Is your business supporting managers to deliver on your strategy?

Important topic highlighted in this Times Raconteur piece, around the apparent problem of a lack of training for those promoted into managerial positions. 

As the quote below shows, a high proportion of people promoted into management positions aren't supported by training to help them perform in these positions. It is all well and good appointing your managers but if they are not equipped with the right toolset, then they may struggle to deliver what you need them to.

Successful, operationally excellent organisations look to build leadership culture at all levels in their organisation.

Of course, formal training isn't cheap and in our client base, startups and scaleups, it may simply be impossible to budget for this - instead your leadership should provide innovative internal training and coaching workshops to guide those in management layers. We've also seen several of our clients offer annual allowances for employees to spend on training and development resources of their choice. 

Another trend we see with startups is employees being pushed into the managerial roles because they're the most experienced and they're high performing, but in reality there are limited alternative options too. I'm a big advocate for giving your internal staff first opportunities to step into management before hiring externally, but not if these individuals aren't equipped for the role and it's detrimental to your business. 

It opens up a wider issue when it comes to progression. Everyone should be given opportunities to grow and take on new challenges within a company, but there should be different pathways on offer. Management is often seen as the barometer for successful progression in a company, when in reality not every high performer is suited for such a path. Strong performance in an independent contributor role doesn't necessarily equate to being a good manager. Jim Collins famous “get the right people on the bus” quote comes to mind. 

Instead they could be given opportunity to progress with alternative new challenges. For example in our recruitment setting it could be greater responsibility for processes and systems (not people), a broader geographical territory, or expansion of their focus sector. 

As a business leader, you should promote a healthy company-wide culture of regular one-to-one reviews and personal development meetings, to understand your employees' career plans and help map out clear opportunities for each individual. Don't always assume that the people you see as future leaders of teams will see the same path for themselves. You should work hard on creative attractive alternative pathways for those high performers who don't have this managerial desire, otherwise you may stifle them and they won't stick around. 

Think of your business, do you do enough to help mentor and train your managers?  Do you offer multiple career pathways for your employees? If not, then you're risking big impacts on your business and potential for high churn rate in your teams.

Hyperion supports cleantech startups and scaleups to hire at senior and executive leadership levels. We often focus on people-orientated C-level executives who can help nurture and mentor our clients' existing teams and create that healthy leadership culture as mentioned above.

Looking to build your senior and executive team, get in touch at david.beeston@hyperionsearch.com