It's often said that effective managers can make or break a company. Managers serve as the go-between for general employees and higher-ranking executives, putting the latter's policies into action by directing the former. By far, the most effective way to get the best managers is to help them grow through a process known as management development, which involves targeting and improving their skills to improve the organisation's overall productivity.
Whilst setting development goals for managers is inherently individualistic, there are some goals every manager, regardless of experience, skills or industry, should have.
In this article, we will cover:
- What a manager development plan is
- Why set professional development goals for managers
- The ten key manager development goals
- How to create effective manager development plans
- How UTS can help with that
What is a manager development plan?
A manager development plan is a step-by-step approach companies can take to enhance their managers' and key employees' pre-existing skills or teach new ones to develop them into more efficient leaders. A professional development plan typically considers not only the skills individual leaders need but other vital aspects, such as financing and the timeframe to get this done, putting everything in one easy-to-reach place.
They typically begin with some form of organisational assessment:
- What are their goals for the future?
- What skills will they need to achieve this?
- Which of these skills need improving significantly?
They then look at each manager in the context of their entire team, setting clear professional development goals for each and outlining the steps the company and those managers need to take to get there. They also assign the necessary budget and timeframe for each.
Why management should be setting professional development goals
It's often said that the best remain the best by striving to improve continually. This applies to leaders more than most, no matter how good they think they are or how many years of experience they have.
Aside from personal development, every manager should set development goals because they directly affect their organisation. Better managers make for happier, more productive and all-around better employees, who ultimately help their department reach their professional development goals and allow the company to exceed its business targets, whatever those may be. Similarly, happier employees aid in employee retention, saving your company as much as AUD 20,000 per employee annually.
10 professional development goals you should have
Although every manager is different, each should strive to be better. The ten best professional development goals every manager, regardless of industry, should have are:
1. Learn to delegate
Some leaders tend to micromanage everything their team does. This distracts managers from the big picture and can affect their team's performance, whilst an overbearing manager reduces employee motivation.
Instead, managers should break their teams into smaller groups, appointing a sub-manager to oversee each group. This allows for effective oversight of each group without distracting the manager or negatively impacting employee motivation.
2. Learn to motivate each team member
It's no secret that poorly motivated teams have poor productivity. Every manager's job is to ensure that their teams are adequately motivated. Many managers motivate their teams by applying pressure. This increases employee stress, leading to burnout and low employee retention.
Instead, managers should aim to motivate their teams using emotional intelligence. Managers should strive to forge genuine personal relationships with every team member, showing that they care about them and are interested in their success on and off the clock.
3. Learn to communicate better
A survey conducted by Interact found that 69% of managers are often uncomfortable communicating with employees. This means that 69% of managers are uncomfortable with taking the lead on collaborating, resolving conflicts, and innovating.
Communication goes beyond the spoken (or, in this technology-driven world, written) word, but things like nonverbal cues and intonation. The best managers use self-reflection, self-awareness and observing the interactions of those around them to learn how best to communicate with each person under them, both in-person and digitally.
4. Become more adaptable
Having a system works fine until something disrupts that system. Managers must be adaptable to take charge when something breaks that system.
Managers can become more adaptable with a simple mindset change. Instead of seeing only the bad, find the good in every bad situation and use that bad thing to help identify opportunities you wouldn't have otherwise, such as adopting new technology or embracing new ideas.
5. Better time management skills
A study done in 2022 found that a staggering 91% of Australian employees believe better time management would reduce stress at work. Better time management isn't just about clock-watching. It can be done by something as simple as timeboxing - setting firm start and stop times during the day for individual tasks that make a larger project.
The best time managers also know how to prioritise different tasks and use delegation to play to their team members' strengths, creating a routine that boosts creativity without leading to delays and wasting valuable time.
6. Improve leadership skills
You probably think you have this one figured out as someone in a leadership position. In reality, this can be one of the best professional development goals, as every leader needs to hone their leadership skills outside of their typical working environment.
You could enrol in a leadership course or two - no matter which state or territory you live in, it's not hard to find ones hosted at the weekends or after work - if only to get a different perspective on how to run a team. Who knows? Maybe you'll learn something new to benefit you and your team.
7. Build active listening skills
As a leader, you are probably guilty of being a passive listener. The best leaders, however, use active listening. Active listening is all about engaging fully with what you're being told, giving the person talking to you your complete, undivided attention 100% of the time so that you know and understand everything they tell you.
Active listening skills are easily taught and mastered. They involve soft skills like making eye contact with the person they're talking to, avoiding distractions, repeating paraphrased versions of what's being said, and double-checking understanding.
8. Develop motivational techniques
While managers motivate their team, it's equally important to be self-motivated, have a growth mindset, and have a "can do" attitude to all they do.
Great leaders have developed techniques to keep themselves motivated throughout the day, no matter what has happened. Some listen to motivational music periodically during the day, others break their day up with frequent walks, and others do things like meditation. While it doesn't matter what you pick up, it's good to do it regularly to ensure you and your team remain motivated throughout the day.
9. Mentor more development for managers
You are probably in management because you are more experienced or skilled than those who work under you. As a leader, you should impart wisdom and new skills to those who look up to you for potential leaders and other team members to follow.
By being a mentor, your knowledge and experience can help make those under you better at their job, helping you reach and exceed their career goals, allowing them to avoid the same mistakes you made and forging a long-lasting bond between you all in the process.
10. Improve your work-life balance
Most managers find that their work becomes their life, which is a common mistake. Poor work-life balance is the leading reason behind manager burnout in Australia. Improving your work-life balance, even slightly, dramatically reduces your chance of burning out.
Depending on your industry, simply choosing to "switch off" outside your typical work day may or may not be possible. If this is possible, it may be time to start doing that. If not, having some form of "off evening" where you switch off for the evening every week on the same day, even if only one day, can significantly improve your job satisfaction and overall productivity and lower your stress levels.
How to create a manager development plan
If you want to create a manager development plan, you probably need help figuring out where to start. In reality, it can be as simple as a four-step plan:
1. Assess the needs of the managers and the company
Before you can begin putting any manager development plan to paper, you first need to understand your end goals, both from a corporate and managerial point of view. Sit down with your executives and human resources department to discuss your goals for the entire organisation: Where do you want to be in six months? A year? Five or ten years?
With those overarching goals, break them down between different teams and the managers who oversee them. What skills will they need to do this most effectively based on past data and future workload predictions?
Then, sit down with your managers one-on-one or attend team meetings. Lay out your plans for the future, focusing on the role they and their team will play in it and what you, as executives, believe they will need to do this most efficiently. Ask them for their honest and constructive feedback; it may be the case that a solution you have come up with is impractical due to needing another skill first that you hadn't seen or thought of or that a skill you think only needs developing to a small extent needs developing more thoroughly.
Remember: When offering any leadership training, setting professional development goals is the most crucial part and often is the difference between success and failure.
2. Find the right teachers
Knowing what skills you need to teach and the timeframe you have to get it done, your next goal is to go out and find someone, or potentially a series of people, to help give your managers the professional development they need to reach your goals.
Most organisations have two options when finding the right teachers: do it in-house or use a third-party provider such as Plus UTS.
Teaching your managers new skills in-house is often cheaper and allows you to focus training on more specific areas to better suit your organisation's needs. However, it limits employee development to only what your organisation can teach.
On the other hand, using a third party to provide formal training generally produces managers with a broader knowledge of their newly developed managerial skills and allows for things like greater professional growth; they can be less flexible regarding when their employees are learning, potentially hindering productivity goals.
3. Develop the training plan
With the skills you need to teach and how you will teach them sorted, the next thing to do is write out the plan to serve as the guide for the coming months. At the top, write your overarching goals. Below that, focus on each manager individually, even if they all need the same training. Outline each manager's strengths and the areas in which they need new or more training.
Then add the information about the training programs:
- What will it teach?
- When is it going to take place?
- How much is it going to cost you?
- If taking place during working hours, are there any things you can do to prevent or minimise a reduction in their team's performance?
Suppose multiple different skills are being taught to the same or various managers. In that case, it's essential to have the overall timeframe of when you need the training to be completed in that plan to ensure all training is done in that timeframe.
With the plan written out and the timeframe and budget allocated, it's only a matter of getting that training done.
4. Track results
After the managers have received the development they need, it's essential to track their results to see how effective the training has been and how much progress they've made towards the overarching business goals. While it may be tempting to measure success simply on increased productivity or on an "X time has passed and X% progress has been made" basis, depending on your industry, it may not be that simple.
Instead, have your managers take a self-assessment. This can be done in two ways. The first is to see how much they believe their training has worked (or not worked, as might be the case), whilst the second is to allow them to self-test based on the things they were taught during their training to ensure it has hammered home and will enable them to refresh on bits they may have forgotten.
If all has gone well, your business should be on track to achieving its goals and having the tools to increase productivity. If all has not gone to plan, it may be necessary to start again, redoing the training or simply giving more of it.
How UTS can help managers reach their development goals
As one of Australia's leading B2B education providers, Plus UTS specialises in providing employee training courses to businesses of all sizes and industries across Australia.
Plus UTS offers a wide range of courses aimed at developing employee skills, including many aimed at leaders, such as self and team motivation, communication and time management skills, to name but a few. Taught by leading experts in their fields, UTS's courses provide unparalleled insights to increase your productivity.
As well as pre-built courses that are ready to go, Plus UTS allows companies to co-design courses specifically for their own use, tailoring precisely to their needs and allowing them to reach their managerial development goals faster and more effectively.
Talk to Plus UTS about how we can co-design learning for your organisation’s needs.
