I remember quite vividly my first days as a manager, no sign of management development, promoted because I was good at my job, and under the assumption that I would be good at getting other people to do my job too. I was embraced by the Halo effect long before I’d heard of American psychologist Edward L Thorndike or his research.
Thorndike’s research back in 1920 suggested that if someone thinks we are good at one thing, they will tend to think that we will be good at other things too. The danger of this assumption is that it may put someone into a situation that they are ill prepared for, or lack the skills and knowledge required for success. I was lucky; someone saw me struggling and started my management development before any real harm was done.
If you were going to sow seeds in your garden you would till the soil, and prepare the ground before sowing the seeds. Developing staff into management is not so very different.
If you leave management development until the person is in the role you might be lucky but chances are you won’t. Rightly or wrongly the new manger will adopt their own style of management; great if there are some good role-models in the organisation and the adopted style is effective, but difficult and costly to change later down the line, if the style turns out to be ineffective or even inappropriate.
The new manager may feel abandoned and unsupported, leading to stress and deterioration in performance – ultimately they may leave your business. Also, an inappropriate style of management may start to damage team morale and sow the seeds of greater problems for the team in the future.
Ring any bells? If so, it might be time to start talking to your team (or your boss) about management development.
Finally, in response to my question, “Management development – where do you start?”, I’d have to say, now! Management development should begin before people are promoted into position, so that they can start to understand the tools of management and test them out as soon as they enter the role.
By John Freshney | Righttrack’s Head of Design and Development