Who should I send
to management training?
We get this question a lot. Every company has a core list of people where the need for management training is obvious. And almost every company has a longer list of maybes.
Is management training just for people managers?
What about leaders who don’t have direct people management responsibilities?
How should I think about my high potential staff on their way into management roles?
Does it make sense to have first time managers in the room with more senior leaders?
Should I group people by discipline or domain? Do my engineering leaders need management training that’s just for them? What about sales? Aren’t those very different jobs?
We’ve worked with thousands of leaders from hundreds of companies. And it’s given us a very clear picture of how to get the most out of a group program. There are five key elements to designing a cohort that will not only enjoy and learn from the program, but bring back lasting improvements to your organization.
Mixed cohorts outperform.
Our most successful cohorts mirror actual leadership conditions within the organizations. Sending leaders to different management training programs is harmful. It only deepens the siloing within your company. Your Engineering leaders need to work with their counterparts in Sales. If they leave training with wildly different expectations for how to lead within your organization, that's a miss.
Similarly, your new leaders and your seasoned leaders need common language. Nearly 80 percent of bosses have never received management or leadership training. That’s true at every level - from first time leads, all the way up to the C-suite.
For fast growth startups and scaleups, leaders often get pulled up very quickly. They start as a team of one. As the organization grows, they then manage bigger and bigger pieces of the business. They get thrown into the deep end and figure out how to swim. When faced with an opportunity to put some structure and deliberate system to their management toolkit, most jump at the chance.
For leaders who are stepping into management for the first time, it’s important to start them off on the right foot. You need them to feel equipped and confident as they embark on an expanded role. And you need the people reporting into them to feel well-managed and engaged.
Not all leaders are people managers.
Most orgs start with the people managers. When looking at who to send to management training or leadership development, this makes sense. But it misses many leaders who should be included in the program alongside their peers.
In growing orgs, people are often called upon to lead functional areas of the business before they build out the team. Some common examples are product managers, project managers, finance leaders. We also see this for folks in HR, recruiting, or other people and culture roles.
Skeptics thrive, but cynics don’t.
Many folks come into our programs with a chip on their shoulder. They cross their arms, and lean all the way back in their chair. They’ve already decided this is going to be a waste of time. “Prove me wrong,” they say in their heads (and sometimes out loud).
We usually get them uncrossed and leaning forward by the first coffee break. And then they stay that way, fully engaged, throughout the entire program.
We understand your skeptics. Hell, in another lifetime, we *were* your skeptics. And we don’t blame them at all. We’ve been forced to sit through dreadful corporate training programs. Ones that were not only boring but presented pseudo-science as fact. Where the people leading the programs didn’t understand the challenges we faced.
Your skeptics don’t scare us. Once they round the corner, they tend to get deep into the work. And the transformations are miraculous.
Reluctant learners aren’t a problem, but a refusal to engage is. When a person is fundamentally unwilling or unable to put in the work, it won’t help to force them. Skeptics and cynics can look pretty similar but it’s easy to tell them apart. Just ask them. “Are you willing to give this an honest shot?”
Training is sponsorship.
All Raw Signal Group work is informed by our strong commitment to inclusion, equity, and justice. It might be how you found us.
Growth and development programs are a massive opportunity to live these values. And nowhere is this more important than in leadership and management. This is where the power lives within your organization. And when you compile a list of who will attend, you write your company's future. It's worth taking a moment to notice who is and is not reflected in that future.
A lot has been written about the importance of sponsorship. When a leader steps in and connects a marginalized employee with new challenges, the impact on their career can be incredible. But often those employees are kept out of growth opportunities because “they aren’t senior enough yet,” or they “lack leadership skills.”
When companies identify candidates for sponsorship and include them in a program with us, they rise to the occasion. Every time. It doesn’t erase the systemic barriers they face elsewhere in their work and life. But it is a tangible investment that is visible, meaningful, and has lasting impact.
HR should be in the room, but the CEO shouldn’t.
We have a strong preference for having HR leaders go through the program alongside the leaders in their organization. Every leader needs to know how to work in tight partnership with their counterparts in HR. To that end, we often welcome HRBPs into our programs. They tell us it builds trust and mutual respect with the leaders they support.
Founders and CEOs tend to be some of our most enthusiastic learners but we are mindful not to advance their development at the expense of the team’s. Even the most accessible CEO impacts their people’s ability to ask questions in the room.
When we have CEOs or founders who wish to learn alongside their team, we design with that in mind.