Four Steps to Create Great Managers!
Are brilliant managers born, or are they made? With these four steps, your company can produce great managers!
Like a good employee, highly effective managers can theoretically arise from anywhere, even from the most unlikely places. All they need is the spirit and enthusiasm to respond to the challenge.
Of course, a helping hand from the company would not hurt.
In most companies, new managers have to fend for themselves. Often, senior management wants immediate results and expects new managers to understand the nitty-gritty of the workplace on their own. They hit the learning curve running, rarely given direction to be useful right off the bat.
Companies can certainly produce exceptional managers, simply by following these four steps:
Step One: The Selection Process
Hiring the next top manager starts with understanding what makes managers skilled. Analyze existing high-performing managers, and understand common factors in their success. Create an effective job description that benchmarks these success factors.
Feedback is essential to hiring the next top executive, especially from the managers and employees that are stakeholders in the new manager’s success—for example, direct subordinates and immediate supervisors. Only candidates that score well on those characteristics will proceed to the next step.
Step Two: “Community-Based” Onboarding
Hiring from outside the organization makes sure a new manager has all organizational resources available for success. Onboarding should clearly define critical systems and relevant information. Make onboarding a “community” event, where everyone has a role to play in making new managers feel welcome.
Step Three: Don’t Overwhelm With Training
Do not overload training new managers on the “front-end”, where all the lessons come at the beginning of the onboarding process. This can overwhelm new employees, and limit their success. For the first 90 days, focus new management training on the three most valuable qualities to your business.
For example, the first three months after hiring a new sales manager should emphasize:
- Leadership Development
- Corporate-Based Sales Training
- Recruitment
Use experts in each subject to develop the management-training curriculum, with a mix of classroom and e-learning.
Step Four: Goal Setting and Expectations
The easiest way to support a new manager is by providing clearly defined objectives. they must also understand the benefits and rewards of meeting these established goals.
Hiring will get you the raw material for a great manager, but with the right tools, details and expectations will ensure their success.
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