2018 | Leanne Gossels

Cultivating the Successful First-Time Manager

A Best Practices Approach to Managerial Development

Cultivating the Successful First-Time Manager

A Best Practices Approach to Managerial Development

Table of Contents
2. Executive Summary
3. Introduction
4. The Gap Between What Managers Know and What They Need to Know
5. Core Competencies of Good Managers
8. Effective Managerial Training to Develop Core Competencies
9. Conclusion
10. Limitations
11. References
13. Contact

1
Executive Summary
The organizational structure of many
companies creates a scenario in which
managers and team leaders are chosen from
within existing work groups. Across industries
and departments, employees who excelled in
technical or specialized fields such as IT,
digital media, engineering, construction, or
hospitality achieve a level of success that
requires them to manage other people. While
each of those previous roles contained
elements that translate to management skills,
for instance, a computer technician’s eye for
detail and a server’s interpersonal skills, these
roles do not necessarily have built-in
managerial preparation.
Organizations have sought to
overcome this gap between specialist and
generalist roles in myriad ways. While some
companies hire outside managers to oversee
their teams- a talent management decision
with an array of obstacles all its own- others
provide their existing employees training and
educational opportunities to learn how to “be
a manager.” Yet in 2014, only 13% of
organizations reported feeling as if they have
provided quality management training to
their employees.1 Formal, structured training
programs are expensive. Informal, tacit
training is dependent on the availability of
good mentors and a culture of knowledge
sharing.
There is a better option. Based on
available research about the effectiveness of
existing formal and informal leadership
programs, as well as the current
understanding of what makes a “good”
manager, I will encourage organizations to
take a leader-focused approach rather than a
leadership-focused approach and give
organizations core competencies that their
first-time managers should develop and best
practices for cultivating those core
competencies in every new manager.

Why “Manager” Not “Leader”?

The term manager is used over leader due to the fact that in the past few decades
leadership has become a buzzword that all too often loses any real meaning. For that
reason, it is necessary to move away from “leadership” when approaching managerial
training and instead focus on the individual leader. There is not a one-size fits all theory
of leadership that allows all individuals to excel when they become managers, but there
are certain characteristics of multiple leadership theories that overlap and help inform
what will make someone successful in the elements of their role. The focus is on
creating a leader not someone who can imitate a particular leadership style.1

2
 Cultivating the Successful First-Time Manager
at which she had been hired funded. Due to
Introduction staffing issues in the organization, however,
she was only able to attend four of the
All successful managers today were once a
sessions. It left her with as many questions as
first-time manager. Each of these managers
Harry and Betsy. Their questions overlapped
started with a gap between what they knew
in a surprising manner considering how
about management and what they needed to
disparate their job titles and industries were.
know. Harry, a partner in a law firm became a
To the question of What do you wish you had
manager in 2014 when he left his job as a
known? all three of them conveyed that they
federal prosecutor to join a large firm. When
wish they had known the expectations and
asked what he wished he had known before
scope of their responsibilities and had a more
becoming a partner responsible for managing
detailed vision of what managing people
a team of associates, paralegals, and support
entails.
staff, he joked, “All the things I don’t know!”
Their responses to the question of
Roberta, a teacher-turned-administrator,
What do you view as core competencies of a
illustrated his point when she rattled off a
good manager? revealed just how difficult it is
dozen skills without pausing to take a breath.
to describe a manager’s abilities. In addition
The response from Betsy, the head of video of
to listing job-specific technical acumen, they
a bustling media property moving up from a
all listed being able to motivate and inspire.
production coordinator role, was jarring in its
Roberta recommended being able to set
simplicity: she wished she had received a job
expectations, and Betsy added the skills of
description.
organization and creativity. There were
Each of these managers answered a
suggestions to hold people accountable and
series of questions designed to make them
adjust communication styles based on
consider their first days as a manager and the
another’s personality. Harry urged managers
ways that they have developed in the months
to position themselves in such a way within an
and years since with the goal of getting
organization that they would be top of mind
anecdotal evidence of the struggles new
when things went wrong. He used more
managers face. Though they were chosen
colorful language, but the point remains as
because they varied in years of experience,
clear: managers have to know how to tackle a
industry, and job description, their answers
lot of intangible and complex challenges in
show how profound a challenge it is to
order to be successful. Moreover, every single
transition into management. Only Roberta
one of the managers asked said they wished
reported receiving formal training– a six
they had had more training from their
installment program that the childcare center
organization.

3
 For all the similarities in their
responses, however, the gap they each had to
bridge was dependent on their role and their
own previous experience. Had each of them
attended the same training program, they
would have come away with completely
different outcomes and it is unlikely that
those outcomes would be positive in more
than one case. They each needed very
different areas of support and knowledge
growth. However, when they were each asked
what they would develop if they could create
a training program for someone following
their path, there was much less variety. They
each mentioned mentorship, having an expert
to go to with questions and desiring formal
training with enough time to actually attend.
Each of them became successful
managers, or at least, managers who received
further opportunities and advancement in
their organizations since it is hard to define a
“successful” manager in a typical organization
that does not calculate extensive metrics
surrounding the topic. They all reported
having respect from their peers, receiving
good feedback from their supervisors, and
leading functional and productive teams. All
of this they did without managerial training.
So why should an organization bother with
implementing a training program or paying
for their employees to receive education
around management if managers end up
figuring it out in the end? The answer is two-
fold: employee satisfaction and value
creation. Research on managerial training
gives insight into the value that such
programs can have for employees and for
firms.2 Employees report higher satisfaction
in work places that they perceive as investing
in them. The authors found that training
improved performance in employees in
addition to making them more likely to seek
out new learning opportunities in the future,
thus continuing the cycle of growth.2
Moreover, there is a straight line correlation
between the level of engagement and
productivity of employees and the
competency of their manager, meaning bad
managers have a direct, negative impact on
an organization’s bottom line.3 Nearly half of
first-time managers fail, costing employers
their human capital investment in that
person.4 Simply put, organizations cannot
afford not to make their managers into the
best versions of themselves possible.
The Gap Between What
Managers Know and What
They Need to Know
When you ask a dozen different
experts what the key to success is for a first-
time manager, the responses run the gamut.
Some will talk about abstracts, list off soft
skills.5 Their recommendations will be to
develop a personal mission statement, craft a
leadership philosophy, and set values.6 Others
will focus on brass tacks: departmental
budgeting, power suits, and meeting
agendas. The truth of the matter is a lot more
complicated. The gap between individual
performance roles and management roles
contains multitudes of hard and soft skills
necessary to succeed. Being a strong
individual performer suggests someone will
succeed because they have drive and focus,
but it can also mean they excel primarily in
4
managers must be able
one highly specialized
So, what’s a “soft skill” anyways?
technique. Exceptional
technical skills do not “Soft skills” are those skills, abilities and traits that are related
always translate into to interpersonal behavior, communication, and intellect.5
interpersonal skills, While “hard skills” are technical, quantitative and
team building skills, administrative skills, soft skills focus on the human elements,
negotiation, mediation, including but not limited to: team building, diplomacy,
finance, and collaboration, listening, writing, being ethical, and critical
organization. It has no thinking.13
bearing on a person’s
ability to recognize their biases or self- communication with the locker room pep talk
monitor for favoritism. a football coach gives at halftime in a teen
Fortunately, where a person begins as movie, the communication skills a manager
a leader is not where they end up as a leader. needs in practice are much more focused on
Each person’s gap will be unique to them, the day-to-day moments than on big,
requiring them to develop different powerful speeches given when the team is
management capabilities based on the role, down 28 to 0 with its best player out. Effective
their background, and their personality. managers must be able to communicate their
Despite the many schools of thought on what message clearly, provide actionable feedback,
a good manager needs to know, there are and recognize that listening is as important as
certain core competencies that overlap in speaking.8
many of them that should be a primary focus Managers should develop the ability to
for first-time managers and the employers communicate their message clearly, whether
supporting them. Through the development they need to convey a high level corporate
of a host of management skills, often defined mission or need to make it known that being
as soft skills, managers are able to become late to work one more time will result in
more effective and more valuable for a formal repercussions. Good managers
7
company. maintain consistency and clarity in their
messaging. They do not change expectations
based on who is in the room or move the
Core Competencies of Good
target for their employees. They maintain the
Managers same expectations and are sure to align every
The basis of any exchange between message to those expectations. For instance,
two people is communication. It is imperative the childcare center where Roberta works has
that a manager have well developed a child-first mission, which she personally
communication skills. While it can be supports. Due to her own personal beliefs and
tempting to equate good management her understanding of the center’s goals, she

5
was appalled to hear her coworker suggest
one of the teachers not inform the parents of
a student that they believed the child might
need additional help in an academic area.
From Roberta’s perspective, this was putting
the child at risk of struggling in future
academics in order to keep the parents from
getting frustrated with the center. She spoke
to both parties involved and conveyed clearly
that all teachers were expected to put the
child’s wellbeing above their own personal
comfort or insecurities. She also made sure to
point to this expectation and center mission
as much as possible during conversations
going forward so that she was not accidentally
giving mixed messages and hinting that there
was an unspoken understanding that it was
okay to “sweep something under the rug.” By
aligning her communication in this way, she is
more likely to enhance her reports’
commitment to the organization and make
their day to day work more productive.8
In addition to being consistent with
messaging, managers have to be willing to be
transparent in their communication. They
need to reveal the reasons behind their
management decisions or organizational
changes so that employees feel a sense of
justice and trust.9 Sometimes incorporating
transparency will require a manager to be
vulnerable because they must admit to a
mistake or a challenge the company is facing
behind the scenes. Other times, the challenge
to transparency may arise when a manager is
delivering feedback or news that will make
their employee feel uncomfortable. However,
having the ability to be open with employees
increases the impact of feedback and makes
employees more autonomous and thus,
productive.9
The clarity and transparency of a
message can be lost if an employee perceives
the message as being inaccurate or
misleading. To ensure that employees take
the words communicated at face value,
managers must also develop the ability to
utilize body language and emotion in ways
that enhance rather than detract from their
message.10,11 If Roberta had made a point of
telling her employees to speak to the parents
of that child but had done so without
explaining why, did so while rolling her eyes,
or did it in an agitated, distracted voice, her
team would be more likely to insert their
assumptions into the matter. In the first
instance, they could perceive her as being
overbearing and not understanding the
situation. If her body language suggested she
was not taking the situation seriously they
might have thought she agreed with them and
was simply saying what she needed to check a
box, but not actually expecting them to follow
through. If her emotions were not in tune with
the message, they could interpret her
message as being a way to let off steam or it
being something she did not care about
enough for them to do the work of adjusting
their behavior.
One of the most important messages
a manager will need to deliver clearly is
feedback.16 Managers need to hone their skill
of spotting areas of excellence or
improvement and addressing these with
timely, job-focused and actionable feedback.8
Actionable feedback increases an employee’s
knowledge, changes their behavior and
6
improves their performance.12 It is based on
specific examples that are relevant and
recent, focused on behavior rather than on
personal traits, oriented towards a goal that
can be measured, and rooted in the context of
what must be done and what the related
consequences or impacts are.8,12 Managers
need to gain mastery of giving feedback in
order to ensure that their employees feel
supported, have guidance to grow, and meet
expectations.12 Feedback, and in fact, all
communication, should be a two-way
dialogue.8 Managers need to strengthen their
active listening skills. Active listening
incorporates asking questions, reflecting and
asking for clarification in a way that facilitates
another person’s dialogue rather than turning
the attention back on the manager.8
A person’s ability to communicate is
invaluable and will cause them to form more
and better interpersonal relationships with
their reports and colleagues. However, being
able to communicate is not the only necessary
component for interpersonal relationship-
building. A manager relies on myriad
interpersonal skills to maintain a respectful,
functional and dynamic team.16 Managers
must be able to motivate those around them
and understand different cultures.8
Motivation requires more than a poster with
an inspirational quote hanging on a wall. For
Harry, motivating his team involves showing
off his own levels of enthusiasm for the
industry and emphasizing how rarified it is so
that his associates will be eager to do the hard
work involved. Unfortunately, not every
manager will have a unique specialty and high
energy personality that will entice their
subordinates. The good news is that
managers can learn to utilize incremental
skills such as goal setting, benchmarking
achievable expectations, persuading, and
incentivizing in order to empower people and
get their buy-in on projects.8 Good managers
are able to adjust their motivational methods
to the specific person they are dealing with.
Likewise, as organizations and the world in
general become more interconnected and
wide-reaching, managers must acknowledge
that different cultural and regional
backgrounds will affect people differently.8, 10
Being open to adapting a greeting or
modifying a conversational approach, will
make managers better able to interact
effectively with a diverse array of
employees.10
Betsy innately understood the need
for organization when she listed it as one of
the core competencies of a good manager,
but the organizational skills a manager needs
go beyond bullet journals and color-coded
sticky notes. While physical organization skills
help many people manage stress and function
efficiently, anyone who has moved aside a pile
of paper, three books, and a precariously
positioned mug to sit on a chair in their
manager’s office knows that sometimes looks
can be deceiving. Managers might be able to
get away with having a messy office, but they
cannot get away with having a poorly
organized schedule, strategy, or
8,13,16
processes. Effective managers develop
strong time management skills. When they
tackle projects or determine their next steps,
they are methodical about their planning.
They implement and adhere to processes and
7
expect their teams to do so as well. This focus
on details and standardization ensures that a
manager and their team completes all
deliverables on time and to the expected
quality without the friction of frivolous
mistakes or eleventh-hour scrambling.8
Effective Managerial
Training to Develop
Core Competencies
First-time managers, or existing
managers who feel underprepared, might see
the intangible and seemingly infinite list of
soft and hard skills necessary for success in
their role and feel hopeless. Recent years have
fortunately provided a plethora of insight into
the effectiveness of management preparation
programs. Comprehensive meta-analysis and
an ever-expanding body of research into the
effectiveness of leadership training reveal
certain elements of a training program that
make it more effective. Defining an effective
training program as one that had positive
“reactions” from employees (showing an
attitudinal change), increased “learning,”
(permanent knowledge gain) and “transfer,”
(an employee’s behavioral change to use what
they learned in practice when they returned to
their job) shows that training programs are
capable of helping a manager’s performance.1
Notably, Lacerenza et al.’s meta-analysis
describes almost exactly the elements of a
training program that Harry, Roberta and
Betsy described when asked about their ideal
training.
First, the meta-analysis demonstrated
numerically what the managers knew
innately– training would help them.1 The
meta-analysis showed that leadership
training programs do have a positive impact.
That conclusion alone, however, does not
mean that any old training program will
suffice. Training programs with certain
characteristics outpaced others. Those that
were based on needs analysis and customized
for a particular organization or role were more
effective.1, 13 Companies that matched their
training program to what the employee would
actually be doing and what the organization
most needed from that employee saw better
outcomes. An accountant becoming head of
their department would not need a training
program that featured a beginner’s guide to
Excel, but they may need techniques for how
to confront a bullying team member.
Likewise, a journalist becoming editor-in-
chief might know how to interview new
candidates based on their time in the field, but
could need a training program with a crash
course in spreadsheets.
It is not just about what the company
needs, either. Looking at an employee’s needs
increased the chances of a training program
being worth the investment.1 The evidence
suggests that getting feedback on an
employee from someone who works closely
with them and then tailoring the training to
that situation, ensured that it aligned with
goals and, thus, mattered. This feedback did
not even rely on a time-consuming and
oftentimes expensive process like a 360-
degree feedback survey.1 Since there was no
benefit to having the 360-degree feedback,
8
getting feedback before creating a program is
a simple but effective way for an employer to
ensure that the training succeeds.
Similarly, taking into consideration the
way information is delivered and the logistics
of the course affected the degree to which a
training program impacted the
1,12,14,15
employees. Teaching styles that
allowed for practice and demonstration as
well as simple information-giving produced
more learning. While any time dedicated to
training was better than no time, a course that
took place over multiple sessions across
weeks or months proved more effective.1,14
However, as Roberta attested to when she
recalled missing two of the six training
sessions her employer provided due to the
fact that she was needed to mitigate an
ongoing “crisis” in the organization, one of the
primary concerns for an organization must be
that the training is administered at a time and
in a location that an employee can actually
attend. While that might be a virtual space for
an online course, the research cautions
against having employees self-administer
programs. Whether face-to-face or remote,
having a coach or teacher was key to a training
program’s success.1 That person could be
from within the organization or an external
trainer with no variation in result.
Organizations also need to consider
how specifically they can best promote soft
skills in their new managers since so much of
the first-time manager’s knowledge gap falls
into this category. In order to develop the core
competencies of communication,
interpersonal relationship building, and
strategic organization identified above to be
the keys to manager success, each manager
needs to learn dozens of small techniques,
behaviors and attitudes, which are more
difficult to identify and teach than a technical
skill.14 To bolster the effects of the training
program related to these specific areas,
organizations should favor a “time-spaced
learning” approach, which Ibrahim and
Bakare’s research showed to improve soft
skills development. “Time-spaced learning”
echoes Lacerenza et al.’s suggestion to
schedule training over multiple sessions and
involves giving employees time to return to
their workplace to experiment with what they
have learned and practice in the real world.
This training style is imperative for these areas
more so than for technical or hard skills. This
so-called “purposeful practice” which flows
from understanding what the skills is to then
practicing it under guidance, allows a person
to embody something that before seemed
intangible.15
Conclusion
Organizations rely on their managers
to keep their operations running day to day
and make sure their long-term strategic goals
are met. Managers rely on organizations to
give them the support they need to do so and
the professional development they need to
grow. Managerial training provides a bridge
between those two goals. Organizations
should be prepared to implement or select a
training program that instills the core
competencies of a good manager into their
employees: communication, interpersonal
relationship-building, and strategic
organization. The training program should
9
also offer employees the technical or hard
skills they will need for their job. To ensure its
effectiveness, any potential training program
should be screened to confirm it utilizes the
most effective elements: time-spaced
learning, purposeful practice, mentorship,
and it is led by a knowledgeable expert or
coach. The training should be customized to
the role as well as the new manager and it
should be ongoing.
Limitations
Organizations should be aware of
limitations in the research before setting
expectations that a training program they
select or create will create the desired
outcomes. Due to the nature of soft skills, it is
difficult to set metrics and quantify
effectiveness.8 For the same reason it can be
difficult for those within an organization to
determine if a training program will be
successful, recognize if their managers have
changed from it, and even identify the soft
skills needed for any given role in the first
place. That does not mean that organizations
should forgo trying. Following the above
guidelines for managerial training, putting in
the requisite time and preparation, and
giving employees the support they need as
they go through the training, will all but
guarantee a better manager. And better
managers make better organizations.17
10
References

1
Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., Marlow, S. L., & Joseph, D. L. (2017). Leadership Training
Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied
Psychology,102(12), 1686-1718.

2
Suzuki, A., Vu, H. N., & Sonobe, T. (2014). Willingness to pay for managerial training: A case
from the knitwear industry in northern vietnam. Journal of Comparative
Economics, 42(3), 693-707.
3
Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2012). How Damaging Is a Bad Boss, Exactly? Harvard Business
Review.
4
Plakhotnik, M. S., & Rocco, T. S. (2011). A succession plan for first-time manages. T +
D, 65(12), 42-45,6.
5
Murti, A. B. (2014). Why soft skills matter. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 8(3), 32-36.
6
Tjan, A. K. (2017, September 25). 5 Things New Managers Should Focus on First. Retrieved
from https://hbr.org/2017/05/5-things-new-managers-should-focus-on-first
7
Garwood R (2012), "Supporting the Underperforming Manager: Teaching the Soft Skills
that Can Make All the Difference", Human Resource Management International
Digest, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 39-42.
8
Bambacas, M., & Patrickson, M. (2008). Interpersonal communication skills that enhance
organizational commitment. Journal of Communication Management, 12(1), 51-72.

9
McFadden, P. D. (2017). Management transparency impact on employee job performance
and satisfaction (Order No. 10635198).
10
Middaugh, D. J. (2017). Watch your language! Medsurg Nursing, 26(1), 64-65.
11
Gupta, N. (2013). Effective body language in organizations. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 7(1),
35-44.
12
Cannon, M. D., & Witherspoon, R. (2005). Actionable Feedback: Unlocking the power of
learning and performance improvement. Academy of Management Executive,19(20).
13
Jain, S., & Anjuman, A. S. S. (2013). Facilitating the acquisition of soft skills through
training. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 7(2), 32-39.
14
Ibrahim, R., Boerhannoeddin, A., & Bakare, K. K. (2017). The effect of soft skills

11
15
Blaszczynski, C., & Green, D. J. (2012). Effective strategies and activities for developing
soft skills, part 1. Journal of Applied Research for Business Instruction, 10(1), 1-6.
16
Maellaro, R., & Whittington, J. L. (2012). What business students really need to learn: An
evidence-based prescription for curriculum reform. Journal of Higher Education
Theory and Practice, 12(4), 66-80.
17
Tung-Chun, H. (2001). The relation of training practices and organizational performance
in small and medium size enterprises. Education & Training, 43(8), 437-444.

12
Contact

LEANNE C. GOSSELS
LEANNE.C.GOSSELS@VANDERBILT.EDU

13