Leadership and Management Training Programs

Today, it is critically important for organizations to invest in “how-to” supervisor training to ensure that leaders clearly understand their role and responsibilities in managing people.  We often find that organizations promote supervisors because they are technically competent at the job–but not necessarily good at the people part of a supervisor’s job.  Generally, in small to medium-size organizations, individuals get promoted from within because there usually isn’t anyone else the company can tap on the shoulder to move up.  So, many employees who have been in roles as individual contributors, such as a machine operator, will suddenly be thrust into a role like a Supervisor of Operations.  The problem with this rapid progression is that the skills needed in supervision are significantly different–and the job comes with a lot of need for polished communication skills and the ability to manage conflicts, especially in today’s complex environment.  Every day in a supervisor’s job there is conflict; yet, a lot of supervisors (especially those newly promoted) shy away from conflicts because they are afraid–and they don’t know how to manage conflicts.  The negative impacts are generally lower productivity, and employee behavior and performance problems. Which, if left unchecked, start really affecting service delivery capabilities, customer satisfaction, and the financial statements.  Why?  Because, when supervisors are not doing a very good job of leading, there isn’t adequate direction and follow-up with employees to ensure they are working toward organizational goals.  A good example of this is a supervisor who is just too passive, avoids conflicts, and either remains in his office for most of the day not wanting to be disturbed…or considers himself “too busy” and is in a multitude of meetings all day.    Employees become resentful that they are not being given adequate direction, guidance, feedback, and development.  A level of toxicity usually increases with a work group/team and then usually good people begin to quit, leaving only the mediocre and poor performers.

In our experience a lot of organizations hesitate in implementing training for supervisors because they consider that it “costs too much.”  From our vantage point as an HR consulting practice, we can tell you from our experience that you can’t afford NOT to train supervisors today.  To illustrate this point, a client of ours found us after having paid a $250,000 settlement demand with the Department of Labor.  It was a classic case of “we didn’t know”, which cost the organization in not only financial loss but also the extraordinary amount of time it took the HR and leadership team to participate in the DOL’s investigation and audit.

To provide supervisor and manager training, all it takes is first recognizing some of the behaviors that are causing organizational problems.  This could be a lot of employee turnover, too many complaints to upper level leadership or HR, inventory shrinkage/theft, and generally low morale and a level of negativity and toxicity with employees.  We often hear “our employees who work for (supervisor name) just really seem to have an attitude problem”…  Sometimes it is hard to put your finger on exactly what’s wrong, but that is where we come in.  We have a great deal of experience in this area, as we work with organizations of all sizes and across all industry sectors.  We know the questions to ask to do a proper assessment, so we can then prescribe the right training solutions.

The cost for a supervisor training program really varies and is dependent upon a number of different factors such as the number of people who will need to be trained, where they are located, if our training instructor will have to travel to your location or if training will be conducted at our facility, virtual, etc.   Generally, the range for supervisor and manager training will be between$599 to $1,199 per person, and all of our programs are inclusive of the training instructor fees, workbooks and materials, and Certificates of Training for all attendees.  For in-person programs, if an instructor must travel to your site, there is a nominal cost for instructor travel to/from the venue.

One of our more popular, standard supervisor training programs we provide is our Contemporary Leadership: Driving Results & Managing Risk program which is essentially a “Supervision 101” program that provides the foundation necessary to lead employees effectively (drive results) while also ensuring legal compliance in daily supervision of team members (managing risk). Many of our clients create a quarterly learning track, which enables a team to attend training once per quarter, but then have the reinforcement of learning in the following quarter.  Additionally, it enables spreading the cost out over multiple quarters. However, we have many different training options ranging from one-day programs to multi-day programs.    

For more information about that program, please just Contact Us and we’ll be happy to talk with you about your team’s training needs and ensure the program will support the professional development goals for your organization. 

Just as supervisor training is important for front-line leaders, so is management training for leaders at the middle management level and above to the C-level executives.  In our experience, we often find that organizations will invest in supervisor training, but completely forget about mid-level and senior leaders.  What happens is generally a bit of resentment from supervisors and comments come up during training classes such as, “So, why isn’t Larry (VP) in this training?  He’s the one who needs it the most…”  Additionally, when senior leaders are not involved it appears that they are not in support of the training initiative.

What we recommend is either a blended approach, in which all leaders attend the same session, if the content being presented is relevant to all levels.  This we find is the best approach in smaller organizations with fewer than 100 employees and fewer than 15 leaders in the entire organization.   However, for organizations that are larger than this, it is recommended to split the training with sessions uniquely designed to fulfill the development needs of each level.  The content in the mid to senior-level program will be quite different, as the focus will be on more strategic leadership concepts, aligning organizational objectives, an overview and update on regulatory compliance, and in developing communication and conflict management skills.

We can provide management training on site at your corporate location by sending one of our instructors to you, or you can send your team members to work with an instructor at our training facility in Daytona Beach, Florida.

To get learn more on how to get your management team the training they need, just Contact Us and we’ll be happy to help you implement the right training solution to accomplish your professional development goals for your organization.