Throughout the pandemic, we’ve all had to navigate tremendous changes in both our home and working lives but managers also had the added pressure of having to support others through change as though they’d been there before. Which of course they hadn’t!
Apart from a few outliers, most managers had very little or no experience of leading hybrid teams, working and communicating remotely, dealing with a deluge of wellbeing issues, or managing mass furlough and exit programmes.
Not only did they lack those experiences to fall back on but the majority had received very little or no training.
So could it be that we’re expecting too much from managers?
Typically, when highly-skilled employees are promoted into management positions, they take on new management responsibilities on top of what they already do, without ever really learning how to be a manager.
In the absence of training, even managers with a lot of time-served under their belts haven’t had the opportunity to develop the skills they need to really get the most from their teams.
With that in mind, it’s incredible to reflect upon what’s been expected of our manager population during the chaos and catastrophe of the pandemic, and how many must be feeling now about their employers and their futures.
But does management training really make a difference?
As the pandemic unfolded, a large government trial was underway to investigate how embedding Operational Coaching® as a leadership style would drive productivity, using the fully blended and multi-award-winning STAR® Manager programme as a way to change management behaviour in less than six months.
The trial, which was independently evaluated by the London School of Economics (LSE), involved managers from 62 organisations across 14 sectors which were split into two groups: an Intervention Group which had access to the STAR® Manager programme and a Control Group who did not.
Rather than flailing during the pandemic, the organisations that had undertaken the STAR® Manager programme saw positive benefits that totalled almost £19m which equates to a 74 x learner Return on Investment (ROI) compared to the Control Group. Results included: Increases in skill levels in 9-management-related competencies, higher recruitment of staff, higher employee retention (an indication of improved engagement), reduced number of managers and increased gross asset value.
The benefits of the STAR® Manager training for the Intervention Group were significant, with over 75% of learners having made positive changes to their management style despite the backdrop of the pandemic.
So isn’t it time to stop leaving managers to fend for themselves?
With results like these, managers should be given the skills they need to engage more effectively with their teams and thrive no matter what circumstances they face.
That’s why the fully blended STAR® programmes offer such a fantastic solution for the modern workplace, because unlike traditional management training programmes, STAR® fits perfectly into everyday operational life wherever and whenever it’s happening.
Described as “not only equal to but better than a live learning programme”, STAR® programmes are completed in real-time without any downtime, they’re quick and easy to implement, scalable to thousands of learners, buildable, flexible and bespoke to the individual manager’s needs whilst also being capable of cultivating a cultural shift in management behaviour from a telling approach to an Operational Coaching® approach which has been academically proven to get sustainable results in terms of engagement, performance, productivity and generous learner ROI.
Investing in your managers when the solutions are this easy AND you can guarantee a significant ROI is not just the right decision, it’s the best decision you can make for the benefit of your organisation.
Get in touch for more information about how you can give your managers the support they need.
