It’s natural for organisations to have various tiers of leadership with their own authorities, responsibilities, accountabilities and operational challenges.
This creates a range of management and leadership learning needs within and across tiers. It can’t be expected that there is a ‘broad brush’ of leadership development which can be used to ‘paint’ new knowledge, skills and behaviours across all managers at once.
Well designed programmes create a consistent approach to management across the organisation and extend a ‘golden thread’ between the learning content and the strategic/business objectives of the organisation.
Some organisations shy away from tiered leadership development programmes because they can appear to be a daunting prospect. But, if you want the behaviour changes and skill development to be context sensitive and genuinely impactful, they are definitely worth exploring and pursuing.
Whilst the specific requirements of your managers will depend on their unique context, there are patterns for successful leadership development programmes that we have learned across our 20+ years of experience delivering them.
The below may not exactly map to your workforce tiers, but are presented here as insight and food for thought for in exploration of what may be required:
Senior Leaders
We recognise that time for senior leaders is highly valuable and protected. Often, learning and development might be the only time that a team working at this level has specifically set-aside to focus on their personal development.
Development at this level of leader suits more of a facilitated and tailored approach. A typical support strategy may include psychometrics, one-to-one coaching and the design and delivery of a series of development interventions aligned to specific leadership requirements, e.g. strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, coaching style of management etc.
In our experience, a highly facilitative style of delivery is the most effective for these leaders. The role of the trainer is not to teach but to aid and provoke thought, reflection, and planning. The trainer creates the environment in which the leaders are asked to consider corporate or operational challenges, via a new lens or from a new perspective.
Mid-Level Managers
This layer of management is often the bridge between the strategic and the operational. As such, they are concerned with translating strategic objectives into performance objectives. We know that these leaders have a key role in setting the tempo and culture of the organisation.
At this level, managers have often progressed from an operational start and there can be temptations to be drawn back into operational areas. This level of multi-skilling can be desirable, but should not create a gap between those tasked with taking a strategic lead and those who have an operational focus.
These managers must be supported with the skills to bridge that gap by thinking strategically and leading efficient operations. It is a key role for this group to enable the organisation to respond positively to change and to challenge the status quo by incubating innovation.
First-Level Managers
The first steps into management can be at first daunting, then exhilarating, challenging and inspiring. Individuals need support to gain confidence, technical people management skills and a management mindset that is both their own and operationally effective.
This group need to develop their own style of management that is effective, rather than inherited or comfortable; they need to begin to learn how to manage people that – put simply – are not them, and they need to understand the basics of achieving through others and how that can be achieved.
Eliesha has many years’ experience of designing and delivering impactful tiered leadership development programmes. We take care to understand organisational context and desired performance outcomes before tailoring learning for each level of leadership that will meet their needs and help them to address their unique challenges.
To find out more or enquire about a tiered leadership development programme to suit your organisation, click here to visit the Talk to Us page and get in touch.
