CIPD - Developing senior managers

Learning, training and development

Originally issued January 2007; latest revision January 2008

This factsheet gives introductory guidance. It:

considers why senior managers are different
looks at the brokerage and delivery roles of HRD professionals
outlines some development methods appropriate for this group.

This factsheet covers the development of senior managers in organisations. Senior managers often wish to be treated as a ‘special case’ as they may be higher up the organisational hierarchy than the HRD professional organising their development. In addition they will often think of their development as leadership rather than management development. Organisations will make up their own minds about the differences (or not) between leaders and managers. For more information, CIPD members can use our training activity Leadership or management? The differences.

Go to the activity Leadership or management? The differences

There is a separate factsheet on management development in general which indicates background issues and some development approaches.

Go to our Management development factsheet

Senior managers are different

Senior managers are partly defined by having a status which provides benefits (such as advantageous share option schemes or special bonuses) not available to other employees. However, this factsheet focuses on managers at board level or just below, and especially where the individual has major strategic responsibilities.

These managers are different. They are, of course, likely to respond to many learning and development issues just like any other people in the organisation. But there are significant factors about this group of managers that make them genuinely different from the rest of the management population.

Status - They are likely to be sensitive to their senior status and even in relatively egalitarian organisations they are likely to see their development needs as different.
Terminology - Note the use of the term 'development' - not 'training' or even 'learning'. Many senior managers see training as an activity for more junior people and are likely to resent the idea that they can be subject to 'sheep dip' generalised training courses. They may even reject the idea that they need to learn. However, the neutrality of the term 'development' usually appeals.
Numbers - There are usually fewer of them than other groups. Most organisations retain a pyramidal hierarchy, even if they have been flattened over the years. Such a structure must of necessity have few people at the top. This again points away from standardised solutions.
Isolation - Some may be in isolated roles without a peer group. A great deal of the learning that goes on in organisations is when people share problems and talk together about solutions. These can vary from a quick conversation at the coffee machine or water cooler to formal team meetings. Many senior managers lack these opportunities especially where they may be burdened with significant problems that they feel unable to talk about to more junior managers. Very senior people, such as CEOs, feel the loneliness of the job and the impossibility of others really understanding the pressures on them. This point is crucially important in thinking about development issues. Sometimes people in middle management roles imagine that, as they report into a senior manager, they understand what the role is like. They may well not.
Political skills - Senior managers often need highly refined political skills in order to survive. Most organisations would not want to run courses for senior managers on how to be a better corporate politician. Yet there does need to be some legitimate assistance provided for new senior managers in this area.

All the above points justify organisations planning specifically for senior management development. One major benefit of getting senior managers tuned into learning and development processes is that it makes it so much easier to get support for development programmes at lower levels. There is absolutely no doubt that a major stumbling block to creating a learning culture in an organisation is when senior managers are not themselves committed to their own development.

The role of HRD professionals

One problem is that often in-house HRD professionals are not seen as credible in assisting the development of senior managers. It is useful to distinguish between the following roles for HRD staff:

the brokerage role - advising on development opportunities, and fixing it so that senior managers can avail themselves of such opportunities
the direct delivery role.

HRD professionals may have a key role in relation to brokerage. However, it may be that internal HRD staff are not able to play a role in delivery, whether through course provision or coaching or other direct development methods.

The brokerage role

Even though brokerage seems important, there can be barriers for internal HRD staff in playing a major role for senior managers.

Analysing development needs

Often senior managers doubt that trainers and developers, being usually at a more junior level to them, really know what is needed at senior levels. Hence mechanistic training needs analysis, through questionnaires for example, may be less than useful as senior managers may dress up 'needs' in acceptable language or not admit to real needs. In theory, development needs should be adequately identified in a performance review, but this may not always happen.

As an example, one training needs analysis identified senior manager needs as strategic thinking and leadership. When these responses were examined more carefully by consultants able to understand the issues, the managers concerned admitted that simple issues like time management were a priority as well as political skills. The trainers had responded to the training needs analysis and wondered why they did not get enough takers for the courses that they put on.

Brokerage is usually more successful where HRD staff conduct development reviews with senior managers, and again, note the language here. Senior managers may not welcome the notions of 'needs' or of 'training' (and therefore reject a 'training needs analysis' approach).

Find out more information on training needs in our factsheet Identifying learning and training needs.

Go to our factsheet Identifying learning and training needs

Development reviews

A development review is about helping senior managers to open up about the business issues that they face and then helping them to see the links to learning and development.

Two simple questioning methods can help to open up senior managers:

Asking them what they are good at doing, what makes them effective senior managers, their skills, capabilities, knowledge. Then asking them where these came from. The most likely answer is that they learned them. This can open up a conversation which builds on the point that if most of what makes them effective has been learned, maybe learning is a key to future progress.
If a person says that they are already effective, the challenge can be 'do they think that the world might change in the future'. And if it will, does this mean that they might need to learn to be effective in this new future world? Note that it is important not to talk about ways that the person might learn, which could make them resist this line of inquiry. The conversation has to be genuinely open and about how to respond to the concerns of the manager.

Such approaches often point to other ways into this problem. One possibility is to let the managers themselves define their own needs and to create a programme which is free of content so that they can do this. Another route is to use outside consultants, so long as they in turn use the more successful methods listed above.

360 degree feedback

360 degree feedback has become more accepted and, if the culture of the organisation is congenial, senior managers increasingly accept the value of such evidence. There are, though, some specific issues for senior people.

They may need a tailored questionnaire that responds to needs at this level rather than an off-the-shelf model.
The interpretation of the results of a 360 degree feedback process may need a skilled external consultant/coach to assist the manager to make sense of the data. This may be especially important where there are bruised egos as a result of the feedback.

For more information on this tool, see our factsheet on 360 feedback.

Go to our factsheet on 360 feedback

Psychometric tests

Psychometrics are acceptable to some senior managers and there may be value in using standard tests and inventories. However, other senior managers may resist such approaches and imposing psychometric methods may be undesirable. As with 360 degree feedback, external support from a coach/consultant may be important in helping a manager to interpret the results that they get and to plan development based on the results. For more information, see out factsheet on testing.

Go to our factsheet on Psychological testing

The delivery role

Even if the analysis and brokerage is carried out well, there is still the problem of the delivery side.

Legitimate reasons not to involve internal HRD in delivery include the need for external stimulus and the need to respond to individual development requirements. Less acceptably, snobbery and elitism can be the reason for senior managers rejecting support from internal HRD people.

The need for external stimulus

Senior managers often feel the need to get inspiration from outside their own organisation. This may be through external consultants/developers being invited inside the organisation to support development activity. They also feel, with the internal politics that they face, that they will find it easier to talk to people at the same level but from different organisations. Hence many senior managers prefer to go outside the organisation altogether for formal programmes.

From evaluations of successful programmes, senior managers do typically comment on the value of going outside their own organisation. And they often say how relieved they are to find managers in other organisations facing the same problems. This can be a considerable boost to self confidence. They also say that they glean new ideas and new perspectives from the interaction with those outside their own organisation.

The need to respond to individual development requirements

Senior managers may see themselves as being in unique situations and they may reasonably reject any standardised approach offered by the HRD function. This problem can be compounded if the organisation tries to use a standardised competency list that is supposed to cover the requirements of all managers. Some lists allow for the fact that senior managers may need a higher level in the competences than junior managers - but the categories are still the same.

Many senior managers find these formalised lists, written in what they see as ‘HR jargon’, quite unhelpful. They also see that specific skills and abilities that they want to develop can get left off such a list.

Development needs at different career stages

Given that senior managers will often be moving to the top of the organisation, different needs at different stages will need to be identified.

Broadly there are three situations around a job change:

preparing for the change
going through the transition
adjusting to the new role.

These issues can be translated into development needs at each stage.

Preparational development - where a manager needs to learn new skills for promotion.
Transitional development - where a manager might need specific support, such as coaching or mentoring, while they are making the transition into the new role. The support here often needs to be quite timely and focused.
Role development - when a person is new into their role they may need help in adjusting to new demands. One need is often for senior managers to stop doing things that they did in their previous role – and this can be a major learning issue.

Development methods for senior managers

Development approaches which are relevant for senior managers include coaching and mentoring, secondments and 360 feedback, each of which is the subject of a separate factsheet.

Senior managers are likely to use work-based approaches a great deal and there is specific advice on these¹.

For open minded and non-defensive senior managers, the whole array of methods that could be used with more junior staff can be appropriate. And it may be important not to lose sight of the fact that obvious approaches, such as reading or going to conferences, can apply to this group.

Some other approaches that may have relevance include:

Learning groups

Getting groups of senior managers to meet together to work on their learning needs is almost like group mentoring. Such groups need to consist of five or six managers that create their own learning agenda and a skilled learning group adviser to make it work.

One variant of this model is the action learning set, where individuals might take on projects, either singly or as a team so long as the projects are realistic and the managers focus on the 'learning' and not the 'action'.

CIPD members can use our training activity on action learning.

Go to Action learning for practitioners and managers

Shadowing

A simple model is to pair up two senior managers. One spends the day following round the other and then at the end of the day there is a de-brief where the shadower can feedback to their colleague what they have observed. Both parties can learn from the process. The roles are reversed for a subsequent day. This is a highly cost effective learning mode but it does need careful organising.

E-learning

Senior managers may not want to admit to weaknesses in front of others but the anonymity of the Internet or a company intranet can allow the person to explore issues on their own without the direct involvement of others. However, many senior managers may need guidance to avoid wasting time on irrelevant websites.

For more information, see our factsheet on e-learning.

Go to our E-learning: progress and prospects factsheet

Evaluation

HRD professionals may need to evaluate development options prior to recommending them. Reports from other senior managers on their past learning and development may help in the choice of appropriate methods for the future

If, after evaluating the evidence, a programme of development is implemented then its success needs to be evaluated. The simplest evaluation is where senior managers report on changes that they have made to the business as a result of their learning. Note that ‘happiness’ ratings may not have any link to business pay-off so should be treated with caution.

Go to our factsheet on Training evaluation: making it happen

Finally…

While it may seem daunting to tackle some of the issues at this level there is no doubt that, if senior managers become more enthusiastic about their own learning, there are huge benefits for the organisation as a whole. Indeed any idea of creating a learning organisation or getting senior management support for learning at lower levels can be irrelevant without senior managers themselves seriously and systematically addressing their own learning needs.

References

CUNNINGHAM, I., DAWES, G. and BENNETT, B. (2004) The handbook of work based learning. Aldershot: Gower.

Developing senior managers