Mark’s detail and approach are applicable for all levels of managers, not only do these foundational pieces of training help you have better conversations with your team, but it’s also extremely helpful when communicating with teams or managers outside of your direct department. Communication is key to a company’s long-term success, and Mark drives that home tremendously with management foundations. (Quote from participant feedback)
Overview
I partnered with a global tech company when they started to experience explosive growth. For six years the company had grown +40% YoY on average, and they expected a similar growth rate for the foreseeable future. Suddenly they found themselves scaling to meet customer demand and capture market share.
That meant hiring lots of new people and training them on the products and services. I supported the company’s efforts by creating scalable management capacity quickly.
Situation
The company promoted smart, capable employees who had been around for a long time, who lived and breathed the culture and knew the product, to management positions.
The problem was, these new managers received responsibilities they weren't prepared for. They had no management experience, and they had no one to coach or support them. Despite their lack of skills and experience, they were under incredible pressure to perform. Failure meant missing critical deadlines.
While some of the new managers succeeded, others struggled. Either they burned out and left, or they became bottlenecks. The company needed to create scalable management capacity ASAP.
Action
• Delivered a program focusing on manager skills, capabilities, and mindset that aligned with the company’s evolving business management practices. The program was designed to serve 70+ managers at all levels of the organization across the globe.
• Provided an easy-to-understand framework that provided a vision and communicated to all parties what they could expect and how it would help. It also enabled these new managers to see themselves in the solution.
• Introduced a "build-it-as-you-need-it" approach to developing capabilities. This allowed us to focus on the end business result: capable people managers at all levels of the organization, able to execute on business objectives across the globe.
Result
• Managers in different departments across the globe were speaking the same language and practicing the same concepts. This allowed for more effective cross-departmental collaboration and cross-departmental transfers.
• The common frameworks and concepts, aligned with the company's evolving business management practices, created clearer accountability practices, and increased communication up, down, and across the organization.
• While many factors contributed to it, employee satisfaction ratings regarding their manager also increased during and after this effort got traction within the organization.
• There was an initial spike in reported Employee Relations issues which eventually decreased. Why? Because employees learned how to hold each other accountable to performance expectations, and managers needed HR assistance for a little while as they gained confidence putting into practice what they learned.
• The company continued to meet its hyper-growth target of the annual growth rate of +40% YoY.
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