Erica Nelson - Management Development Training: ATD Workshop Series

Whats in This Chapter

Objectives of the two-day and three-day management development training workshop

Overview chart of content and activities

Two-day and three-day program agenda

Good managers are the center of their team. Great managers are the heart of their team. Assuming a management role is a conscious decision to accept one of the most challenging positions in an organization. Yet, effective managers have an opportunity to make a direct and positive impact on the professional lives of each member of their team. Frontline managers are at the very first level of management of other employees (people managers) across a companys business operations and functions. Managers are important to the overall health of an organization because their behavior often sets the tone for their teams. Travis Bradberry, co-founder and president of TalentSmart, explains that those in leadership positions often feel that they are no longer held to the same standard of treating people well and responding to peoples needs. They feel like thats no longer required of them. When in reality its actually more of a requirement, because they are priming the emotional state of not only people who directly report to them but everyone that it trickles down to (ATD 2016).

Management development training is a central function for an organization to provide the skills necessary for developing managers and all their employees. So why is manager training so important?

Data collected in a 2016 ATD study of 847 talent development professionals found that nearly a third of the respondents believed their organization did not reward frontline managers in any way for successfully developing their direct reports. Other key findings from the study included:

46 percent of respondents indicated their organization identified the specific skills related to managerial success in developing direct reports.

56 percent reported that their organization measured managers success in developing their direct reports by looking at the performance of their direct reports based on business metrics.

29 percent indicated that their organization rewarded and recognized managers who exhibit accountability skills.

These findings were detailed in the ATD research report Skills That Make a Winning Manager (2016), which set out to examine the development of five specific skillsaccountability, collaboration, communication, engagement, and listening and assessingthat are crucial to managerial success. These five key skills comprise the ACCEL Model, ATDs framework for helping new and experienced managers develop the skills they need to be successful in their roles. Lets look closer at each element:

Accountability. With things moving at such a fast pace, were solving new problems every day and working more collaboratively than ever. Accountability holds a team together. When we can rely on each member of our team to be as committed to success as we are, that builds trust. The managers role is to foster that culture of mutual accountability.

Collaboration. No single individual can do all the things that are necessary to move business initiatives forward. Collaboration is at the core of the work we do. For managers, the goal is to both facilitate collaboration and identify barriers that may be preventing it.