that you can adapt as you go along, depending on which avenue the training goes down. Adaptive training methods can help you get the most out of individuals, as you’re always going to come across different types of managers with a variety of ideas.

3. Immersive Elements

When it comes to in-person training, getting everyone involved is always a good way to ensure people listen and remain engaged. Moreover, it makes the session more interesting. Regardless of the size of the training group or who is in it, having an immersive element to it is a great way to ensure people learn from you and each other. This is an opportunity for attendees to share thoughts, opinions, and advice. So, it can start meaningful and helpful conversations.

For example, ask: “What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced recently as a manager?” Collect responses anonymously for larger groups or encourage volunteers in smaller settings. Use these responses to facilitate discussions and provide examples. Keep in mind your own examples you can use too, as people can be shy in training sessions with their colleagues. In cases like this, it’s always good to have relevant backup ideas, just in case people don’t want to share their answers with others.

4. Training Software

Make the most of technology to streamline training sessions. From online courses to virtual classrooms, there are various tools readily available online. These platforms often include ways of testing trainees to ensure they’ve soaked all of the training information up. It’s worth researching available tools to find what best supports your training objectives. Many of these are free of charge.

Training software can offer flexibility in the way you deliver content, catering to different learning styles. For instance, some individuals might benefit more from interactive modules that allow them to apply what they’ve learned in real life scenarios. However, others might prefer structured lectures or reading materials. This flexibility can help ensure all trainees get the most out of the training experience.

5. Tracking Results and Following Up

Without results, there’s little point in management training and development in the first place. So, it’s good to have check-ins with trainees to make sure they’ve achieved what you set out to accomplish. Depending on the training, you can ask them or the people they manage for more feedback on how they’ve been able to put the training into practice.

It’s good to talk to the individual personally to see if they feel they need more similar training or if they’d like to focus on another subject to further develop. Holding retrospectives bi-annually or more regularly can show you put your employees first. Striving for continuous improvement keeps your company and teams dynamic.

It’s also important that you get feedback on your training sessions. You can choose how to gather it. But again, using software where people can submit anonymous feedback responses to a variety of prompts can show where training worked and didn’t. You’re more likely to receive candid responses if they’re anonymous. You could carry out these surveys straight after or a few months later when they’ve had a chance to put the training to the test.

Additionally, consider implementing a mentoring program where experienced managers can support new or developing managers. This can provide ongoing guidance and reinforce the skills and knowledge gained during training sessions. Mentors can offer practical advice, share their experiences, and help mentees navigate challenges they may face in their roles.

It’s also an opportunity for them to make connections with the people they work with, boosting overall morale and promoting a positive company culture.

Conclusion

Effective management training and development are needed for the success of any business. By defining the aims of your training, personalizing it and getting each trainee involved, you can create a program that boosts your managers’ skills. Continuous improvement through regular feedback and adaptation of your training methods ensures your managers remain effective leaders. Investing in well-structured management training and development ultimately leads to a more productive, satisfied, and loyal workforce. And this further contributes to the overall success of your business.

If you’re unsure where to begin with training, you might find it worth trying out a few different methods and getting feedback on what works for different people. For example, check out our online business training courses. Alternatively, look into different management training tips. Take this feedback on board and then your sessions can continually improve until you have an effective system in place to suit different types of managers.

Article written by Aislinn Carter, a freelance writer living in Hallandale, Florida. She has extensive experience covering a number of different verticals including tech & business.

Last updated August 10, 2024

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