Leadership development for capable managers who need to grow into the role
People are often promoted because they are capable, dependable and good at the work. Leadership brings a different challenge: exercising judgement, leading other people and taking responsibility for situations in which there is rarely a simple right answer.
I work with organisations that want supervisors and managers to develop greater confidence, self-awareness and practical leadership capability — without trying to turn them into somebody else.
When leadership capability has not caught up with responsibility
The signs are not always dramatic. Often the organisation has capable people doing a reasonable job, but some aspects of leadership are taking more effort than they should.
A supervisor may still be doing too much of the work himself or herself instead of leading through other people. A manager may avoid a difficult conversation, become frustrated with an employee, lack confidence with more senior colleagues, or escalate an issue that he or she ought increasingly to be able to handle.
Across a group, the symptoms can include inconsistent standards, poor delegation, difficult handovers, avoidable conflict, over-reliance on senior managers and considerable variation in how confidently people exercise leadership responsibility.
These are not necessarily signs of bad managers. Often they are signs that capable people have been given responsibility without enough opportunity to learn how to lead.
Leadership from the inside out
I approach leadership development from the inside out. Before somebody can lead other people well, he needs to understand something about himself — how he tends to respond, communicate, make judgements and behave under pressure.
Understand yourself
Participants begin by examining how they see themselves and how they may be experienced by other people. They explore their habitual responses, assumptions, emotions and communication patterns, and begin developing the habit of reflection rather than simply reacting to events.
Lead other people
From there, the focus moves outward: communication, confidence, delegation, feedback, difficult conversations, negotiation, meetings and the everyday situations in which leadership is actually exercised. The emphasis is not simply on knowing a technique, but on being able to use it appropriately with different people and in different circumstances.
Understand the organisation around you
Leadership does not take place in a vacuum. Participants also learn to look more carefully at the culture, relationships, structures and informal realities of the organisation in which they are working. The same action can be effective in one setting and counterproductive in another.
The aim is not to create a standardised “ideal manager”. It is to help each participant become a better version of himself or herself — more self-aware, more deliberate and better able to adapt to the people, culture and situation he or she is leading within.
A structured program with individual follow-through
The program combines a common leadership framework with individual application. The group sessions create a shared language and allow participants to learn from one another; the individual coaching gives each person space to work through his or her own leadership situations in confidence.
Before the program
I meet with the commissioning manager to understand why the organisation is investing in the program, what it is seeing, what it wants to change and any practical or cultural factors that should shape the work.
During the program
The core program is delivered in eight 90-minute group sessions, usually for a small cohort of supervisors or managers. The structure is consistent, but the discussion and examples respond to the people in the room and the situations they are actually dealing with.
After the group sessions
Each participant receives three individual application coaching sessions. These are used to translate the program into practice: working through current situations, rehearsing difficult conversations, testing approaches and reflecting on what is changing.
Reviewing the impact
About three months later, I meet with the commissioning manager to review what has changed, what is now working better and where further development may be useful.
The program is designed so that application is not left to chance once the training finishes.
Delivery options
The core program remains the same. What can change is the way it is delivered, depending on operational needs, location and how easily participants can be released from their work.
Intensive face-to-face
The eight 90-minute sessions can be delivered across two full training days, usually with four sessions each day. This works well when an organisation wants to establish a common foundation quickly and can release the group from normal duties.
Distributed online
The program can also be delivered as eight 90-minute sessions over Zoom or Microsoft Teams, typically at weekly or fortnightly intervals. This reduces operational disruption and gives participants time to observe, experiment and apply ideas between sessions.
Blended delivery
A blended format can combine face-to-face and online sessions. This can be useful when the organisation wants the relationship and context that come from meeting in person, while keeping travel and disruption manageable.
The format can flex. The core principles, individual follow-through and expected standard of the program do not.
Who the program is best suited to
The program is designed for capable supervisors and managers who already carry responsibility for other people but have had limited opportunity to develop the leadership side of their role.
Newly promoted supervisors and managers
People who were promoted because they were technically capable, reliable or experienced, but who are now discovering that leading other people requires a different set of judgements and skills.
Managers with uneven leadership confidence
People who are performing reasonably well overall but find particular situations difficult — perhaps delegation, difficult conversations, giving feedback, dealing with conflict, managing upwards or remaining composed under pressure.
Groups where the organisation wants a stronger common standard
Cohorts of supervisors or managers whose technical backgrounds and leadership experience vary, and where the organisation wants a stronger shared understanding of leadership, more consistent management practice and greater confidence in handling issues locally.
It is particularly useful where the organisation has good people it wants to retain and develop, rather than replace.
What this can look like in practice
Manufacturing supervisors under pressure
At a regional manufacturing site, supervisors and managers were dealing with poor handovers, friction between shifts and too many issues being escalated to head office. The leadership work helped participants understand one another’s roles and pressures more clearly, improve the way they handled problems locally and build greater trust across the group.
A dispersed supervisory team
In a national organisation, supervisors were working across different locations with widely varying levels of leadership experience. The program created a common foundation and gave participants practical ways to deal with delegation, difficult conversations, meetings, confidence and other everyday leadership challenges.
Young supervisors learning to lead through others
In a growing service business, capable young supervisors were still tending to do the work themselves rather than lead through other people. The development work focused on helping them make the transition from being good employees to taking responsibility for the output and performance of the people they supervised.
Examples are anonymised to protect client and participant confidentiality.
Discuss your situation
The circumstances differ, but the underlying challenge is often similar: responsibility has grown faster than the person’s opportunity to learn how to lead.
Mark Sutherland 