Managing Managers: Advanced Practices

When managers are promoted to lead other managers, they often rely on the habits that made them successful as first-line supervisors. They solve problems personally, review detail instead of outcomes, and bypass their managers to deal directly with staff. Their managers are then unclear about decisions they can take, development is left to chance, and the senior leader becomes a bottleneck. At the same time, the management team works as a set of separate units rather than as a team.

This programme focuses on the specific work of leading through other managers. It moves through five stages: making the shift in role and priorities, setting direction and decision rights, building and leading the management team, developing managers and the leadership pipeline, and holding managers to account for performance and culture.

Built on recognised practice. The programme references the leadership pipeline model of role transitions, research on high-performing leadership teams and psychological safety, situational and adaptive leadership approaches, structured coaching models such as GROW, and objective-setting methods such as OKRs and balanced scorecards. They are used to build practical habits, not as theory to memorise.

Decisions this programme improves. What the senior leader should stop doing personally; which decisions to delegate to managers and which to keep; how to structure the management team and its meetings; how to diagnose and respond to an underperforming manager; which managers to develop for larger roles; and how to handle conflict and competition between managers.

How it is delivered. Twenty hours across five sessions, built around one running case: a newly appointed director inheriting a management team with an underperforming manager, a high-potential manager ready to leave and competing priorities between units. Participants diagnose the team, redesign decision rights, plan coaching conversations and prepare a development plan for their own managers.

In-house option. For organisations, the programme can be tailored to your own leadership framework, competency model, performance cycle and succession planning process, and delivered to cohorts of directors and senior managers together.

Who Should Attend

Directors and heads of function who lead teams of managers

Senior managers newly promoted to lead other managers

General managers and deputies in government entities and national companies

Executives responsible for building leadership capability in their organisation

HR and talent leaders designing leadership development and succession programmes

Objectives

Describe how the work of leading managers differs from leading front-line staff and adjust their own priorities

Translate organisational strategy into clear direction and objectives for managers

Define decision rights and delegate authority to managers without losing oversight

Diagnose the effectiveness of their management team and design improvements

Run management team meetings that focus on decisions and cross-unit issues

Coach managers using structured conversations and feedback

Assess managers' performance and potential and plan development and succession

Address underperformance and derailing behaviours in managers

Manage conflict and competition between managers and units

Shape the culture their managers create through expectations, role modelling and measures

Course Outline

Making the Shift: The Work of Leading Managers

Leadership transitions: from managing others to managing managers and functions
Time, priorities and what to stop doing
Skip-level relationships: staying informed without undermining managers
Personal leadership style and its impact on a management team
Leading in public sector and government environments
Self-assessment and 360-degree feedback insights

Setting Direction and Decision Rights

Translating strategy into unit objectives and OKRs
Balanced scorecards and cascading measures
Decision rights: what to delegate, what to share and what to keep
Oversight through outcomes rather than detail
Resource allocation and trade-offs between units
Communicating priorities consistently through managers

Building and Leading the Management Team

From a group of managers to a leadership team
Characteristics of high-performing leadership teams
Psychological safety and constructive challenge
Designing management meetings for decisions
Handling conflict and competition between managers
Leading hybrid and distributed management teams

Developing Managers and the Leadership Pipeline

Assessing performance and potential
Coaching managers: the GROW model and coaching conversations
Development through stretch assignments, projects and mentoring
Succession planning and readiness assessment
Retaining high-potential managers
Supporting new managers through transition

Accountability, Performance and Culture

Performance conversations with managers
Managing underperforming and derailing managers
Holding managers accountable for people outcomes and engagement
Culture: what managers pay attention to, reward and tolerate
Leading managers through change and uncertainty
Personal action plan for leading your management team

Competencies

Leadership transition to managing managers

Strategic direction setting through others

Decision rights and delegation

Leadership team development

Coaching and developing managers

Performance and potential assessment

Succession planning

Managing underperforming managers

Shaping management culture

Live Online

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