First-time manager training: what it should cover when 82% of new managers have had none
By Gabriel McKeown, Head of Research, Newspage ·
First-time manager training can be key to a company's future growth prospects, leadership coaches and HR experts told Newspage.
They say the move from doing the work to leading others, managing former colleagues, marshalling difficult conversations and overseeing the cost of a team, can be a challenge at the best of times.
They also warned that first-time managers are being left to "sink or swim" and go “from mate to manager overnight”.
Research in 2023 by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) showed that 82% of new managers in the UK have had no formal training.
The same research found that one in three workers have left a job because of a negative work culture.
Experts said people are usually promoted for being good at the job, and that the skills behind the promotion are different from the skills needed to run a team.
They said coaching, mentoring and peer support need to run alongside any course, and that support matters most in a new manager's first few months.
What should first-time manager training cover?
Experts named a common set of skills new managers are rarely taught: setting expectations, giving and receiving feedback, handling underperformance, delegating and managing people who were their peers previously.
Several also said training should cover the business side of the role, from budgets and reporting to the cost of the team itself.
Kelly Smallcombe, Fractional Chief People Officer at Meliorem HR Consultancy, said: "Courses alone will not fix accidental managers. Some behaviours cannot be taught, and some people do not believe they need the training.
"The best managers often learned what not to do from the worst.
"Good first-time manager training should cover the conversations new managers avoid: setting expectations, giving direct feedback, handling underperformance and, hardest of all, receiving criticism.
"The answer for a small business is psychological safety. That means team members can speak up, admit mistakes and give feedback without repercussions, including feedback on their manager.
"They ask for feedback and visibly act on it. They never punish someone for bringing bad news.
"This matters because being told to change by a manager is rarely enough. Hearing it directly from the team often is. It costs nothing financially but everything in accountability, and it is built through behaviour, not policy."
Is a course enough, or do new managers need coaching and mentoring too?
Most experts who responded said a course gives a new manager the theory, and that coaching, mentoring and peer groups are what help it stick once they are leading a team.
Sarah Gatford, The Positivity Pathfinder and Head of Interactions at Derby-based Sarah Gatford Ltd, said: "From mate to manager overnight. A course alone won't teach you how to deal with that. It gives you information, but it isn't embedded before your first awkward conversation with an old friend.
"Each kind of support does a different job. A mentor shares what worked for them. A peer group shows you're not the only one struggling. Coaching asks the questions that help you find your own way, because your team needs the manager you are, not a copy of someone else.
"It also helps with how you talk to yourself. If the voice in your head says you're failing, it shows in how you speak to your team."
How can a small business with no HR team or training budget train a new manager?
For a small business, the cheapest starting point is time from the owner or an experienced colleague.
Experts suggested a monthly sit-down between the owner and the new manager to go through what the team costs and what it brings in, mentoring the new manager into the role, and building a culture where the team can give feedback without repercussions.
Jannice Jones, Founder at Quiet Tide Consulting, said: "Many first-time managers are promoted because they are good at doing the 'job'. However these are not the skills needed to successfully manage people.
"If the organisation is small with little or no budget they could mentor the new manager into post. What they need is the ability to delegate, communicate well and an understanding of their full role within the business.
"What we see instead is a new manager left to their own, often limited devices to sink or swim. Many sink and take others with them. There is nothing worse or more disheartening than to be managed by someone who doesn't know what they are doing or the harm they are causing."
What difference does the right training make?
Managers who have had formal training are significantly more likely to report concerns or wrongdoing at work than those who have not, the CMI found.
The effect on teams is just as clear. Of workers who rate their manager as effective, 72% feel valued and appreciated, falling to 15% among those whose manager is rated ineffective.
Amelia Brooke, Career Coach at Amelia Brooke Career Vision, said imposter syndrome is often "the biggest barrier preventing great people from stepping into management roles".
She added: "Supporting new managers with an induction-like programme of internal training, covering current strategies, action plans, budgets, reporting, and policies, goes a long way toward removing that 'sink or swim' mindset.
"Additional training for first-time managers should also include leadership fundamentals such as people management, effective communication, relationship building, and conflict resolution.
“Beyond traditional training, first 90-day coaching with a career transition coach adds immense value by providing a safe, objective space to develop key networks, navigate real-time challenges, build self-confidence, and successfully transition from an individual contributor to a capable, trusted leader.”
Why are so many people promoted to manager with no training?
Promotion into management often follows strong performance in the job itself, with training treated as something that can come later.
Nearly half of managers believe colleagues have won promotion on internal relationships and profile rather than ability, the CMI found.
Tony Redondo, Founder at Newquay-based Cosmos Currency Exchange, said: "Sad to see some things never change.
"I was promoted into management 34 years ago for technical performance, not leadership aptitude, with no training nor guidance.
"Businesses still assume individual excellence means people skills and treat promotion as a reward. It can cost them dearly: the CMI links untrained managers to a third of departures, with the recruitment bills, lost productivity and burnout that follow.
"Unfair on the manager, unfair on the team.
"Good training must go beyond compliance and surface-level communication. It has to tackle the shift from doing the work to enabling others, managing former peers, difficult conversations and psychological safety.
"I picked up standalone courses later, but I learnt by trial and error. Lasting change needs ongoing coaching, internal mentoring and peer support.
"Done properly, training turns drowning managers into leaders who empower their teams, to the benefit of the business and everyone in it."
What does an untrained first-time manager cost a business?
A new manager takes on responsibility for the cost of a team, and that cost runs well above the salary line.
When staff leave, the business also pays to recruit and train a replacement. Half of workers who do not rate their manager plan to leave their company within the next year, the CMI said.
Harvey Dhillon, CEO at Zmartly, said the gap he would fix in first-time manager training is "the numbers, because that's the part a new manager is quietly judged on".
He added: "Overnight they're responsible for the cost of a team, and they may never have been shown what a person costs.
"Someone on a £30,000 salary costs the business noticeably more, because the employer pays National Insurance at 15% on most of that pay, before pension contributions and the time it takes to hire them.
"So a team member who leaves because their manager was never trained costs far more than a vacancy.
"A small business with no HR team doesn't need a course to start. The owner can sit down with a new manager once a month and go through what the team costs and what it brings in. When you do pay for training related to the job, the employee doesn't pay tax on it as a benefit.
"Teach the numbers in the first month, not the first year."
