We've promoted 6 individual contributors to management roles in the last year and none of them got formal training. Some are thriving, some are struggling. I need a structured development program that covers the fundamentals -feedback, 1:1s, delegation, conflict, performance reviews -and gives them a cohort to learn with.
Plan for: Create a Leadership Development Program for First-Time Managers
Building content internally can become a massive time sink, delaying the program launch.
Timebox content creation. Rely heavily on curating existing free resources (HBR articles, YouTube videos) rather than creating custom slides from scratch.
Managers may skip live sessions due to urgent day-to-day operational fires.
Secure executive sponsorship. Have senior leaders explicitly tell these managers that attending this training is their top priority during those hours.
Participants may not complete the asynchronous pre-work, leading to flat live discussions.
Keep async work to under 30 minutes per module. Start live sessions by asking someone to summarize the pre-work to build accountability.
Ready to make this plan yours?