Becoming a manager is an exciting step for an employee, but it also comes with responsibilities and challenges. To be an effective leader, it’s important that new managers develop key management skills that they may not have had the opportunity to learn yet. In this blog, we look at training for new managers that every company should consider investing in so their new managers are equipped to succeed and lead their direct reports to achieve organizational objectives.
What is management training?
Management training provides leaders with the necessary skills, knowledge, and tools to effectively lead their teams. The training covers a wide range of topics, including effective communication, change management, conflict resolution, and empowerment. By mastering these skills, managers can create a positive work environment, improve team performance, and achieve organizational goals.
Why is training for new managers important?
According to Forbes Coaches Council, manager training is important as it helps organizations to
- Support a strong company culture
- Deliver the right knowledge and skills
- Transform strategy into results
- Empower team members
- Improve employee engagement
- Increase self-Awareness among management
- Help all employees achieve their full potential
12 Management training topics for new managers
Communication skills
Effective communication is essential for any manager. It involves not only being able to clearly convey information, but also actively listening to your team members and providing feedback. Managers need to communicate with their team, other departments, and upper management. It’s important to be able to adapt communication styles to different situations and individuals, and to be able to handle difficult conversations with tact and professionalism.
Time management
Time management is a crucial skill for any manager. New managers are likely to have a lot on their plate including, managing their team, attending meetings and handling administrative tasks. It’s important that new managers prioritize tasks and delegate when necessary.
Time management also involves setting realistic goals and deadlines and being able to adjust them as needed. By mastering time management, new managers can increase productivity and reduce stress.
Delegation and empowerment
Delegation is a key skill for any manager. It involves assigning tasks and responsibilities to team members based on their strengths and abilities. When delegating tasks, it’s important that managers know how to provide clear instructions and expectations, and to follow up to ensure that the task is completed on time and to the desired standard. Effective delegation can help to lighten a workload, increase productivity, empower and develop team members, improve morale, and ultimately lead to better results for your organization.
Conflict resolution
Conflict is inevitable in any workplace, but effective managers know how to handle it in a constructive way. Conflict resolution training can help new managers learn how to identify the root causes of conflicts, communicate effectively with team members, and find solutions that work for everyone involved. By learning how to manage conflict, new managers can create a more positive and productive work environment for their team.
Performance management
Performance management involves setting clear expectations for employees, providing regular feedback and coaching, and conducting performance evaluations. New managers should learn how to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals for their team members, provide constructive feedback, and address performance issues in a timely and effective manner. By implementing effective performance management strategies, new managers can help their team members reach their full potential and contribute to the success of the organization.
Coaching
Coaching is a valuable tool for managers to guide their team members towards success while allowing them to work independently. By learning how to be positive mentors, managers can help their employees reach their full potential and achieve their goals. Coaching skills are essential for creating a supportive and productive work environment.
Dealing with difficult people
Managers need to work with a variety of people within and outside their organization and they need training on how to effectively address difficult behavior in the workplace. This includes identifying the root causes of the behavior and understanding why it occurs. By clarifying these factors, managers can develop strategies to address the behavior and create a more positive and productive work environment.
Presentation skills
Most managers and supervisors need to present information to others so effective presentation skills is a crucial skill. Look for training that covers topics such as public speaking, presentation design, and effective communication and provides an opportunity for the learner to practice and improve their presentation skills and effectively conveying information.
Providing feedback
Providing feedback to employees helps them to do their job better and grow their own careers, but providing feedback isn’t always comfortable. This involves learning how to effectively communicate areas where an employee needs improvement, while still maintaining a positive and constructive relationship. Effective negative feedback can help employees grow and improve, leading to a more productive and successful team. It is also critical for new managers to understand that feedback isn’t something that should happen once a year during performance appraisals but should be delivered throughout the year as necessary so that the performance review is just that – a review without surprises.
Training new managers on providing ongoing feedback can enable them to deliver it in the right way at the right times to garner the best results from their team.
Implementing changes
Change is bound to happen in any organization, and managers can help make transitions easier for their teams if they have the right skills and knowledge to facilitate that change effectively. This includes strategies for communicating changes to employees, addressing potential resistance or pushback, and ensuring that the changes are properly integrated into the company culture and operations. Other related topics may include change management methodologies, leadership skills, and effective change communication techniques.
Emergency procedures
This is one topic that is often overlooked when considering training new managers. For more companies the likelihood of an emergency is low, so this topic tends to slide to the bottom of the priority list. But think of this, in early 2020, did you think that our world would be in a global pandemic?
Don’t leave emergency procedures training out of your new manager training program. This training will help managers know the correct procedure for different types of emergencies and appropriately guide their employees. Don’t forget to provide resources that new managers can reference in an emergency.
Industry-specific knowledge
Most new managers need industry-specific knowledge to guide their teams to success. Training programs should provide up-to-date information on trends, regulations, compliance, and best practices in the field.
Where to find management training
Companies can look to online training providers like LinkedIn, Udemy and Coursera to provide eLearning courses for new managers. Many colleges and universities also provide instructor-led or online management training. For company-specific, industry-specific or policy-related training, companies often have to build their own learning to incorporate with the generic training provided by third-party providers.
If your HR and training team is overworked and does not have the capacity to build the training you need, consider talking to LearnExperts. We offer learning services that will help you scale the development of learning content so you can quickly engage with your new managers.
If you prefer to build your own content quickly, we offer a content authoring tool called LEAi which uses generative AI to rapidly build the content for your training. Using LEAi is easy. Simply import your existing presentations, documents, blogs and other content into LEAi and it automatically creates the learning content for you.
You don’t have to be a training expert to use LEAi. Since it was built by learning experts, the tool will continuously advise you on learning best practices as you build the content. It also automatically creates your test questions for you.
To learn more about how we can support your new manager training, contact us!
