I started Mentors for Managers after I felt too many emerging managers tell me that they had no formal management or leadership training. As my team began to grow, I had the opportunity to hire more leaders and hire more team members. Every time I completed an onboarding I received the same feedback.

“No one has taken the time to train, coach and mentor me like you. My previous manager never took the time to show me how to do anything. My 121’s were only annual, during the performance review period.”

What? How is that possible? How does someone learn the role if you don’t teach them? How does someone perform better year over year without development?

You’d think that after hearing this several times I would no longer be shocked, but I was. I couldn’t believe how many employees had worked their entire careers with a subpar manager/leader. I refused to believe that this many people didn’t have the support they needed from their manager, or that it was difficult to get time with their manager. There had to be a reason. Some employees felt their manager didn’t even know who they were. There’s been less than a handful of team members in over 10 years of my leadership experience tell me they’ve had a fantastic manager/leader.

I needed to dig into this more.

Why were the numbers so low?

Did these managers not care?

What was I doing differently with my own leaders, that reflected differently in the experience of their team members?

So I started meeting with managers. Emerging leaders. Leaders who were in their role for less then 3-4 years. I asked them several questions (probably too many questions). Every manager came back with the following responses:

I was great at my job, but had no idea how to lead a team. No one wanted to mentor me.
I went from being friends with my co-workers to being left out of conversations overnight from my promotion. I was nervous and felt I was losing trust and respect from the team.
I didn’t have all the answers and I was embarrassed to say so in front of my team. I didn’t want them to think I wasn’t dependable or capable.
No one took the time to teach me what management and leadership actually was.
I just wanted to jump in and do the work for them. I didn’t realize I was preventing their development. I thought I was helping them.
121’s felt awkward and I have a hard time with confrontation or telling a team member they’re not working well. I avoided having 121’s all together and left it to quarterly or annually.
I didn’t feel I could delegate anything, I felt I needed to do all the work to prove to my boss that I was capable of leading the team and getting the work done.
My help was unwanted. Instead of talking about it, I just left them alone to fend for themselves.
I had no one to look up to, to help guide me through my first 6-12 months in my role. It was sink or swim.
Leading with fear was easier. I was able to command the respect and attention I needed from the team.

That was a lot to unpack. These employees were rewarded for being high-performers with a management role, but once they were promoted, they were left to figure it out on their own. And the issues they needed help with, were…simple to fix and support. Many of the managers were struggling with the below topics:

Setting up team goals.
Setting up 121’s and understanding how they should be structured.
Knowing what to discuss during a 121.
Building a relationship with their team.
Earning the teams trust.
Discussing performance and development.
How to hire or fire a team member.

The list goes on. But every topic was something that could be taught in 1 or 2 teaching sessions with ongoing mentorship.

I felt compelled to provide some support to the newer and emerging managers. Their intentions were good, their will was high, they were engaged, but their skill set was low. Which is normal, whenever someone starts a new job or shifts into a new role, there are new skills to be learned. We have to allow time for a learning curve. We have to provide job training so the individual knows how to do the role, especially when they have zero experience.

On the job training seems standard for the majority of roles, even with education:

Plumbers and construction workers - undergo apprenticeship programs.
Lawyers - typically have a placement or a co-op program.
Doctors - will need to complete a fellowship program.
Cashier at a store - undergoes a job shadowing training program.
Sales rep - spends the first 2-4 weeks in an intensive sales training program followed by job shadowing.

You get the point.

So how come when we promote high-performers into a manager role, we provide zero training?

Why are there no investments being made in management and leadership programs?

The performance of the team heavily depends on the leadership of the manager.

Performance and leadership have a direct correlation. Why don’t we apply training programs for new managers, as we do for so many other roles.

So after digging and asking 1000+ questions, I found my answer. Manager’s used to be high-performing team members. They were promoted because they demonstrated high performance and showcased elements of leadership capability. That new manager is still driven, they still strive to be the best and they want to achieve. The issue is not in their mindset, it’s in the lack of training during the transition from team member to manager.

The hard truth, there’s a small window of opportunity to properly onboard and train these new managers. Once that window is missed, these managers will become disengaged. Everything will seem hard, they will not see the same progress and achievements they were once used to. After some time, there disengagement will become apparent and their team will be the ones to feel the effect of their disengagement the most.

Hence the emergence of Mentors for Managers.

I want to capture the emerging leaders who are in the small window of opportunity and provide them with the leadership and management training they need in order to be a high-performing manager and lead a high-performing team.

That’s my mission and my purpose.

THE MANAGER TOOLKIT