💙 The importance of upskilling your managers

#12. No matter your budget or expertise!

Author

Jill Felska
September 14, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Hello and Happy Thursday,

First off, a huge thank you and congrats for the hard work you’ve put into the last several weeks. Determining competencies, defining expectations, and designating time for excellent management at your workplace isn’t easy, but it’s some of the most impactful and rewarding work you can do to foster a phenomenal culture and experience.

I’m so proud of you 😊.

Remember, you’re not on your own here! Today, we’re bringing our four-part management series home by diving in on some learning resources that can empower you to empower your managers.

To not having to do it alone,

Jill

Reflect On This


 â“ What resources do you have available to help support and uplevel managers at your company or org? Think: time, expertise, cash, leadership support, etc.

❓ How confident do you feel in your ability to support manager development? Do you need additional support to make this a reality?

❓ What impact would empowered, upleveled, excellent management have on your organization? How does it feel to think about it?

Finding the tools you need 

Look around at the managers of today (the Modern Manager, if you will 😉), and you’ll see some stark differences compared to the best practices of 10 or 15 years ago.

Today’s employees expect coaching, leadership, psychological safety, career development and advocacy, and recognition. A manager who delivers all this looks different from the command-and-control style managers dominating office spaces from the 80s into the 2010s.     

This can be darn tricky for even the most dedicated employee to navigate. Imagine successfully executing throughout your first decade of work. You excitedly land your first management role, only to find that everything you’d learned about managing teams 10ish years ago is already outdated (counterproductive, even) in today’s workforce.

Beyond learning (and, in many cases, unlearning) to adapt to the ever-changing world of work, let’s not forget that management takes capacity and resourcing. It should be clear by now that great management deserves much more than a firm handshake and a “you’ll figure it out.” 

Your managers need training. World class management is a life-long aspiration - a skillset to be learned, developed, and finessed over time. World class managers need baseline and ongoing access to resources informed by experts who distill ever-evolving better practices into effective learning experiences.

I’ve asked a lot of you over the last few weeks in our quest to uplevel your people managers. You’ve distilled the right competencies for your culture. You’ve clarified expectations for leaders across your organization. Maybe you’ve even advocated for headcount or admin and ops support to free up your managers' time.

The reality now is that unless you’re a learning and development whiz, training your managers to be the best they can be probably isn’t your bag. That’s okay! You’ve done enough to enable great leadership at your workplace.

Today, I’m hooking you up with some of my favorite manager training resources, so you can start from the jump-off point that works best to empower you and your team.

Your Turn

This week, we’re doing something a little fun. Think back to the TigerBeat days of yesteryear, and get ready for a little quiz! Just pick the answer that most closely reflects your workplace, and we’ll let you know which of our favorite three learning and development resources could work best for you. 

1. What kind of facilitation chops does your organization have?

  • (A) We have an L&D team with strong experience in facilitation and training - we’re set.

  • (B) We have at least one team member with facilitation experience or someone eager to learn who could dedicate some time and energy.

  • (C) Our org doesn't have a single facilitation bone in its body.

2. Which statement most closely matches your company’s interest in bringing in outside support for personnel training?

  • (A) When it comes to People and Culture, we stick to internally driven programs and projects.

  • (B) We wouldn’t fully outsource something like this; a close partnership with outside support and expertise is the right balance for us.

  • (C) The more external support the better! We’d fully hand over end-to-end control of management training to outside experts.

3. How much time do you or your People org have on your hands to dedicate to this?

  • (A) Quite a bit, actually! This is a big time-blocked priority for us right now, and we can devote our focus if need be.

  • (B) Somewhere in the middle; we have some time to dedicate to this effort but certainly wouldn’t mind more.

  • (C) Time!? I don’t know her…

4.  Let’s talk cash. How much budget are you able to dedicate to management training?

  • (A) We’ve got some in-house skill and some time, but what we don’t got is money. Our budget is zero, nominal at best.

  • (B) I don’t know the exact figures, but I know our team would be willing and able to invest in the right solution!

  • (C) Cash isn’t an issue for us.

If you answered…

…mostly As: Check out Google re:Work!No budget? No problem! If you’re cash light but time or scrappiness heavy, this free management training resource is a good place to start. Google re:Work is available for non-commercial use by any organization, and you can customize downloadable resources to fit your needs and culture. 

  • Pros: It’s free, heavily research backed, and available for immediate use.

  • Cons: Every piece of content needs to be learned and delivered internally; you’ll need strong facilitation and training skills on staff. Nothing is pre-recorded, meaning this manual lift will need to happen for every training session.

…mostly Bs: Give our Training For the Modern Manager a peek!

Wish you had 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. 

  • Pros: Modern, interactive learning modules, a one-time flat cost, and multiple facilitation delivery options. Simple and quick implementation, making it easy to get your first training cohort up and running in less than a week.

  • Cons: The program requires ongoing internal facilitation and coaching support, as new managers go through the program. 

…Mostly Cs? Take a look at Campfire!If you need to outsource the time, energy, and program management in the name of expertise and convenience (and you have the budget to support that), Campfire coaching is a great option. With a focus on coaching and connection, Campfire facilitators lead each session, giving managers of any experience level a ton to learn and implement.

  • Pros: The lift on your organization’s responsibilities is minimal, as all sessions are led by professional facilitators. 

  • Cons: The per-person-per-month structure can be cost prohibitive.

Final Thoughts

Perhaps you’ve found the right jump-off point to train managers at your company, but if you haven’t, fret not! The world is full of creative thinkers, builders, facilitators, and leadership experts ready to help you uplevel the leadership and management experience at your workplace. Still feeling lost on where to look? Give me a shout - I’d love to help!

Things We're Loving Right Now

Mark your calendar: Resources for Humans, Lattice’s free virtual conference, is coming up on September 19th for US professionals (the 21st if you’re in EMEA). The speaker list is killer, and the price is tough to beat!

It takes a village: A Hamilton Project study shows mothers of children under age 5 leading the charge in narrowing the gender workplace participation gap, but the end of pandemic-era protections could stunt that progress. Not sure if you have the right support in place for young parents? You already know I love Superkin as a solution for small companies, and Cocoon offers modern leave management for teams with headcount up to 300 and beyond.

Show some love: Looking for a physical gift to recognize all the hard work your managers have been putting in? Loop & Tie offers choice-based gifting, which allows the recipient to select their preferred gift from a curated collection. We love that they prioritize partnerships with minority creators and small businesses. Plus, every gift shipped has a net positive carbon impact through our land restoration and regenerative agriculture initiatives. So cool!