Training Your People Managers? Three Ways to Identify the Skills They Need
People managers are critical to your organization. They have the greatest influence on your nonprofit. They have the ability to help initiatives go well. They hear from both the senior leaders and the support staff. I've heard from several nonprofits that they are focused on developing their people managers this year. But how do you know what to focus on? That's what we're going to explore in this week's episode of Learning for Good.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
02:14 The three ways you can identify the skills your people managers need
02:43 Looking at employee engagement data to inform learning needs
04:15 Talking directly to your people managers to uncover what they really need
06:20 Doing external research to find trends happening in staff development
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Training Your People Managers? Three Ways to Identify the Skills They Need
Who do you think has the greatest influence in your organization?
The ability to help initiatives go well? The power to bring down an organizational culture?
I’d say it's most likely your people managers.
Why?
Because they sit in the middle of the organization. They hear from both the senior leaders and the support staff.
When they are ALL IN, they can influence their teams. And when they aren't. Well, they can influence them too – but probably not in a good way.
When they have the right skills, they can develop their teams. And when they don't, they can't. They are critical to your organization.
I've heard from several nonprofits that they are focused on developing their people managers this year. But how do you know what to focus on?
Three Ways to Identify the Skills Your People Managers Need
Today, we’ll discuss three ways you can identify the skills your people managers need. Ready?
Look at employee engagement data
Ask your people managers (and supervisors)
Do some external research and compare
Now, let's take a closer look at each of those.
1) Look at Employee Engagement Data
“If you are running employee engagement surveys, you have data, and this can be a wealth of information.”
Generally, employee engagement surveys are intended to help you understand your staff's perceptions of the organization. It can help you shape your organizational culture and build trust.
You can also use them as a benchmark over time to see how things are changing.
But if you have this data, it can also be used to inform learning needs.
The data can help you see what your staff are experiencing, what they are struggling with, what they are excited about, and how well they work together.
For instance, you may have a question about how satisfied your staff are with the communication they receive. And the responses may reveal a need for improved communication skills in your people managers.
Or you may ask a question about how well they can work with others in the organization. And you may recognize a need to develop project management, facilitation, or collaboration skills in your people managers.
“You only have that information if you have the data. So if you're running employee engagement surveys, take a look at that data and see what you can pull from that, what you can use to identify the skills that those people managers need.” - Heather Burright, episode 35 of Learning for Good.
2) Ask Your People Managers (and Supervisors)
Talking directly to your people managers can be powerful. Schedule one-on-one interviews or focus groups – or run some surveys to gather information directly from them.
You can use questions like:
What are you doing really well as a people manager?
And they can reflect and tell you what they think is going well.
What has been challenging for you?
Listen to those challenges and what underlying skills might be causing them to experience those challenges.
What resources do you wish you had?
Some of this might be tangible things within the position or budgetary things, right? But some of it will probably lead you towards skills.
What advice would you give a new people manager?
This gives you a little bit of insight into how they view the role, or what they've learned along the way that maybe you can already start to develop in new people managers.
Listen to their responses as you ask these types of questions, and ask follow-up questions as you need to. Then compare those answers to identify themes.
So if you've talked to eight people managers, compare their answers to see if they're all saying similar things. And then you can start to pull those themes and use those to identify the skills that people managers need.
Also ask supervisors what their people managers are doing well, or what is challenging for them – you'll probably get some different insights, which again, you can compare to identify what skills are most needed.
3) Do External Research and Compare
When we look externally, we can start to see research reports, blog posts, and articles about all the trends that are happening in staff development. That can be valuable information.
You can review that research, and identify what's relevant to your nonprofit – specifically by comparing their research to what you found in your employee engagement surveys, or when you are talking directly to those people managers.
I don't recommend external research alone. But it can be really valuable when you compare that with the context of your organization.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
