As covered in our guide to essential skills for new managers in Malaysia, stepping into one’s first leadership position requires a whole new set of competencies.
This is where leaders and HR managers use leadership development programmes, but with so many options, how can they be sure to choose the right ones, and in the right order?
To help, here are three steps to tailoring training for new managers in your organisation.
Step 1: Training needs analysis
While the role of a manager generally needs the same core skills, individuals have different strengths and weaknesses and circumstances differ from business to business.
A new manager who is afraid of ghosts, for example, may find night shifts unusually challenging.
Figure out what your new managers actually need to succeed in their role with:
- stakeholder feedback, and
- profiling tools / assessments
Stakeholder feedback
Each stakeholder naturally brings their own biases, so by collecting feedback from as many different stakeholders as possible, you avoid relying on a single perspective.
Combined, these viewpoints balance each other out and paint a more objective picture of challenges your new managers face.
| Stakeholder | Questions | What It Reveals |
| Supervisors |
| Clear expectations from leadership and alignment with organisational objectives |
| HR Team |
| Historical insights and training benchmarks |
| Other Managers |
| Lessons learned and practical insights |
| Direct Reports (Team Members) |
| How managers can improve team morale and performance |
| The New Managers |
| First-hand challenges |
Once patterns begin repeating across groups, you’ve likely collected enough feedback to act on.
Profiling tools & assessments
Profiling tools and assessments provide a data-driven way to uncover an individual manager’s strengths, weaknesses, and leadership style.
We personally use and vouch for Caliper for its depth of application, but there are many good options.
Unlike interviews or surveys, they minimise subjectivity and give you a structured framework for evaluating skills and behaviors.
Step 2: Engage a training provider
Once you’ve identified the gaps, the next step is deciding who should deliver the training.
Depending on resources and expertise, it could be an internal team member or external training provider; both bringing unique strengths and potential risks.
| Internal Trainers | External Trainers | |
| Pros | Understands company culture, processes, and contextRelatable to employeesCost-effective if resources existEasily tailored to business needsBuilds internal capability | Bring fresh perspectives and industry best practicesCredibility increases participant buy-inSpecialised expertise, up-to-date knowledgeMore objective, less influenced by office politicsScalable structured programs |
| Cons | May lack specialised expertisePotential bias and blind spotsStaff may not take them seriouslyConflicts with main role | Higher costLess familiarity with companyRisk of “one-size-fits-all” approach |
If using internal team members, remember being good at one’s job doesn’t automatically mean being good at teaching others how to do it.
Meanwhile, if you seek outside help, take the time to find a training provider that truly fits your needs as all of us will say we’re the best at it!
Regardless of whether the training is done internally or outsourced, the next step is essential.
Step 3: Measure training impact
Without continuous monitoring, there is no way to tell if new managers have made progress, nor if any improvements are due to training or a natural consequence of on-the-job learning.
Here lies a major challenge with using internal trainers.
Your team members have their own primary tasks, and in our experience, unless they are guided or held accountable, post-training KPIs are almost never thought of, and even more rarely followed through.
To be candid, many only do it because they feel forced, not out of passion or a desire to teach.
Meanwhile, to a reputable training provider, measuring post-training impact is as instinctive as breathing.
For example, when D Jungle conducts training, we will:
- run pre- and post-training assessments
- monitor progress
- set regular check-in points
- hold participants accountable
- adjust the programme if results aren’t coming through
Essentially, our programmes are built with tracking progress in mind, and this isn’t unique to us; any competent training provider will do the same.
Of course, we’re generalising, and have met many incredible internal trainers over the years.
The point is to be sure the one conducting training has a plan to measure their training impact!
The limits of formal instruction
First and foremost, we want to set realistic expectations of what training programmes can offer.
Formal instruction by nature lags behind real-world circumstances and never truly replicates it.
In fact, the 70-20-10 model by Lombardo suggests that when it comes to learning:
- 10% is from formal learning (courses, workshops, seminars)
- 20% is from social interactions (mentors, peers, networking)
- 70% is from hands-on, on-the-job experience.
It means even the best training programmes that take place outside of the workplace only account for a small part of turning first time managers into effective leaders.
This does NOT mean formal learning is unimportant; otherwise why have schools at all?
Like schools, formal training programmes provide:
- a low-stakes and controllable environment
- a knowledgeable instructor, and
- pre-defined learning objectives / outcomes
Learners (in this case new managers) feel safe to ask ‘dumb’ questions, challenge themselves, challenge others, and make mistakes.
It forms a foundation of competence they then further build on through interactions with team members and solving problems on their own (and secretly ChatGPT).
P.S. Check out our HRDC Claimable training programmes for first time managers for a very cost-effective way to conduct training!
Let D Jungle People upskill your new managers
D Jungle People doesn’t have hundreds of trainers, just a handful of passionate experts who are dedicated to tailoring every session to align with your new and first-time managers’ needs.
Get in touch to explore custom corporate training solutions that deliver impact–and yes, we are HRDC Registered Training Providers!
