By Wendy Dean, Group CEO Strategi Solutions and Strategi Global
Having worked as an Exec leader and board member for more than 20 years across global companies of varying sizes, I’ve seen first-hand the journeys businesses go on to achieve growth. Those journeys are rarely smooth, and the way businesses manage people through change varies hugely.
People are the differentiator for any business. They are the greatest asset a company has. Yet all too often, businesses fail to invest in their people to get the best from them. Staff are promoted because they do a good job into management positions, without receiving any formal management training, and are still expected to succeed.
At Strategi Solutions, we are seeing an increase in businesses enquiring about management training programmes. However, many businesses are still not taking management training seriously enough.
In my opinion, as an HR professional by trade, promoting staff into management positions without supporting them with the right training and guidance is unacceptable. It’s not doing right by your people and it sets them up to fail. In some European countries, employment law doesn’t allow businesses to employ managers without appropriate management qualifications.
From our experience at Strategi, effective management training should be grounded in practical workplace scenarios so delegates can take a working plan back into their role. It should focus on people-centred and situational leadership techniques, allowing managers to provide the right level of support, coaching or delegation at the right time.
The cost of not training, is high. Managers can feel unsupported and stressed, become disruptive or leave altogether. This creates costs for the business in recruitment, onboarding, training and maintaining team culture. Investment in training and retaining staff does not seem high compared to the cost of replacement.
By investing in management training, businesses benefit from stronger communication, improved collaboration and better working relationships across the organisation. Employees feel more included, supported and confident enough to contribute ideas and challenge constructively.
Practical skills like these benefit everyone, from first-time supervisors through to experienced managers looking to strengthen their approach.
The question is – are you taking management training seriously, and doing right by the staff in your organisation?
