Better Develop Managers: Research-Backed Approaches That Work
Managers sit at the center of organizational success. They:
- Shape employee engagement.
- Drive execution.
- Influence the retention of top talent.
- Translate strategy into action.
Yet despite their critical role, many organizations continue to underinvest in new manager training to develop management capability.
The consequences are significant. Fortune reports that only 7% of senior leaders believe their organizations are effectively developing leaders. Meanwhile, research from Gartner found that 60% of new managers underperform during their first two years in the role, and many develop ineffective habits that persist throughout their careers.
These findings point to a clear challenge: traditional management development approaches are often falling short. To build leaders who can thrive in today’s rapidly changing business environment, organizations must take a more strategic and evidence-based approach to developing managers.
5 Ways to Better Develop Managers and Strengthen Leadership Effectiveness
No matter what approach you deploy to develop your people managers, there are factors that matter most in the success of your initiative. The greater your chances are of success if you:
- Actively Involve Key Stakeholders in the Design
One of the most common reasons management development initiatives fail is a lack of relevance. Too often, HR and Talent Development teams design programs without sufficient input from the people most affected by them — managers, their leaders, and executive stakeholders.
A collaborative design process dramatically increases the likelihood that development efforts will address real business challenges and build the capabilities that matter most. We refer to this as 3×3 Relevance™ — actively engaging participants, their managers, and senior leaders to shape learning objectives, content, and expected business outcomes.
While stakeholder involvement may require additional time upfront, it often accelerates adoption, improves learning transfer, and increases business impact.
Without it, our training measurement research show that your management training will have an 80% failure rate.
- Make Management Development an Organization-Wide Priority
Management capability should not be developed in isolation. Organizations create greater leadership bench strength when development extends across leadership levels — from emerging leaders and first-time managers to experienced leaders who manage other managers.
A company-wide approach helps establish a common leadership language, shared expectations, and consistent management practices. It also improves alignment, collaboration, and accountability across teams.
When managers throughout the organization are operating from the same leadership framework, employees experience greater clarity and consistency, regardless of where they work.
- Build Learning Around Real-World Application
Research consistently shows that leadership capability is developed through practice, feedback, and experience — not through passive learning alone.
The most effective management development programs create opportunities for managers to apply new skills to real business challenges, receive coaching, and refine their approach over time. Leadership action learning, business simulations, peer coaching, people manager assessment centers, and structured practice opportunities significantly increase learning transfer and long-term behavior change.
Rather than focusing primarily on content delivery, design development experiences that mirror the business-driven decisions, conversations, and challenges managers face every day.
- Focus on the Critical Few Leadership Behaviors
Attempting to develop every leadership skill at once rarely produces meaningful results. Lasting change occurs when organizations identify and prioritize the small number of leadership scenarios and behaviors that will have the greatest impact on business performance.
For some organizations, strategic decision-making may be critical. For others, coaching, accountability, collaboration, or change leadership may matter most.
The key is to align management development efforts with organizational strategy, culture, and business priorities. Concentrating resources on the critical few capabilities increases focus, accelerates behavior change, and improves measurable outcomes.
- Treat Management Development as a Change Initiative
Developing managers is not simply a training effort — it is an organizational change effort.
Successful change requires visible executive sponsorship, clear expectations, ongoing reinforcement, measurement, coaching, and accountability. New leadership behaviors must be modeled by senior leaders, supported by systems and processes, and recognized when demonstrated effectively.
Without reinforcement, even the best development programs struggle to create lasting impact. With it, organizations can build management capability that strengthens performance long after the formal learning experience ends.
The Bottom Line
The quality of an organization’s managers often determines the quality of its results. As business environments become increasingly complex, the need for capable, adaptable, and effective managers continues to grow. Organizations that invest strategically in management development create stronger leaders, more engaged employees, better business outcomes, and a deeper leadership bench for the future. The question is not whether you can afford to develop your managers — it is whether you can afford not to.
Don’t leave management effectiveness to chance. Download Do Your Managers Drive Performance? The 4 Metrics That Reveal the Truth to identify what’s working, uncover hidden performance gaps, and focus on the measures that matter most.
Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.
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