Most new managers start with good intentions but little support—no training, no clear plan, just figuring it out as they go. It’s a tough setup for success. A New Manager Integration (NMI) programme changes that by providing structure, coaching, feedback, team alignment, and formal training to help new managers lead with confidence, not guesswork.
Let’s meet Anne (hi Anne!). She’s a representation of upwards of 82% of new managers. She was good at her job, delivered solid results, and had good relationships with her colleagues. As a result, she was recently promoted (yay Anne!) to a people manager role for the first time. She was excited and ready to hit the ground running. Yet, she was wholly unequipped to transition from being an individual contributor to a people manager. She is what is referred to as an ‘accidental manager’. Accidental doesn’t mean that it was a mistake that she was promoted or that she randomly stumbled into the promotion; it means she was promoted without any formal leadership or management training. Too often, managers are forced to figure out a role as important as management by guessing. They try to get by relying on applying what they’ve observed from other leaders in their career, or by applying transferrable skills from other areas of life outside of work, but mostly, they muddle through relying on instinct.
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As can be imagined, this is not a recipe for success. According to Gartner, 60% of new managers fail within the first two years. The biggest contributing factor for this high failure rate? Lack of leadership and management Integration programmes. Additionally, a recent Achievers Workforce Institute study found that 75% of all employees rate their managers as ‘ineffective’. This is for all managers, let alone first-time managers who have never had direct reports before. So, when we think about Anne, not only is she at risk of failing, she’s also at risk of losing her team.
For Anne’s sake, let’s assume there is positive intent all round. For this scenario, we’ll assume the company sees her potential, her manager is willing to invest in her career development, and Anne has both the underlying capacity and desire to effectively manage others. However, she just lacks the formal training to do so. So, what can be done to give her every chance for success? The answer lies in a New Manager Integration (NMI) programme.
A New Manager Integration (NMI) gives structure for a new manager’s first 100 days. This can be for both first-time managers, senior executives, or any people manager in between. An NMI consists of five critical components:
- A structured managerial on-boarding plan.
- 1:1 support (in the form of an external or internal coach, or a well-equipped HRBP).
- Data gathering and feedback from the new manager’s direct reports.
- A team workshop to review feedback, strategize, and plan a path forward.
- Formal training in alignment with the company’s leadership principles.
Let’s look at each of these components one-by-one.
Managerial Onboarding Plan
Similarly to when a new employee joins a company, a new manager should have an onboarding plan. The focus should be on both learning and stability. Flexible plans should be created that will allow a new manager to learn about the team; the tasks; goals and metrics; key stakeholders; existing strategies; and, as necessary, the market, customers, and products. Simultaneously, if nothing is severely broken or in need of major overhauls, continuity of performance and output should be stressed over large scale changes. Too often, too much is expected of a new manager in their first three months. Set up a new manager for success by keeping expectations limited to onboarding rather than “shaking things up.”
1:1 Support
New managers will need coaching, mentoring, guidance, and support. Depending on resources available, this can come from external or internal coaches, HRBPs, or their direct manager if those people have the tools necessary to adequately support the new manager.
Data Gathering and Feedback
Whether via 1:1 interviews from the coach, or from a survey, the new manager’s team should have the opportunity to provide feedback on questions such as:
- What do you already know about your new manager?
- What do you want to know more about your new manager?
- What are team’s biggest strengths?
- What are the team’s biggest areas for growth?
- If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about the team (or our work), what would it be?
The data would then be gathered, anonymised, compiled, and themes identified. The coach or HRBP would then share the results back to the new manager in advance of the team workshop.
Team Workshop
Towards the end of the 100-day NMI period, the team should be gathered to plan the path forward. In this workshop, the anonymised results of the Data Gathering exercise should be shared and discussed in an open, honest, constructive manner. From there, the team should work with the leader to create the vision, strategy, and execution plans for going forward.
Formal Training
Management and leadership are skills. They can be learned. To facilitate the learning of these skills, formal managerial and leadership training should be offered to the new manager. Topics can include (but are not limited to) delegation, how to give feedback, how to hold others accountable without becoming a micromanager, EQ, balancing the needs of the company with the needs of the employees, team effectiveness, time management, change leadership, and so forth.
Lastly, back to Anne. Just because Anne was an ‘accidental manager’, it doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have been promoted in the first place. It simply means a formal NMI will greatly increase the likelihood of her success. And no two NMI’s are the same. Anne’s plan would look different with a different manager, or in a different company. Or both. But the 5 pillars of the NMI provide a flexible structure that can be applied to any new manager at any level of an organisation.
Listen to Emily Link and Ken Govan's episode of Sparks, a podcast by Cegos, to hear them share practical advice and reflections on the ongoing journey of leadership.
