leadership

Oct 10, 2023

New Manager Training Courses to Build Confident Leadership

Summary

New manager training is essential for building critical competencies and skills in newly promoted managers and leaders. Here are the 5 best resources for new managers.

Confident and capable managers are made – not born. Even natural leaders need sufficient new manager training and resources in order to properly develop their potential and successfully transition into their new role.

Here are some Gartner findings to think about: over half of all new managers fail to meet their objectives, two-thirds don’t adjust quickly enough to meet their goals, and 60% fail within the first two years.

Things don’t necessarily get better over time. A Gallup study found that only 18% of managers demonstrate high competency levels, while 20% have basic abilities.

Much of this comes down to a lack of sufficient leadership training for new managers. Strangely enough, most organizations don’t offer new managers training. Others wait around 10 years before offering senior managers some leadership development training.

Is that your case? If it is or you just want to know how to train new managers in your company, consider offering online leadership training.

New manager training courses are essential for equipping recently promoted individuals with the managerial competencies, techniques, and know-how necessary for success in their new roles. Some of these core skills for new managers include effective team management, conflict resolution, and delegation, among others.

Effective leadership training for new managers is available from professional learning and development providers, like Maven. Maven’s courses connect learners with world-class professionals, teachers, and mentors and facilitate a seamless digital transfer of skills for new managers.

7 Top Skills a New Manager Needs to Foster

Managers need a broad skillset, which includes industry-specific knowledge, business strategy, project management, and technical capabilities, along with strong emotional intelligence and advanced soft skills.

Here are seven skills most new managers must have.

Effective communication of expectations and requirements. New managers must clearly express and convey to their team what their tasks, responsibilities, and duties are. This is a distinct skill that’s different from the ability to communicate well in other areas, such as giving presentations or interviewing.
Skillful project management to oversee projects from start to finish, track progress, meet milestones, and ensure success.
Supervision and coordination of project activities.
Delegating appropriately and fairly.
Familiarity and competence in relevant technology and applications.
Inspiring, initiating, and motivating team members. New managers must influence their team to act, become energized, and persevere.
Giving constructive feedback and reviews. Most new managers will need to sharpen up on empathy, communication, and other soft skills.

These skills and others can be acquired through effective leadership training for new managers. They’re among the competencies taught in the following recommendations.

Elevate Your Career with New Manager Training Courses

1. MGMT Accelerator

MGMT Accelerator by Dave Kline is a five-week course led by Dave Kline, offering proven management strategies for managing and guiding high-impact teams.

If you want to cultivate top-performing skills for new managers, Dave Kline is the one to learn from. Kline has led and mentored consulting, financial services & asset management teams at Bridgewater Associates and Moody’s.

This course offers condensed leadership training for new managers based on Kline’s decades of experience and aims to enhance leadership skills for managing challenges and fostering high-performance team building.

Participants will refine their leadership decision-making system and learn to set team goals, delegate efficiently, and build trust in remote teams.

“Dave has a unique ability to break down complex concepts into simple, practical takeaways. I've seen him effectively develop generations of new managers using this accessible, fundamental approach through our years of working together. His codified playbook is a powerful one for growing the next generation of management talent.” - Diana Zhang

Learn more about MGMT Accelerator by Dave Kline here.

2. Building Good Teams

Building Good Teams is a two-week, cohort-based course on building and leading great teams. Course instructor Bob Gower is a collaborative teaming expert whose clients include Wikipedia, Spotify, and Zoom.

This course teaches advanced teamwork and leadership skills for new managers. Bob Gower offers solid leadership training for new managers who need to build strong teams and cultivate healthy team collaboration. Participants learn how to nurture trust, support inclusivity, and resolve conflicts.

Great teams are efficient, committed, and connected enough to be cohesive and functional on a consistent basis. A high level of functional team cohesiveness is a universal trait of high-performing teams. Achieving this requires intentional and careful management on a structural level.

This new manager training dives into how to develop the organizational structures and systems that innately foster great teamwork and enable the successful management of more difficult team members. It shows new managers how to become team architects – rather than task managers.

This is an advanced but experiential new manager training course. It leverages live workshops, hands-on projects, and peer learning to create an engaging and collaborative learning experience that helps new managers transform into confident leaders.

This is an essential leadership training course for new managers who feel like things are out of control or need to facilitate a positive transformation. It can also help those who tend to micro-manage their teams and want to build supportive management structures.

“Successful communication leads to intentional action, which can only happen with enrollment. Bob's work offers you a breakthrough in finding all three.” - Seth Godin

Learn more about Building Good Teams here.

3. People-First Product Leadership

People-First Product Leadership is a five-day course teaching product managers how to support, nurture, and empower their teams. This program is led by Diana Stepner, the VP of Product at Pearson and Monster. Stepner has built and advised product teams for over 15 years. She distilled her experience into a transformative program designed to create confident and effective product leaders.

This program explains how to foster a culture of continuous learning and growth within product teams and provides strategies for remote work environments. Product leaders will learn how to prioritize their people, build engaged teams, and avoid common behavioral pitfalls.

This is a great resource for new managers who are struggling on the job but feeling too swamped for a lengthy program.

Stepner provides practical exercises, role-playing exercises, and tangible resources for new managers who want to enhance their leadership skills. And yet, all of those insights are condensed into six hours of valuable content structured to be learned in three two-hour sessions spaced out across a week.

It’s a fast-paced, tactical new manager training course that builds the foundations of great personnel management.

“A great, engaging course that had the perfect balance of information, discussion, and workshop activities to learn more about becoming better product leaders and product people in general. It was a delight to interact with product leaders from around the world. Diana does a brilliant job of presenting, encouraging discourse, and leading by example.” - Brad Butcher

Learn more about People-First Product Leadership here.

4. ManagerBASICS by Bethany Hart

ManagerBASICS is a 4-week new manager training course hosted by Bethany Hart – a former Director at Yelp, executive coach, and management training expert.

Participants in this course learn the essential skills of being a great people manager, including the mastering art and science of management, team goal setting, inspiring and motivating, conducting effective 1:1s and team meetings, and creating a culture of trust and honest feedback.

These are core managerial competencies that outstanding managers seem to be natural at, but many new managers fail to grasp. In this course, Bethany offers vital resources for new managers who want to maximize their performance from day one.

ManagerBasics comes with practical frameworks, assessments, and other tools for enhancing your management approach, ensuring team success, and fostering a positive work environment.

“I was brand new to management when I went through ManagerBASICS and it immediately gave me the structure and direction that I needed to hold better 1:1 meetings, understand my team members' unique goals and motivators, and embrace the responsibility of being a new manager. Highly recommend!” - Andrea Weinberg

Learn more about ManagerBASICS here.

5. Management Mastery - Communicate with Influence

Management Mastery - Communicate with Influence is a two-week, cohort-based leadership training for new managers led by Jess Goldberg, a Columbia University teacher of communication skills and VP of Content at Embodied, Inc.

Jess teaches 8 critical skills for becoming a confident, compelling, and inspiring leader with great communication skills.

She offers techniques for presenting with confidence, inspiring employees, and managing conflicts, along with frameworks for providing effective feedback, running efficient meetings, and improving engagement.

This course is ideal for brand-new managers and founders who want to know how to train new managers in their company. It’s practical, covers the basics, and can be immediately applied for greater leadership success.

“If you're looking for a course that gives you broad strokes on how to be a good manager, this is it. It uses clear ideas, smart lists, and a simple, guiding framework to help you envision the manager that you want to be.” - Kenneth Butler

Learn more about Management Mastery - Communicate with Influence here.

Deciding on New Manager Training Courses: What to Consider

A new manager’s performance within the first few months predicts their overall success in the role. And there’s no underestimating how critical it is to provide sufficient support and resources for new managers.

Some of the best training resources for new managers are online courses consolidating industry-leading expertise into an accessible and convenient format.

Here are a few points to consider when evaluating potential new manager training courses:

Course schedule: how long does the course run for, will there be scheduled meetings, and can you meet the time commitments?
Cost: how much is the course and is it eligible for employer reimbursement?
Managerial level: is this for new managers, seasoned managers, or managers within a specific industry?
Career benefits: what learning benefits does the program offer and is it aligned with your objectives?
Recommended Leaners: who is the course creator tailoring the program to?

The most important factors are finding interesting courses led by world-class experts and hosted by a reputable learning and development provider.

Strengthen Your Managerial Capabilities

Managerial training helps new managers hit the ground running, lead effectively, and realize their potential. The best way for companies to train new managers is by providing well-made professional courses.

Maven has invaluable leadership training for new managers. These are expert-led courses offering instructor access, personal feedback, and peer engagement. It’s a rich learning experience delivering leading-edge knowledge.

FAQ About New Manager Training Courses

1. What is the biggest challenge for a new manager?

The biggest challenge for new managers is developing a leader’s mindset, especially in relation to former co-workers. Offering leadership training can help newly promoted managers adjust to their new roles.

2. What kind of training should a manager have?

Managers should be trained in effective time management, goal setting, conflict resolution, career coaching, project management, and team building.

3. What skills does a new manager need?

New managers need a variety of general leadership, business management, project management, and soft skills. Some of these essential skills for new managers include: