This program is for small to medium size organisations who regularly promote team members, and typically have several people in any given year who would benefit from learning or improving their managerial skills.
It offers your group of managers leadership skills training that’s uniquely tailored to your organisation’s needs. This is supplemented by individual support – monthly coaching and consulting to help each person troubleshoot and best apply their skills.
- Training: each month covers a different independent topic around managerial skills, over the course of a 12 month annual cycle. This enables flexibility – individuals can join the programme at any point in the year, and leave it after they have completed the 12 months.
- Support: participants receive an hour every month of individual support; this can be used for coaching or consulting as they need. It could be used to practically consult and troubleshoot managerial problems they’re encountering; or it could be used to explore personal areas that are hindering their work using coaching questions.
Who is this for?
- SMEs who:
- Promote internally and want to develop managerial talent.
- Value practical skills over theoretical models or empty certifications
- At the senior management level, their:
- HR leads are looking for low-cost, high-impact leadership development.
- Operations leaders are seeking a stronger leadership pipeline with managers who can problem-solve effectively.
- Where a few of the prospective or incumbent managers are:
- Asking for management skills training
- Lacking in some management skills / room for improvement
- Likely to benefit from coaching – eg, for improved confidence, communication, leadership style etc
Managerial Skills Training
The sessions are usually 2h/month. The topics covered during the programme are usually tailored to the organization’s specific needs (eg, performance management or OKR process, etc), and can incorporate training on specific tools, processes or policies if needed.
A typical annual cycle of topics:
- Setting Goals & Performance Management
- Time Management & Prioritization
- Effective Communication & Active Listening
- Building & Leading a High-Performing Team
- Coaching & Developing Employees
- Handling Difficult Conversations & Conflict Resolution
- Decision-Making & Problem-Solving
- Emotional Intelligence & Self-Awareness
- Managing Change & Driving Innovation
- Stakeholder Management & Influence
- Leading with Vision & Strategy
- Business Acumen & Financial Literacy for Managers
Managerial Support
Each individual participant will also receive one hour of personal support per month.
The participant can choose how to use this time. It can be used for consulting – troubleshooting a specific problem, having an external pair of eyes to look into a topic, or discuss application of one of the training topics in their situation – e.g. dealing with difficult team members.
Or it can be used for coaching, to help them to bring their best to the new role, and change old behaviours that are no longer serving them. Often the practical ‘consulting’ problem turns into a ‘coaching’ session – e.g., digging into the roots of a people pleasing habit, or working through confidence issues.
Programme Co-Design
The programme is customised to the organisation’s needs using input from the HR lead – usually, 3 to 6 hours of discussions to:
- Understand the structure, processes and tools of the company
- What a ‘good manager’ means – and how this varies between teams
- Their perspective on what tailoring is needed – what topics need more focus, or less; whether some employees would benefit from additional coaching / support; etc
Ideally, the senior management team will also contribute to the design – identifying areas to focus more/less on; problem zones they’d like addressed, challenges they’ve seen new managers experience etc. This discussion in itself is usually a valuable one for the leadership team, as well as improving the tailoring of the programme. This is typically run as a 2h workshop in the month before the first training session.
Note that a ‘train the trainer’ option is available at extra cost – one of the HR team can support in tailoring and delivering the materials, with a view to them being able to deliver the training in future years.
Programme Pricing
For just £1800, each participant gets 36 hours of training and support. A year’s worth of training customised to the company – 24 hours in total – and also a full year of coaching (or consulting), 12 hours in total.
Billing is flexible – if one person leaves the company 4 months in, and a new one joins, they take the vacant ‘seat’ for the rest of the cycle, only paying for the 4 months they missed.
FAQs
What if someone misses a month’s training?
- If they miss a month, they can join the next year’s cycle for that topic.
What size are the groups?
- Between 5 and 9 participants per group.Multiple groups can run concurrently – so if you have 12 participants, two groups of six would run.
How much time does it take?
- The training session is 2 hours monthly; the support session is 1 hour monthly. Each participant needs just 3 hours a month available.
- Study time is optional – additional reading materials will be recommended, but not mandated.
- Training sessions usually end with attendees confirming how they will apply what they’ve learned over the next month – this
- The training is typically at the same slot every month. It might change if a new participant will be permanently unable to make that slot, or if a company high priority event clashes for everyone..
- The individual support sessions are flexible and set for a time that works for the participant. These can be rescheduled with 24h notice.
Is it in-person or remote?
- In-person is preferred for the training sessions; but it can be done remotely. A blended approach (some in person, some remote) is not recommended
- The support sessions are usually done remotely.
What happens if someone leaves the company part way through this programme?
- Their now vacant ‘seat’ can be taken by someone else
- That new person might have missed – for example – the first 3 months of the programme. So all that’s due for the new person is 3/12 (so 25%) of the cost per participant, and the new person will join the next year’s first three months as well as the current year’s nine months.
What is the termination policy?
- You can terminate the programme at any point. The delivery of the remaining training and coaching can be adapted or accelerated if needed.
Why This Programme?
This programme offers many advantages over other generic course providers:
- Tailored – highly relevant and adapted to your company’s specific needs
- Flexible – people can join at any point and start to benefit immediately; can be remote or in-person
- Time efficient – just 3h per person per month, delivering disproportionate benefits.
- Practical – the materials are applied to company problems, and the support sessions enable hands-on use of the materials
- Long term – short multi-day courses may be wonderful, but often the benefits disappear within a month. This programme deliberately ensures longer reach, checking in on how participants used previous materials, enabling them to continuously improve over a year.
- Reduce manager turnover – this long term training and personal support help reduce the stress for new managers who may be struggling silently
- Stronger, consistent, management culture- the cohort are usually a cross section who wouldn’t normally work together; these novel bonds create a high quality collaborative management culture.
- Improved collaboration and communication within the company – the cohort’s collaboration and communication are under intense review throughout; the halo effect of the improvement typically spreads widely.
- Big picture understanding – the cohort gain better understanding of the wider business context and other teams through their cross functional collaboration
- Usually helps solve company problems – the cohort will share challenges and unique perspectives; this often leads them to identify and fix company-wide issues.
- Cost efficient – executive coaching is usually hundreds per hour; most courses covering just one of these these topics would be a few hundred per person. The mixture of group training with individual coaching enables this efficiency.
- Deeper impact on soft skills / confidence – this is unique in offering individual coaching / consulting support in addition to the training. New managers’ challenges are often less around the practical skills, and more on the ‘soft’ skills side.
How it compares to other offerings:
| Feature | This Programme | Traditional Leadership Courses | One-off Workshops |
| Customised for your business | Yes | No | Sometimes |
| Flexibility in joining the cohort anytime during programme | Yes | No | N/A – one off event |
| Includes coaching & consulting | Yes | No | No |
| Cross-team bonding & collaboration | Yes | No | Yes |
| Time commitment | 3 hours / month | Often multi day | Typically 0.5 to 1 day |
| Cost-effectiveness | £1800 a year | £2,500+ typically | £500+ per day |
| Practical application to real work challenges | Yes | Slight | Slight |