Need another reason to put management development off?
Just press the button. We've heard most of them before.
“We'd train our managers, but they're too busy dealing with all the problems caused by not training our managers.”
Funny because they're ridiculous.
Uncomfortable because they're familiar.
Most businesses don't deliberately decide:
“Let's promote people into management and then give them no real help learning how to manage.”
It just happens.
Someone is technically good at their job. They're dependable. They know the business. They get promoted.
Then they're expected to motivate people, delegate, give feedback, manage performance, handle conflict, coach employees, communicate change and have difficult conversations.
Often without ever being properly shown how.
Which one have you heard?
A few classics from the Management Development Hall of Fame.
“They're too busy.”
Usually busy managing the consequences of not having enough time to manage properly.
“They've been doing it for years.”
Length of service and management capability aren't necessarily the same thing.
“They're experienced.”
Experience can build great habits. It can also make poor ones extremely well practised.
“They're good with people.”
Which is useful — right up until somebody needs managing rather than simply getting along with.
“We don't have the budget.”
But somehow there's always budget for recruitment, mistakes, overtime, rework and replacing people who leave.
“We'll do it when things calm down.”
A beautiful sentence. Particularly in businesses where things haven't calmed down since 2019.
“They should know this already.”
Perhaps. But where exactly were they supposed to learn it?
“We'll deal with it if there's a problem.”
An excellent strategy, provided problems always introduce themselves before becoming expensive.
Here's the excuse we hear less often.
“We decided to develop our managers before the problems became expensive.”
That one isn't as funny.
But it tends to work rather better.
Ready to retire the excuses?
You don't necessarily need another training course. First, understand where your managers are strong, where they're struggling and what support would make the biggest difference.
