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Maybe you’ve heard the euphemism “People don’t quit companies, they quit managers." Well let’s just say… this saying exists for a reason. Through all our work, we’ve come to understand that no single factor impacts an employee’s experience more than their manager. Full stop.
We know a great manager can make a toxic work environment manageable just as easily as a bad manager can ruin your experience in a wonderful company culture. So it stands to reason that the clearest path to impacting employee happiness is to go straight to the managers.
But how exactly do you create a system or training program to build great managers? Apparently we’re not the only ones asking this question because we see similar questions in Slack groups all the time. Questions like:
"Hi There - I have been tasked to create a front line/first time leadership training program and I'm not really sure where to dig in. Does anyone have any examples or resources they could share?"
Or
“Hi all, I’m evaluating a new manager training program for our company and could use some help. What kinds of things should we make sure are included in the program? And more broadly: Are manager training programs even worth the investment??”
In today’s guide, we’re going to cover four considerations you MUST ponder before developing a management training program. As a team that’s built our own training program and implemented this in over 50 companies, we’ve seen the pros and cons of evaluating these factors before getting started. To keep a long story short: If you skip these steps, you’ll likely end up wasting a ton of time, energy and money on a program that reaps little benefit. Let’s not let that happen!
The Four Things You Must Consider:
Let’s dive in…
1: What Makes a Great Manager?
There is no shortage of movies featuring examples of bad bosses. Every film from Office Space to The Devil Wears Prada to (the aptly named) Horrible Bosses showcases what management looks like at its worst. But what about at it's best?
What does being a great manager really look like?
Our team has wrestled with this question for years. In fact, it’s the penultimate question we felt we needed to answer before creating the Training for the Modern Manager program. We refused to build a foundational management training program without understanding what expectations organizations should have for their managers in the first place.
In our research, we came across Google’s Project Oxygen and their extensive research on what makes someone a great manager.
While we assume you’ve heard of Google, it’s very likely this is the first time you’re hearing about Project Oxygen. Gather round, and let me tell you a tale of a time when Google thought it didn’t need managers. In fact, they were so sure, they got rid of them all together…
Do we really need managers?
The year was 2002 and many in leadership at Google held the belief that managers were at best, a necessary evil, and at worst, a layer of bureaucracy. So they set out to prove they didn’t need managers - by getting rid of them all-together.
The short version is, it didn’t go well. It only took a few short months for them to deem the experiment a failure and reintroduce management throughout the company.
They even tried the experiment again in 2008, but this time, their quantitative research quickly found the opposite - teams with great managers were happier and more productive. There was no arguing with the data. Managers were in.
However, it still didn’t explain what made managers great.
So they got to work answering that exact question through qualitative research. They even did a double-blind study of the best and worst managers to find illustrative examples of what these two groups were doing differently. If you (like us) nerd out on research study details, I highly recommend this NYT article.
So what did Google uncover through all this research?
What resulted was a list of 10 attributes that were consistently demonstrated by the managers who ranked highest with their teams.
A great manager is…
A good coach
Empowers their team and does not micromanage
Creates an inclusive team environment, showing concern for success and well-being
Is productive and results oriented
Is a good communicator - listens and shares information
Supports career development and discusses performance
Has a clear vision/strategy for the team
Has key technical skills to help advise the team
Collaborates across the organization
Is a strong decision maker
You could certainly argue that every organization should populate their own list of core attributes, but in my experience most won’t take the time (or get close to investing the resources Google did) to define what those are.
So now that we have a solid idea of what makes a great manager, let’s move on to consideration #2: Do your managers know what they’re responsible for?
P.S. Curious how your own leadership stacks up against these competencies? Use our self-assessment as a personal reflection tool! Note the areas that emerge as strengths and those that are opportunities for growth. Both are equally important to understand!
2: Do Your Managers Know What They’re Responsible For?
Nothing sets managers up to fail more than expecting that they “just manage” on top of the role they were already doing. Unfortunately, we often hear company executives say things like, “Well that’s what the raise is for!” or “I managed to squeeze it all in when I was a manager - they just need to work some nights and weekends!”
In reality: great people management takes time - time you and your company must account for if you want your managers and teams to be successful.
While this declaration should be enough to convince skeptical leaders, we know from experience that it isn’t. What does change minds is asking company leadership to list out the specific tasks and expectations they have of managers within their company.
Not only does this documentation highlight just how time consuming people management truly is, it also:
Allows potential managers to understand exactly what the role entails before they accept (or decline) the offer, saving everyone time and stress.
Creates a more consistent employee experience across the organization, assuming all managers adhere to the expected practices.
As you can see, the payoff can be major for everyone - but that doesn’t make the process of documenting it any less daunting! I recommend breaking it into two steps.
Two Steps to Defining Expectations
First, define the levels of management within your current organization. This can be by title (manager, director, VP), or you can create your own categories to place people managers into (manager I, II, III). Understanding and defining these levels is the first step in clarifying expectations.
Second, brainstorm current-state expectations for people managers in your organization. For example:
Are managers in your company required to hold 1:1s with their team members? If so, are these 1:1s weekly, biweekly, or monthly?
What about hiring? Are managers required to write job descriptions or to interview candidates? Are they involved in sourcing? Are they part of headcount management?
How is performance management handled? Do managers give continuous performance feedback or have you established annual performance reviews?
To help you in this process, we’ve developed a matrix pre-populated with dozens of potential tasks and responsibilities. To start, access the Manager Expectations Matrix template and make a copy of the matrix for personal use.
In the space provided, do a 5-10 minute brainstorm of management responsibilities currently practiced at your organization. Need something to get the juices flowing? Click into the tab titled “Part 3: Responsibilities Matrix” for a long list of possibilities.
Once you’re finished, ask yourself the following questions:
Is this responsibility shared by all people managers (from executives through your newest managers) or is it specific to a particular level of management
Of the shared responsibilities, which three are the most important for people managers to understand and practice consistently?
Capture those three responsibilities in the dedicated section, along with any clarifications or important notes. And then do a little happy dance, because you just got your first clarity snapshot!
Now let’s move on to Consideration #3…
3: Are You Allocating Enough Time for Managers to Manage Their Teams?
We always lead with determining core competencies and defining clear expectations for a reason.
Because once you’ve identified competencies and expectations, it’s downright impossible to deny one very important truth: managing people takes time.
Yet, so rarely do we account for it.
Today’s managers tackle more on behalf of their direct reports than ever. They’re being asked to define team vision, navigate new hybrid and remote working norms, and motivate through increasing economic uncertainty and rampant layoffs. Managers are not only doing more with less, they’re also rebuilding trust, engagement, and psychological safety on shaken teams.
In our work researching, developing, and scaling excellent people management for growing teams, we’ve developed a guideline we call The 10% Rule.
The 10% Rule: At least 10% of a manager’s time per direct report should be allocated to people management tasks, admin, preparation, and skills development. Yes, 10% per direct report.
That means:
If you manage 2 people, 20% of your time at work (roughly a full day each week) should be spent on people management activities.
If you manage 5 people, 50% - a full half - of your time at work should be spent on people management activities.
We shared this rule with Luke O’Mahoney on an episode of his podcast the PX Espresso Hour and could actively see the wheels turning in his head. A former Head of People who also managed a team, he shared:
“I just had a realization about why I struggled so much as a people manager. I wasn’t putting that time aside at all. It was something I was doing on top of everything else. I really kick myself now for the amount of 1:1s and check-ins I canceled because I needed that time back for something else. And the knock-on effect that would then have on the people who were reporting to me.
A 10% rule per-person would have really saved me. And would have given me the ability to push back up on the expectations that were being pushed down on me, which is most of the reason why I wasn’t finding that time.”
He perfectly articulates why the 10% is so darn important not just for managers, but also for the individuals who report into them. Allocated time for people management drastically impacts both parties for the better.
All this said, some of you have already arrived at a troubling math conundrum: what about those managing 10 or more people?
This brings us to the second part of The 10% Rule: Managers should have no more than 7 (maaaaybe 8) direct reports at any given time.
Any more, and they won’t have time to infuse their team experience with the functional or industry-specific expertise that they need to shape teamwide success. Also, managers with more than 7 or 8 reports will burn out - and quickly. We've seen it time and time again.
So, to recap, The 10% Rule states:
At least 10% of a manager’s time per direct report should be allocated to people management tasks, admin, preparation, and skills development.
Managers should have no more than 7 or 8 direct reports at any time.
In our experience, these two guidelines can have an outsized positive impact within any organization within six-months of implementation.
However, we’d be remiss not to address the elephant in the room.
The 10% Rule is simple, but not easy.
Putting it into place means assessing headcount, reallocating workloads and possibly reworking the org chart. Not to mention, gaining buy-in from the leadership team, including your CFO. That is no small task.
4: What Are Your Managers Struggling With Most?
So far we have:
Identified the 10 attributes that make a great manager
Clarified the role and expectations of managers in our companies
Determined we MUST allocate time for managers to manage direct reports
Now, as the final piece of the puzzle, let’s consider what your managers specifically are struggling with. This is a crucial step because a one-size-fits-all approach to training rarely works.
Here’s how you can get to the root of the issues your managers are facing:
1 - Ask Them Directly
It’s simple, right? The most effective way to find out what challenges your managers are dealing with is to ask them directly. Set up one-on-one meetings or send out a survey to gather their insights. Here are some questions you might ask:
What do you see as the most challenging aspects of your role?
Are there specific situations or tasks where you feel less confident?
What resources or support do you think would help you and your team?
Use this as a starting point and see what themes emerge. You might find that all your managers are struggling with the same thing and now you know what specific problems need to be resolved! This is also a great way to identify coaching opportunities for specific managers or ideas for future training.
2 - Use Existing Data
Chances are, you already have valuable data at your fingertips. Has your organization conducted an employee engagement survey recently? Dig up those results and start looking for trends and recurring themes in the feedback around management! What has been said over the last few years? Are there specific areas where managers consistently receive lower scores?
3 - Hold a Manager Focus Group
Another great way to understand what your managers are struggling with is to hold a manager focus group. This allows for an open discussion where managers can share their experiences and challenges in a collaborative setting. Once managers start sharing ideas with each other, you might identify common issues and even come up with some creative solutions!
For more on how to effectively run a focus group, check out our podcast episode where we dive deep into the best practices and tips for gathering actionable insights from these sessions.
Understanding what your managers are struggling with is the foundation of any effective training program. By addressing their specific needs and challenges, you can create a program that truly makes a difference in their performance and, ultimately, in the success of your organization.
Wrapping Up
Whew! We went on quite a journey today. To recap, we covered the four considerations you must ponder before launching a management training program:
What makes a great manager? Where we identified the 10 attributes that make a great manager.
Do you managers know what they’re responsible for? Where we provided a manager expectations matrix to clarify the role of managers in your organization.
Are you allocating enough time for managers to manage their teams? Where we introduced the 10% rule that states “At least 10% of a manager’s time per direct report should be allocated to people management tasks, admin, preparation, and skills development.”
What are your managers struggling with most? Where we uncovered 3 options for gaining feedback from managers on the biggest areas they struggle and need help.
Now, armed with these four considerations, you have the knowledge to select, build and implement a manager training program to develop incredible managers in your company.
If you’re looking for an internal curriculum you could use to train every current and future manager within your organization, Want to Work There (yes, that’s us!) has your back. Training for the Modern Manager is an evergreen curriculum you purchase once and use in perpetuity.
Grounded in modern management best practices like coaching, delivering feedback, and intentional culture building, the 12-week program ensures your managers have the skills they need to succeed. Post-program resources, like the Feedback Planning Tool and Team Charter exercise, ensure your managers have the practical tools they need to handle real-life situations, as they come up.
Interested in learning more? Book a call to get a behind the scenes look at both the participant and administrator hubs and access to sample curriculum.
