You wouldn’t allow a pilot to fly a plane without training, so why would you expect someone to manage people without knowing how to do so? Is it the same thing?
Recent research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) highlighted that eight-out-of-ten (82%) new managers take on management responsibilities without any formal training. Fifty-two per cent do not hold any management or leadership qualifications. And 26% of senior leaders and managers have never received any formal management training.
Some managers might appear natural-born leaders, others may struggle to ‘manage’ and need a helping hand. So why, when managing teams effectively and efficiently is at the heart of almost every business, are we allowing for failure?
We talk to Reed Learning’s Roger Mason, on the benefits of investing in courses like those from CMI for their managers and the positive impact manager training can have on a business, it’s people and the managers themselves.
Watch the full interview or read the Q&A below:
Q: What do you believe are the primary reasons for investing in training programmes for managers?
A: If you're running an organisation, of any sort, you have to work out what you can do to make sure that organisation succeeds. And I like to think of these things as levers.
What are the levers that you can pull to achieve the organisational outcomes that you need? And that might be to do with financial investment, that might be to do with the way you pay and reward your staff. That might be to do with the products you make. Developing managers is one of those levers. And in my view, it's an important lever because there's lots of evidence, as well as common sense, that would suggest, if an organisation has effective managers, then its staff are more likely to be productive, more likely to stay with the organisation, and more likely to be happy.
Research from CMI has identified this case of accidental managers. Eighty-two per cent - that's four-out-of-five managers - have moved into management roles without any formal professional training. And we just wouldn't let that happen with pilots or with accountants. We just wouldn't trust people with those roles. And with managers, we do that. We put so many people into management roles, so that perhaps is the most important reason why organisations should really consider training and developing their managers.
Q: How do you think well-trained managers contribute to organisational success?
A: There are loads of ways that managers will contribute to the outcomes of an organisation. Research from an organisation called Gallup has identified that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores.
The difference between having a great manager or a poor manager contributes to so many different things. That would include productivity, profitability, quality, staff turnover, absenteeism. Therefore, if you want to see an improvement across all of those metrics, across every aspect of the organisation, one place to look would be the quality of your managers.
Q: What qualifications are available to leaders to help develop their managerial skills?
A: Management development is a vast, vast thing. If you want to develop as a manager, there are lots of self-guided ways. Even through things like TikTok and buying books, of course, but many people will choose to get professionally qualified.
We work with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), and we deliver their qualifications. People would book onto those qualifications for a number of reasons. It gives a rigour to the training. You know that the content that you're getting is robust, that the techniques you're going to be learning about are thorough. It's recognised, so you can say, “Yeah, I'm a qualified manager. I've got the evidence of that.” There's also the benefit of studying with other people.
If you enrol on a CMI course delivered by Reed Learning you get to hear the experiences of the peer group - other managers sharing similar experiences. And also, we offer qualifications at different levels. So, managers are able to pick the method of study and the level of study, from entry-level management to more senior management, that suits them and works around their job, their career, their family and everything else.
Q: What specific skills or competencies do you think are essential for managers to develop through training?
A: There are timeless things that every manager should get the hang of. So, they would be things like goal setting, motivating a team, running meetings and giving feedback. What I'm seeing, increasingly, is the way that organisations are wanting their managers to develop what have been called 'soft skills' historically.
And, a great place to start would be self-awareness and emotional intelligence. So, if you're a manager or new to management, think about, “Well, where do I begin?”. My encouragement would be to begin with self-awareness, developing your emotional intelligence. And as part of that, seeking some feedback from other people.
Q: How do you measure the effectiveness of manager training initiatives within an organisation?
A: When I'm talking to customers, I'm always encouraging them to think about the outcomes that matter most to their organisation. That may or may not involve financial measures, but in any company, in any business, in any charity, in any public sector organisation, there'll be two, or three, or four metrics, that really determine the health of that organisation. And, developing managers, which doesn't always involve training - there's lots of ways to develop managers - should always be linked to those outcomes.
We should be able to draw a link between the outcomes of the organisation and the work that's done with managers. And then beyond that, there should be some common sense applied. So, for example, if you wanted to train managers on appraisals, presumably there's going to be some evidence that appraisals need to happen, that when appraisals happen well, there are good outcomes for the staff and so on. And, you should be measuring those things, and setting a baseline before doing any training. So, then you can actually measure and evidence what has changed as a result of this intervention.
Q: In what ways do you think ongoing training and development for managers impacts employee morale and retention?
A: There are lots of ways that working with managers will play out in the morale and wellbeing of a team.
The most important relationship in the workplace for a staff member is the relationship with their manager. If that manager is supporting them, guiding them, giving them feedback, that's not only going to improve their productivity in the workplace, and help them to do their jobs well. We know that that carries across into their life. Their wellbeing, their mental health, satisfaction, and outcomes like that. Overall, working with managers is not just about productivity, it's also about the wellbeing and overall health of the organisation.
Q: How you ensure that manager training aligns with the strategic goals and objectives of the organisation?
A: Well, I've got three top tips for this one. Firstly, make sure that you've got the right sponsor, so that would mean someone from the leadership team, typically. So, if you're asked to design some training for managers within the organisation, then you need to understand who's made that request and why, and what are they actually trying to achieve as a result of that. You have to be strategically aligned, and that typically means working with someone who owns the strategy.
Tip number two is set clear metrics so you know in advance what are the measurable things that you're trying to achieve as a result of this. Whether that's to do with financial performance, whether that's to do with staff outcomes, whether that's to do with customer outcomes, compliance, whatever it might be. Get really clear on those metrics up front and measure them in advance, so, you've got your baseline.
And then thirdly, training design, in my view should be 90% commercial and 10% creative. And that's perhaps a slightly controversial thing to say as a creative trainer.
If you spend the time up front getting really clear on what the training needs to achieve, and working really hard at understanding the things that you can do with people to understand what's happening for them at the moment and what needs to change – that's core to the training. And then on top of that, can come your creativity in terms of how you bring that training session to life. And that 10% of creativity is so important as well. But first of all, you have to have the foundation of a really robust plan for what you're going to achieve.
So, the three tips. Get the right sponsor. Make sure you're working with the right sponsor. Secondly, have your clear metrics. And thirdly, in thinking about your training design, think commercially before you think creatively.
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