Designing a Manager Development Program

A nine-step design process for building your own in-house program for managers, supervisors and team leads: needs, roles, skills, structure, formats, practice, coaching, measures and keeping it going.

Who it is for

• HR and L&D professionals asked to create or rebuild a program for new and current managers.

• Business owners who promote their best employees into lead roles and want to prepare them properly.

• Operations leaders who have been asked to "do something about our supervisors."

• Training coordinators who need a clear structure, templates and examples rather than a blank page.

The problem it solves

Most people become managers because they were good at the work, and then receive little preparation for leading others. One-day courses rarely change what they do, because nothing supports them once they return to a full workload. This playbook shows you how to design a program that does change it: confirm the need, define the manager roles in your business, choose a short list of skills, design the structure and modules, choose formats that fit each kind of learning, build practice into real work, involve each participant's own manager in coaching and support, measure what changes, and review and refresh the program each year.

It is a design process, not a ready-made leadership course. You choose the content that fits your managers and your work, and the playbook points to KA building blocks you can use inside it if you want them.

What is inside

• Copyright and License (page 2; 1 page)

• Part 1. How a program is designed (pages 3 to 5; 3 pages)

• Part 2. Step 1: Confirm the need (pages 6 to 11; 6 pages)

• Part 3. Step 2: Define the manager roles (pages 12 to 15; 4 pages)

• Part 4. Step 3: Choose the skills (pages 16 to 21; 6 pages)

• Part 5. Step 4: Design the structure (pages 22 to 27; 6 pages)

• Part 6. Step 5: Choose learning formats (pages 28 to 31; 4 pages)

• Part 7. Step 6: Build in practice (pages 32 to 37; 6 pages)

• Part 8. Step 7: Add coaching and support (pages 38 to 43; 6 pages)

• Part 9. Step 8: Measure what changes (pages 44 to 47; 4 pages)

• Part 10. Step 9: Run it and keep it going (pages 48 to 55; 8 pages)

• Part 11. Worked examples (pages 56 to 58; 3 pages)

• Part 12. Variations by setting and size (pages 59 to 60; 2 pages)

• Part 13. 16-week design and launch plan (pages 61 to 62; 2 pages)

• Part 14. Mistakes and FAQ (pages 63 to 65; 3 pages)

• Editable Word version of everything above (62 pages)

• Excel planner (.xlsx) (10 sheets: settings, participants with calculated totals, sessions, attendance grid, practice log with automatic statuses, coaching check-ins, skill checks with change and gap flags, team results against a baseline, and a cohort summary, with a worked example)

Examples follow a plumbing, heating and electrical company through the design and first cohort of its program, with worked examples from a restaurant group, a group of physical therapy clinics and an accounting office, and variations for retail, restaurants, trades, clinics, offices, warehouses, remote teams, seasonal businesses and very small businesses.

How to use it

1. Read Part 1 to see how a manager program is designed, who is involved and how much time it takes.

2. Work through Steps 1 to 9. Each step explains what to do, why it matters and how to do it well, then gives you a template and a filled-in example.

3. Follow the 16-week design and launch plan, then the monthly routine for running the first cohort.

4. Keep your program records in the Word templates or the Excel planner.

Formats and file types

• Printable PDF (65 pages), US Letter.

• Editable Word file (.docx, 62 pages) with all sixteen templates and filled-in examples.

• Excel planner (.xlsx) for participants, sessions, attendance, practice assignments with automatic statuses, coaching check-ins, skill checks and team results against a baseline, with a cohort summary. Works in Excel and in spreadsheet programs that support COUNTIFS and AVERAGEIFS.

Frequently asked questions