How to Improve Managerial Development Programs

Want manager training that works in real life, not just in workshops? Then I want to share my checklist of things you should be exploring. Because lately I’ve been having some brilliant conversations with leaders who know their new managers need support…(and don't we LOVE to see this?!) But, understandably, they’re still feeling burnt by training programmes that didn’t land. And it's usually because it wasn't relevant, or based in the messy reality their managers were dealing with that week. No wonder so many new managers feel stuck and CFOs are side-eyeing the budget. So here’s the questions I use in discovery, and the same lens I use to design training that actually shifts behaviour and supports managers now, not “eventually”. (And I hope it gives you a few ideas for your own planning too 🫶) 1. Start with what’s actually happening this week Define the problem to solve. Where are managers getting stuck? What conversations are they avoiding? Where are decisions slowing down? This gives you the focus and framing for the training. 2. Map everything to your operating system Managers sit at the centre of how you communicate, decide, do feedback and deliver. If your training doesn’t reinforce these parts of your operating system, it’s not just managers who will struggle, the whole business will feel the drag. 3. Build solutions into your rhythm, not on top of it If the learning can't be applied in your existing ways of working, it won’t stick. Managers need time and better tools for what they’re already doing, not more tasks. Training should strengthen your operating cadence, not compete with it. 4. Weave training inside the workflow This is where things start to feel different. Conversation scripts, decision prompts, real scenarios pulled from your world. Support should show up as they work, facilitating their flow. That’s where you'll see the confidence grow. 5. Stress-test everything with real scenarios The tricky stakeholder, the tense feedback moment, the project sliding or the decision no one wants to make. Give them a safe space to practice the moments that actually create pressure. 6. Define what ‘better’ looks like in 4 weeks Small, visible shifts tied directly to progress and performance: From faster decisions and clearer communication to fewer escalations and more ownership. That’s how you prove ROI, and how you build the programme backwards from those outcomes. This is the work I love: helping new and "accidental" managers stop feeling like they’re guessing, and start feeling equipped, confident and capable right now. If you’re exploring how to support your emerging managers in 2026, hopefully this gives you a good place to start. #Leadership #EmergingMangers #L&D _______________ If you’re new here, hi 👋 I’m Alicia, co-founder of The Future Kind. I collaborate with people leaders and founders to build cultures, systems, and experiences that enable your teams to be at their best.

Is your leadership development built to last or built to fizzle? Despite over $60B invested globally each year in leadership development, some studies suggest as few as 5% of leaders apply what they learn in sustained, meaningful ways. Some programs even show a negative ROI. The problem? We treat leadership development like an event when it needs to be a system. In this paper, Jaason Geerts, PhD outlines a set of enabling factors to maximise the outcomes and ROI of leadership development programs. Here’s where the magic (and missed opportunities) often lie: 1. Pre-program Prime the conditions before the learning starts: ⚙️ Involve stakeholders in co-design so the learning addresses real-world problems, not abstract concepts ⚙️ Have leaders create a development plan before the program begins with goals linked to their role, team needs, and the organisation’s strategy ⚙️ Ensure line managers are briefed and bought in. Better yet, include them in onboarding or launch activities ⚙️ And here’s one often skipped: run a barriers analysis. What might stop leaders from applying what they learn and how can you remove those roadblocks now? 2. During the program. Design for use, not just insight: ⚙️ Build in experiential and peer-based learning. Real development requires practice, not passive consumption ⚙️ Create space for in-the-moment reflection and real-time feedback ⚙️ Use "culminating activities" (like project presentations or commitments shared with peers or execs) to raise the stakes on application. 3. After the program. Don't let learning and the intent to use it fade: ⚙️ Remind participants and their managers that follow-up assessments are coming and offer support to prepare for them ⚙️ Build in public sharing of results whether through showcases, storytelling, or impact reports ⚙️ Keep the community alive. Invite alumni back as mentors, facilitators, or contributors. It signals development is an ongoing expectation, not a one-time event. 4. At the system level. Think beyond the program, as this is where the biggest return often is, and the biggest gaps are: ⚙️ Integrate leadership development with talent processes - performance reviews, promotion criteria, succession planning ⚙️ Make leadership a shared expectation across the organisation, not just for those with direct reports. Embed it in your culture, systems, and symbols ⚙️ Develop a leadership development blueprint that visualises how different programs and development experiences connect across the employee lifecycle. In other words, great content isn't enough. If you want behaviour change, build a system around the learning. 💬 Over to you: What’s one thing you've done (or stopped doing) that made a real difference to your organisation's leadership development outcomes? 👇Let's swap notes in the comments. #leadershipdevelopment #leadershipdevelopmentsystem #behaviourchange #organisationaldevelopment

Your leadership training isn't working. Here's why: 45% of managers say their companies aren't doing enough to develop future leaders. But the problem runs deeper than just "not enough training." After a decade of designing leadership programs, here's what I consistently see organizations get wrong: ➡️ They treat leadership development as an event, not a journey. Think about it: You send your high-performers to a 2-day workshop. They return energized with new ideas. Then... nothing changes. Why? Because the training isn't integrated into their day-to-day performance. Here's how to fix this: 1️⃣ Start with the end in mind Map out exactly what success looks like for your leaders. What behaviors and outcomes do you want to see? Build your development plan backward from there. 2️⃣ Create accountability partnerships Pair leaders with internal mentors who can provide ongoing support and feedback. (36% of managers report witnessing ineffective leadership regularly - mentorship helps break this cycle.) 3️⃣ Design learning that sticks Instead of one-off training sessions, create a blend of: - Practical assignments tied to business goals - Peer learning groups for real-time problem solving - Regular coaching check-ins - Opportunities to teach others 4️⃣ Measure what matters Track behavioral changes, not just completion rates. Are your leaders demonstrating improved communication? Better decision-making? Increased team engagement? 5️⃣ Make it systematic Leadership development should be part of your performance management system. Tie development goals to promotions and compensation. Remember: Great leaders aren't born in a classroom. They're developed through intentional practice, meaningful feedback, and real-world application. What's one thing you're doing to develop leaders in your organization? #LeadershipDevelopment #ExecutiveCoaching #TalentDevelopment #OrganizationalDevelopment

When manager training is just a calendar of workshops, it's confuses activity with enablement. Here's what you can do about it... Content is just content if it's not deployed at the right moment, for the right manager, against the right challenge. When an L&D content factory runs in isolation, it rarely creates the opportunities to apply the learning and actually improve skills. Development at it's worst is one-size-fits-all. Static manager academies, generic leadership tracks, and 1 program delivered to 200 managers with 200 different problems. Development at it's best is surgical. That doesn't mean complicated; it means targeted. Here's an example: At Converse, training took the form of group coaching labs that were part learning and part diagnosis. Managers didn't discuss feedback in theory, they brought their real team feedback into the room, analyzed it together, practiced responses, and left with a plan tied to their specific gaps. The experience was anchored in live data and designed to reduce individual performance friction vs. trying to address abstract manager skill gaps. Before launching your next manager training: 1️⃣ Identify the specific challenge managers are facing right now. Are they new to role, giving feedback for the first time, scaling a team quickly? 2️⃣ Bring real data into the experience, such as upward feedback, engagement scores, or attrition trends. Don't have any? Start collecting it! 3️⃣ Create a mechanism after the session to help them apply it in their own context so they can shrink the knowing-doing gap. Development works when its anchored to expectations, triggered by feedback, and tailored to the manager in front of you. When multiple cylinders of the enablement engine are running together, performance improves. The goal shouldn't be more manager training, it has to be better manager performance. #managerenablementengine

I've just started mapping two leadership development programmes from scratch. And before I've written a single learning objective or booked a single facilitator, here's what I've done: 1) I've sat with the exec team and actually listened. Not to validate what I already thought, but to understand what's keeping them up at night. What they're seeing at the top that isn't landing at the bottom. Where the gaps are between strategy and reality. 2) I've poured over employee survey data until patterns started emerging. Qualitative + quantitative. 3) I've also reviewed every piece of training that's already happened. What landed. What didn't. What got forgotten by Monday morning. Spoken with our existing trainers about what they see and hear in the room. You see, you can have the most beautifully designed programme in the world and it will still miss if it wasn't built on the right foundations. You can go and buy something that promises all the bells and whistles, but if it's not addressing what's actually getting in the way of people doing their jobs, showing up intentionally, or helping us make money.. then it's pouring precious budget down the drain. Most programmes start with content. I start with questions. What does good leadership actually look like here, at this specific moment in time? What behaviours are we trying to shift? What does the data tell us that people aren't saying out loud? Only when I can answer those questions do I start building. And I'm nearly there. The easiest thing to do is contact a big provider or great facilitator and buy something off the shelf. You can say you ticked a box. Great. But a leadership programme that isn't rooted in real context, real data, and real human insight isn't a programme. It's a catalogue. And we've all sat through enough of those. Did I miss anything? Keen to hear other L&Ders approaches to this, especially when you've got the luxury of a blank slate.

After working with me, Diageo experienced a +32 point increase in manager support rating from grads. Here’s how ⤵️ Before working with me, Diageo’s early careers team were stuck: - Grads were frustrated. - Managers were overwhelmed. - And no one had the tools to fix it. So we built something practical, not theory and not a one-off session... a structured programme that gave managers what they actually needed: → Masterclasses on understanding grads, setting expectations and giving feedback → Guided discussions between sessions to make the learning stick → A private space to share real challenges → On-demand tools they could reach for in the moment The results: → +32 point increase in manager support ratings → 100% of managers felt confident giving feedback → 73% said communication with grads improved → +25 point increase in managers delivering feedback → +19 point gain in managers setting development plans Plus more career conversations and fewer missed connections. That case study is from last year, but after supporting 5,000+ managers and 20,000+ grads and apprentices my work has it’s evolved If you lead an early careers programme, you've probably felt this: learning lands well in the room, but back in the role... Managers aren't reinforcing it, grads/apprentices aren't always applying it and when leadership asks you to prove the impact, you're cobbling together attendance data and hoping for the best (sound familiar?!) That's not a content problem - it’s a connection problem. My work now focuses on fixing that gap. I still help managers build the skills to support and engage grads and apprentices, that hasn't changed. But now that development sits inside a platform that keeps managers actively connected to their development programme as it's happening. So they can see what their grads/apprentices are working on, know where a nudge would help and reinforce learning in real time. The result is behaviour change that's visible, trackable and tied to the programme you're already running, not something you have to justify after the fact. I've built a platform designed specifically for this: connecting learning to real-world application, grads and apprentices to their managers, and programme activity to outcomes you can actually report on. If you're running early careers programmes, I'd love to get your take on what I'm building. It's designed for people like you and your feedback would genuinely help shape it. DM or comment “happy to help” if you’re open to a conversation! 💙