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No one intentionally sets out to be a bad manager. And yet it’s all too common for workers to feel like their manager is negatively impacting their work experience. In fact, nearly a quarter of employees say they’re currently working for their “worst boss ever.”
Part of the problem is the “accidental manager” scenario, when someone who excels as an individual contributor gets promoted without receiving any sort of guidance about how to manage other people. It’s much more common than you might think—82% of managers have been promoted without receiving adequate training.
That’s where management leadership training comes in. Leadership and management training programs can equip new managers with the tools and knowledge they need to lead their teams, build a positive work environment, and help your company succeed.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at management training programs and help you better understand what it takes to create one.
🚀Want to skyrocket your management training program to success? Make mentorship a central component to ensure training is personalized and meaningful for participants. Get step-by-step guidance in our Leadership Development Mentorship Programs ebook.
What are management training programs?
Management training programs are a specific type of training that helps managers develop the skills they need to be effective leaders and drive better performance on their teams.
The specifics can vary depending on the company, but here are a few common types of management training programs:
- New manager training that provides the foundational skills managers need to effectively manage other people
- Specific skill training that helps develop managers’ ability to give feedback, understand emotional intelligence (EQ), or handle conflict in the workplace, among other essential new manager skills
- Sales leadership training programs (or other department-specific programs) help develop the skills that lead to success in that functional area of the business
- Introduction to tools or frameworks such as a company’s approach to interviewing candidates or conducting performance reviews
- Workforce management training that teaches managers how to optimize team scheduling, resource allocation, and productivity
Some of the most common reasons for investing in management training include:
- Preparing managers to handle the challenges of their roles
- Reducing staff turnover
- Promoting a culture of continuous learning and development
- Increasing employee satisfaction, team performance, and overall organizational growth
- Building a pipeline of future leaders (also referred to as “leadership succession planning”)
The ROI on management training is compelling: Research shows that companies running first-time managers through leadership development programs can achieve a 415% annualized ROI, with other studies showing returns of $7 for every $1 invested in leadership training.
Often, management training programs will consist of several methods, including:
- Classroom instruction: Structured learning environments where new managers are taught theoretical concepts, best practices, and management principles.
- On-the-job training: Practical, hands-on experience where new managers apply what they've learned in real-world scenarios under supervision.
- Mentorship: Guidance and support from more experienced managers who provide insights, feedback, and advice based on their own experiences.
When it comes to mentorship specifically, a leadership development mentorship program matches emerging leaders with experienced mentors to accelerate leadership skill development through relationship-based learning. Effective leadership mentorship programs are strategic and structured—they offer much more than the occasional conversation over coffee.
Core components of effective management training programs
When it comes to developing your management training program, there’s no single model you have to follow. But there are several core components that effective leadership training programs tend to have in common. Let’s take a closer look.
Skills development
The skills that make someone an effective manager are rarely the same as the skills that helped them excel as an individual contributor. This is why most effective management training programs are designed to develop leaders’ specific management skills. This can include written and verbal communication, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and decision-making, to name a few.
Mentorship
With mentorship, instead of learning about leadership in isolation, emerging leaders experience it firsthand. They see how their mentor handles difficult conversations, makes strategic decisions, and navigates organizational politics. Research from Harvard Business Review found that 54% of respondents rated mentoring as very or extremely effective compared to just 35% for traditional skills training. The reason? With mentoring, learning becomes personal, practical, and immediately applicable.
Practical application
Some leadership training will include a practical application component, where participants get the chance to put their newfound knowledge into practice. This can include real-life learning opportunities or assignments—imagine someone who’s working on public speaking being asked to give a brief update at the next company all hands meeting, for example. There might also be role-playing and simulations where participants can practice their skills with other leadership program participants or mentors.
Feedback and assessment
One of the most important components of an effective leadership development program is feedback and assessment. Whether it’s through check-ins or performance reviews from the program leaders or open conversations with their mentors, participants need opportunities to hear how they’re progressing and know where they might need to focus more of their attention in the future.
How to build a management training program: A step-by-step guide
What does it take to actually build a management training program? Here’s a step-by-step guide to get your program up and running.
Step 1: Define your leadership development goals
The first step is to define exactly what you’re hoping to achieve from this program—your leadership development goals. This might sound obvious, but you'd be surprised how many programs launch with vague goals like "develop better leaders" or “improve succession planning."
One useful goal-setting framework is SMART-ER. Here’s how it works:
Specific – Target particular leadership competencies
Measurable – Include quantifiable outcomes
Achievable – Set realistic expectations
Relevant – Align with business objectives
Time-bound – Establish clear timelines
Evaluated – Build in assessment checkpoints
Readjusted – Allow for program evolution
And to drill down a bit further, here’s how you might define a SMART-ER goal for your management training program: "Increase internal promotions to senior management roles by 30% within 18 months by developing strategic thinking and team management skills in high-potential employees through structured mentorship relationships in our training program."
Step 2: Identify your participants
Depending on the size of your company and the bandwidth of your training team, you might invite all new managers (those who have been in their role for less than one year, for example) to participate. Or if your company is larger, you may need to segment further based on criteria like tenure at your company or previous professional experience.
If you’re looking to add a mentorship element to your management training (which we strongly suggest you do!) you will also want to think about how you’ll identify mentors and mentees. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind.
When selecting mentors, look for:
- Proven track record of developing others
- Emotional intelligence and communication skills
- Time availability and genuine interest in development
- Diverse perspectives that reflect your organization’s values
- Willingness to receive training on effective mentoring
Again, depending on the size of your company, all management training program participants might automatically be eligible to participate as mentees. But we also have some tips to help you narrow down the pool of mentees if necessary.
When selecting mentees, look for:
- High potential employees ready for advancement
- Growth mindset and openness to feedback
- Clear career aspirations aligned with organizational needs
- Commitment to the program requirements
- Diverse representation across functions, levels, and backgrounds
Step 3: Design your program structure
When it comes to your program structure, there are several decisions to make. You’ll want to think about what percentage of time you’d like participants to spend on classroom instruction (or engaging with instructional materials like videos and articles), doing practical activities like projects and assignments, and meeting with their mentors.
You’ll also want to consider the program length and meeting cadence—what will provide the right amount of support to participants without overwhelming your leaders and mentors?
Another aspect of program structure includes building in milestones like kick-off sessions, networking events, and celebrations so that participants have the chance to mingle with each other outside of everyday work and classroom settings. If you have a mentorship aspect of your program, you may also want to offer similar opportunities for mentors and mentees to gather informally.
If your management training program has a mentorship element, you’ll need to decide how to match mentors and mentees. The most effective mentorship programs can create truly transformational experiences, and they often achieve this with an intentional approach to matching. You can choose different dimensions such as functional alignment, personality, development goals, or career stage.
By the way, this is not something you need to do all by yourself. Together uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze dozens of data points and create optimal matches, significantly improving relationship success rates compared to manual matching.
Step 4: Provide structure and resources
The key to a successful management training program is to find the balance between structure and flexibility. If it feels too rigid, participants may feel it’s not relevant to their specific situation, but if there’s no structure at all, they may not get much value out of it.
One way to find this balance is to provide templates and resources, especially for mentors and mentees to use together. These can include things like conversation guides, monthly check-in templates, goal-setting worksheets, and case study discussion guides.
Step 5: Launch and support
You’ve got the key components for your management training program—now it’s time to put them all together and get started!
Before you roll out the program to everyone, though, you might want to try a soft launch. This way, you can pilot the program with a smaller group of participants and identify any issues that need to be ironed out.
Once your program is running, continue to provide ongoing support. Your goal should be to provide regular touchpoints without being intrusive. For example, you might collect feedback from participants through quarterly pulse surveys. This will help you identify what’s working well and what might need to be changed for future cohorts.
Best practices for management training programs
Looking for a little inspiration for your management training program? Here are a few leadership development program examples:
- Marriott has two programs. The Voyage Leadership Development Program is designed for recent university graduates, while the Marriott Development Academy is intended for aspiring managers who want to take on leadership roles.
- Procter & Gamble's leadership programs include the Ignite Training Program and the P&G Leadership Academy. They use a mix of experience-based learning; colleagues, mentors, and peers; and structured courses to develop and upskill workers.
- Wells Fargo has built a Practice Management & Leadership Development Program. This program provides group learning and coaching programs to help workers improve their personal skills, modernize their practices, and gain new clients.
- NASA offers career counseling and coaching services to help employees grow their knowledge and skills. As NASA fills many of its openings, it looks internally first. When employees take part in coaching at the agency, they increase their chances of taking on new and exciting roles.
Here are a few additional tips to keep in mind when developing your management training program:
Get executives involved
The best training programs have sponsors who don't just endorse—they participate. True sponsorship includes:
- Executives serving as mentors
- Regular communication about program importance
- Adequate resource allocation
- Integration with performance reviews and promotion decisions
Make mentorship a central component
As we’ve mentioned, adding a mentorship element to your leadership training helps make learning feel personal and provides more opportunities for participants to put theory into practice. And mentorship works best when it feels like a natural part of how your organization operates, not another HR initiative to manage.
You can make mentorship foundational—not just to your leadership training, but to your company culture—by incorporating mentoring goals into individual development plans, explicitly including "develops others" as a leadership expectation, and making mentoring participation visible in promotion criteria.
Be intentional with how you use technology
Software alone doesn't create great management training. But the right technology can absolutely support and enhance any training you offer. For example, a learning management system (LMS) can store all your educational materials and make them accessible to program participants at any time or place. An employee engagement survey can allow you to regularly check in with program participants and analyze the data to identify areas for improvement. And a mentorship platform like Together can manage mentor mentee matching and communication while also providing resources to make the most out of these relationships.
Common challenges and how to overcome them
Let’s be honest—no matter how much thought and planning you put into your management training program ahead of time, you’re likely to encounter some roadblocks along the way. Here are a few of the most common challenges you’re likely to face.
Pitfall #1: The “set it and forget it” mentality
Don’t simply launch your training program and assume that it will manage itself. Make sure you’ve put processes in place to identify issues early and make adjustments based on what’s not working.
Pitfall #2: Unclear expectations and goals
Having vague objectives for your training will lead to vague outcomes. If you set a goal like “develop better leaders,” is there a clear way of measuring if you’ve achieved it? Nope. That’s why it’s so important to use a framework like SMARTER to set goals for your program—and teach participants to do the same.
Pitfall #3: Inadequate mentor training
While mentorship is often a key component of successful management training programs, you shouldn’t assume that being a good leader automatically makes someone a good mentor. Make sure you offer training for mentors so they can develop their ability to coach effectively, deliver feedback, and develop any other skills that will enhance their mentorship.
Pitfall #4: Diversity & inclusion oversights
If you’re not careful, management training programs can inadvertently perpetuate existing inequalities. Make sure you’re evening out the playing field by conducting regular analysis of outcomes by demographic groups, providing cultural competence training for all participants, and actively recruiting diverse pools of program participants and mentors.
Taking your next step toward better management training programs
We’ve all seen the power of a manager to make or break our experience and sour our attitude toward work—that’s why 50% of employees with ineffective managers plan to leave within the next year.
But there’s a positive message behind that statistic: Most of those ineffective or “nightmare” managers can quickly turn things around with just a little extra training and support in the form of a management training program. And you can strengthen your odds even more by adding mentorship that matches less experienced managers with more experienced leaders who can offer targeted feedback and support.
It’s time to make accidental managers a thing of the past!
Ready to take the first step toward offering better management training, especially when it comes to mentorship? Download our Leadership Development Mentorship Programs ebook for practical guidance on how to transform emerging talent into confident, high-performing leaders.
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