What is Management Development: Benefits and Challenges

Effective managers — those who work between executive and entry- or mid-level employees — guide their teams to reach the company’s goals. But, how can you improve your managers' skills? Promoting people from within or hiring externally without further training can lead to some issues. But implementing a management development program could solve your problems.

Managers must have certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) to achieve organizational success and engage employees. And even when professional development is encouraged at all levels, management development (or the lack of it) significantly impacts business goals.

So why not make it an ongoing process? Leading your people to get the job done, done right, and done efficiently requires more than becoming proficient at essential business acumen. Achieving strategic goals needs an engaged and motivated team and a healthy culture that helps everyone thrive.

A management development program is a powerful tool for developing leaders in your business. Let’s start by understanding what management development is, then move to the benefits and challenges, and, finally, what these programs should cover.

What is Management Development?

It's a systematic process of developing leaders and creating effective managers, so they can translate business objectives into actions to successfully achieve those goals. There are as many techniques as management styles, and the organization's approach will rely on the managers' existing KSAs. But what are the areas they should be competent in? Reading people's behaviors, verbal and nonverbal communication, and conflict management are some key areas management development can help upskill.

Why is Management Development Important?

Investing in leadership development is one of the best ways to improve your existing workforce and grow your business. And if you do it from within the organization, that will have extra benefits. Employees who work at companies with professional development programs stay twice as long as those who work at companies with no such programs.

LinkedIn's 2021 Workplace Learning Report states that "51% of learning and development (L&D) professionals agree that internal mobility has become a priority since the pandemic," and leadership and management is one of the three top areas they're focusing on.

Although managers can use tools and follow methods and theories on their own, a training program facilitated by L&D professionals will target specific KSAs to develop. A structured approach will allow managers to:

• Positively impact employee performance and morale
• Motivate employees 
• Improve retention rate
• Avoid costs of firing and rehiring
• Act as translators between levels and groups of employees
  

Benefits of Implementing a Management Development Program

Effective communication

Effective communication is key to connecting with your team, other coworkers at the same organizational level, and your superiors. Managing up, down, and sideways is a critical skill to develop, and it all starts with communication. That’s especially relevant to building meaningful relationships and empathizing with your team, so you know what they need to succeed and when they need extra motivation to do their jobs.

Human capital

Training and educating your workforce is one of the best ways to increase your organization's human capital. Management development helps you close gaps in knowledge and experience and help your best employees achieve their full potential.

Culture of innovation

Whether you’re in a saturated market or not, innovation is a competitive advantage. And when employees have been through various experiences, they will be able to bring innovation. And that’s what management development does for your people: provides new experiences and creates a new perspective.

A culture of innovation can:

• Help your business cut costs
• Improve productivity and efficiency
• Develop new features for products and services that competitors don’t have

Employee retention

Work Institute 2020 Retention Report states that 37.9% of employees leave their job after less than a year and turnover costs about 30% of an employee’s annual salary to your business. What is the best way to improve employee retention rates?

As we mentioned, hiring from within is one way to do it. But that may be pointless if you don’t include a management development program in the process. In the long run, that investment will pay off when your best managers stick around and save the company the cost of hiring and training new managers.

Succession plan

Planning for the succession of key management positions is a good idea. People retire, get promoted, or leave the company, so what’s better than to have someone ready to fill the position? All you need to do is keep an eye on those team members with high potential to lead and gradually train them, so they’re prepared when the time comes.

Common Challenges in Management Development

Resistance to change is natural. Promising managers recognize their own deficiencies and find ways to improve through training. But others might find it hard to admit their weaknesses and question the benefits of management development. Here are some of the common challenges L&D professionals have identified:

• Making the switch between an individual contributor position and a manager role is not a piece of cake. Sadly, many companies don’t provide development programs for new managers or continuous training for those existing managers.

 

• When new managers are promoted from within, they may hesitate to enforce some policies or to demand results in an attempt to keep relationships with former coworkers or subordinates.
  

 

• Arrogance is equally problematic. Having the knowledge is not enough to become a good manager. Other skills need to be nurtured to make it to a leadership position. An abusive manager will scare away your best employees.

 

• Most of the time, existing managers train new additions to the team, but an effective manager and an educator are not the same thing.

What a Management Development Program Should Cover?

Knowledge and skills are the main categories management development programs should cover. They are designed according to your organization's structure, industry, and needs to close specific gaps.

Knowledge

• Company business model
• Company structure
• Company scope
• Internal policies and codes
• Labor laws
• Management theories

Skills

• Scheduling
• Managing individual performance
• Hiring, interviewing, and termination
• Conflict management
• Team motivation
• Communication
• Decision making
• Coaching
• Feedback
• Goal Setting
  
• Building Trust

Some become managers when promoted from an individual contributor role. Some come from another organization with some management experience. But whatever took them to that position will not guarantee a successful performance as a manager. Management development is more than a benefit; it’s an investment to grow your business.