Developing Emerging Managers: What Actually Works

19 July

In short: Most emerging managers are promoted for being great at their old job, then left to work out leadership on their own. The skills that decide whether they succeed are human ones: coaching, feedback, delegation, and trust. The businesses that develop these early, through structured and ongoing support rather than a single workshop, keep more of their best people and build stronger teams.

Why do emerging managers struggle?

Most new managers are promoted because they were excellent individual contributors, not because they were ready to lead. Those are different jobs. The skills that made someone a top performer, doing the work brilliantly, can quietly work against them when their job becomes getting the work done through others.

The result is a familiar pattern. The new manager keeps doing the work themselves because it feels faster, avoids the harder people conversations, and burns out trying to be both the best performer and the boss. None of this is a character flaw. It is the predictable gap between two roles that look similar and are not.

What skills do emerging managers actually need?

Not strategy decks or vision statements. The skills that decide a new manager's success are the ones they use every Monday morning:

Coaching instead of doing. Asking good questions and helping their team solve problems, rather than stepping in and solving everything themselves.
Honest conversations. Naming a performance issue early, clearly, and with respect, before it becomes a confrontation.
Delegation. Handing over real responsibility with clear expectations, instead of hoarding the work or disappearing entirely.
Building trust and safety. Creating a team where people feel able to ask for help, admit a mistake, and try something new. Harvard's Amy Edmondson calls this psychological safety, and it is one of the strongest predictors of team performance.
Managing their own pressure. Staying steady so their stress does not become the team's stress.

None of these appear in a technical handover. All of them can be taught, and they are what separate a struggling new manager from a confident one.

Why does a single workshop rarely work?

Because behaviour does not change in a day. A one-off workshop can spark ideas, but new habits need practice, feedback, and time. Send a new manager to a workshop on Tuesday and by the following week they are back in the same patterns, under the same pressure, with no support to do it differently.

What works is ongoing: short, regular sessions where managers learn a skill, try it with their team, and come back to talk through what happened. Peer groups help too, because new managers are reassured to find their challenges are shared, and they learn quickly from each other.

How should HR leaders structure development for new managers?

Start with honesty about where each manager is, then build support around the real gaps. A simple shape that works:

Assess first. A short self-assessment or 360 feedback shows where each new manager is strong and where they need support. This focuses the work and avoids treating everyone the same.
Create shared language. When your managers learn the same approach to feedback, coaching, and delegation, change sticks because they reinforce it with each other.
Make it ongoing. Monthly sessions, peer groups, or regular coaching beat a single intensive every time.
Connect it to the work. Help managers see how a better coaching conversation shows up in their team's results, retention, and engagement. That is what keeps them invested.

This matters more than it might seem. Gallup finds that managers account for around 70 percent of the variance in team engagement, so the quality of your emerging managers shapes the experience of everyone who reports to them.

Wondering what this looks like for your managers? Our Developing Leaders program is built around the decisions covered here, shaped to your team and your goals.

Key takeaways

Emerging managers are usually promoted for their old role, then left to learn leadership alone.
The skills that matter most are coaching, honest conversations, delegation, trust, and managing pressure.
A single workshop rarely changes behaviour. Ongoing, practised support does.
Assess first, build shared language, keep it ongoing, and tie it to real team outcomes.

Frequently asked questions

When should we start developing a new manager?
As early as possible, ideally around the promotion rather than months after. The first few months set the habits a manager carries for years, so early support prevents problems instead of trying to unwind them later.

How much time does manager development take?
Less than most people expect. Two to three hours a month per manager, through peer groups, short sessions, and regular one-on-ones, is usually enough when it is consistent. It is not extra work on top of the job, it is how they learn to do the job better.

What if our new managers are sceptical?
Start with their actual challenges rather than the words "leadership development". Most new managers are quietly struggling with retention, difficult conversations, or stress, and they welcome practical help with the problems they already feel.

Can we run this in-house or do we need a provider?
You can run parts of it yourself, such as peer groups and regular feedback. An external partner adds frameworks, accountability, and an outside perspective, which is why many businesses use a blend. The right mix depends on your capacity and goals.

Thinking about leadership development for your team? We start by understanding your people and the challenges your business is facing, then design a program around them. Get in touch to talk it through.

Written by Cherie Canning, founder of Luminate Leadership. Luminate designs bespoke leadership programs for growing Australian businesses. Connect with Cherie on LinkedIn.