Leadership Training for Managers: 3 Steps to Build Yours

Leadership is a skill companies look for, but not every manager is born with a leader’s profile. The good news is that it can be developed, and leadership training for managers is one way to do it.

There is a difference between being a manager and being a leader. The manager plans, organizes and makes decisions. The leader, on top of that, guides people.

Whoever coordinates a team needs to know how to work with each professional to develop their potential.

To support that growth, read the Guide: everything a manager needs to become a successful leaderopens in a new tab (page in Portuguese).

Good training benefits the manager, the employees who work with them and the company’s performance. In this article, you see why to invest, which traits to develop and how to build leadership training in 3 steps.

Why train managers in leadership?

A leader transforms the work environment and makes the department more productive. In teams with weak leadership, goals get lost; with prepared leadership, people know where they are going.

A good leader inspires the team and engages it in the goals of the strategic planningopens in a new tab (page in Portuguese).

They also create a collaborative environment that encourages cooperation and avoids the competition that leads to toxic and unethical conduct.

The result is more motivation and job satisfaction, with a direct impact on people’s well-being. That is why training the people who lead is a decision companies should prioritize.

Traits to develop in a good leader

There are different types of leadership, but some traits show up in the best leaders. Here are five of them.

Being confident

Few things unsettle a team as much as an insecure leader. If the person guiding the team does not show confidence about the path, nobody trusts the decisions they make.

Trusting their own knowledge and skills allows the leader to project security and decide on topics that affect the company’s performance.

Communicating well

A team’s good dynamic starts with the leader’s communication. They need to pass on instructions, goals and objectives clearly, and also communicate their expectations, general and for each employee. That way everyone stays aligned and misunderstandings decrease.

Being reliable

The company and the employees need to know they can count on the leader.

On the company side, management needs to feel safe giving the leader freedom to create and decide, knowing they consider the interests of the business. Employees, in turn, need to trust that the leader will be present when they need support.

A good leader gives credit for work well done and takes responsibility when something does not deliver the expected result.

Knowing how to delegate

Centralizing tasks and decisions is a common problem in companies. On one side, it overloads the leader, who may lose performance. On the other, it wastes the potential of the employees.

With more autonomy, the team can come up with creative solutions to the company’s challenges. And decisions stop missing the right moment because the leader lacks time.

Being empathetic

Empathy allows the leader to see the situation from another perspective and develop each employee’s potential. People are different and respond to different stimuli. Understanding these differences helps the leader motivate and engage the team.

To understand the concept better, watch researcher Brené Brown talk about empathy (in English):

How to build the training in 3 steps

With the importance of training and the traits to develop defined, it is time to plan the program. Follow the steps below.

1. Survey the needs

Training works better when it has specific objectives. Without them, the approach becomes generic and adds nothing for participants. So start with an internal analysis of what needs to improve.

Run surveys with employees and with the managers themselves. The answers show which skills need more attention.

2. Plan the program

With the needs identified, plan the phases of the training. Leave space between one phase and the next to collect feedback from participants and use it to improve the following stage.

3. Define the format

Assess whether the training can be online or needs to be in person. A mixed format is also possible, with a small group on site and the others joining from home.

Also consider the length of each session, the location, participants’ travel and the infrastructure needed.

How to track leaders’ progress

Training is the starting point. What shows whether leadership has evolved is the follow-up afterward: what changed in the manager’s behavior, in the team’s delivery and in the area’s results.

Without a performance process, that follow-up depends on the memory of whoever evaluates and disappears between one cycle and the next. With a traceable process, each leader has evaluated competencies, recorded feedback, 1:1 conversations and a development plan with an owner and a deadline.

Stratws, from Siteware, brings these steps together in the performance and development management solution. The evaluation points to the leadership competency to develop, the individual development plan sets the action and the deadline, and the next cycle shows whether the leader advanced.

That way, the investment in training stops being an isolated event and gains a history, an owner and evidence of results.