Why You Should Prioritize Team Development as a Manager

If you want to boost your team’s growth, start by investing in your managers. Gallup’s recent article “Addressing the Barriers Blocking Employee Development” reveals a striking reality: in 2024, less than half of U.S. employees participated in any training for their current role. And the reasons? It comes down to leadership gaps and organizational constraints. Here’s what’s really eye-opening: Managers are often the barriers to learning—not the enablers. Only 44% of managers worldwide receive any formal leadership or management training—and those who don’t are more likely to be disengaged. When managers don’t support their team’s development, it’s the strongest predictor of turnover intent. On the other hand, managers who receive quality development are less likely to disengage and are more effective coaches and leaders. When they model learning, their team members are far more likely to grow too. This is exactly why I’ve dedicated my life’s work to supporting managers. Because when managers are equipped to lead with clarity, confidence, and compassion, everything changes—for them and for their teams. Helping managers become great leaders isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a strategic lever for performance, retention, and culture. When managers are empowered to coach, communicate, and create space for growth, organizations don’t just function—they flourish. Here's what you can do: - Offer and take advantage of opportunities formal leadership training, coaching or certification. - Provide or ask for access to external courses, mentorship, or stretch projects. - Carve out time within work hours for real development. Make learning part of the job, not an extra. - Set clear expectations and goals for development, coaching & feedback rhythms. How are you investing in your managers or team members right now—and what could learning look like for your team if you truly made it a priority? #LeadershipDevelopment #ManagerTraining #EmployeeGrowth #TalentRetention #GallupInsights #PeopleFirstCompanies

I used to be the person who would jump in and "fix" things when my team hit a roadblock. It felt faster, cleaner, and frankly, I knew I could deliver the result we needed. But I was robbing my team of something crucial: the chance to grow. The shift from "I'll handle it" to "How can I help you handle it?" changes everything. Here's what I've learned about stepping back to develop others: 1. Start with the right question. Instead of "What needs to be done?" ask "Who on my team could benefit from taking this on?" Every challenge becomes a development opportunity when you view it through this lens. 2. Resist the rescue reflex. When someone struggles, our instinct is to jump in. But struggle is where growth happens. Offer guidance, ask probing questions, share resources—but let them work through the solution. 3. Make failure safe. If you're going to delegate meaningful work, you have to accept that it won't always go perfectly. Create an environment where people can experiment, make mistakes, and learn without fear. 4. Celebrate their wins, not your teaching. When someone succeeds after you've developed them, the spotlight should be on their achievement, not your mentoring. This builds their confidence and reinforces that growth mindset. The irony? When you stop doing everything yourself, your team becomes capable of so much more. You free yourself up for higher-level strategic work, and you build a team that doesn't need you to micromanage every decision. What's the hardest part of delegation for you? The time investment upfront, or trusting others with important outcomes? ♻️ Repost to help others in your network and ▶️ Follow me @NicholasColisto for more leadership tips #Leadership #TeamDevelopment #Management #Growth

Does neglecting employee development lead to toxic leadership? This is the sixth post in my 10-week series on toxic leadership. Each post highlights one key behavior or structural issue that erodes morale, damages trust, and ultimately cripples performance. Another one of the overlooked signals of toxic leadership is the lack of meaningful employee development. On the surface, training might exist -- an LMS portal, a few workshops, and maybe even a budget for conferences -- but without a real strategy, it’s just noise. When there’s no intentional effort to develop people, they stagnate. Or worse, they leave. Toxic leaders often do one of the following: - Offer development only to a select few insiders. - Avoid career development conversations with their team members altogether. - Treat training as a checkbox, not a necessary growth opportunity. - Resist building successors because they fear being replaced. - Ignore the leadership pipeline until there’s a vacancy, and then they panic. You’ll know you're becoming toxic when: - Top performers are consistently overlooked. - High-potential employees pursue development outside the company so they can leave. - No one knows what skills are needed for advancement. - Promotions are political and not merit-based. - There’s a growing gap between senior leaders and the next generation. If you see this in your organization, here’s are five ideas on how to counter this trend and build a development-focused culture: 1. Create a clear talent development strategy. Start by identifying the core competencies your organization needs to succeed, both today and in the future. Align development efforts with your business goals and strategic direction. Development should be intentional, not reactive. 2. Have regular development conversations. Make development part of your team’s rhythm, not a once-a-year formality. Go beyond performance metrics and talk with people about their career goals, untapped skills, and areas they’d like to explore. 3. Develop future leaders now. Don’t wait for a resignation or retirement to realize you have no bench. Identify high-potential talent early and start preparing them. 4. Make learning accessible. Give people multiple ways to grow. Formal classroom training has its place, but mentoring, job shadowing, peer learning, and stretch assignments are often more powerful. 5. Track progress. If you're not measuring it, you’re not managing it. Define what successful development looks like: promotion readiness, skill acquisition, retention of high-potentials. Measure against it. . What’s one thing you could do this week to help someone grow? ….. Follow me if you enjoy discussing business and success daily. Click on the double notification bell 🔔 to be informed when I post. #betheeagle

🏢 Architects: If you are worried about training your employees to have them leave, you have more significant problems than lack of training. It's tempting for firm owners to shy away from training their employees - I've heard more than one say, "What if they leave?" But this mindset is a trap. It's a symptom of deeper issues within the organization. Training and developing employees is about more than equipping your team with skills. It's a commitment to their personal and professional growth. It's about showing them that you're invested in their future as much as they are in your firm's future. By holding back on training, you're putting a cap on their and your firm's potential. Think about it. Would you rather have a team that's under-trained but likely to stay or a team that's well-trained and equipped to rise to the challenges, even if there's a risk they might leave? The latter would breed a more innovative, dynamic, and resilient firm, wouldn't you agree? Remember, an architecture firm is only as strong as the individuals they have within it. Fear should never be a barrier to their growth or yours. So train your people! And if you are still wondering why they leave after "everything you've done for them," perhaps you should ask, "What can I do that would make it more important for you to stay?" #architects #leadershipdevelopment #businessoperations _____________________ Hi, 👋🏻 I'm Evelyn Lee, FAIA | NOMA I've been on the client side for over a decade and have spent the last five years in tech, helping create exceptional employee experiences while growing the business. Now, I help architects: ⇒ Think Differently ⇒ Increase Productivity ⇒ Create Opportunities

Recently, I shared a few reflections on building a unified vision for team success. Today, I want to explore another important way to set your team up for success: learning, both technical and leadership skills. Can managers make the learning curve easier to traverse?   Yes! (It would be rather anticlimactic if I said ‘no’. 😄) Technical skills can be improved by providing the best tools for reskilling and upskilling. But for the leadership skills, it takes mentorship. Encouraging a peer or team member’s growth, in good faith, means not being selfish. And helping to move an employee up can often move them out. But I would rather have a couple years of great work from a brilliant employee than a decade of sub-optimal work from a less motivated one. Maybe that does make me a bit selfish, as I like to hire and mentor competent people to make my own life/job easier.   I remember, back in the day, working with a talented young engineer as part of my team. She was incredibly talented and dedicated, and it was clear from the start that she had the potential to achieve great things. During her time with us, she took on significant responsibilities and delivered outstanding results.   A few years later, she moved to a different job at a company closer to family. While it was painful to lose such a valuable team member, I couldn't help but feel proud of her decision and the growth she had achieved. Today, she leads the flight controls team for another reputable A&D company. I’d like to believe that our time working together played a part in shaping her into the leader she is now.   Investing in people and helping them succeed is always worthwhile, even if they eventually move on. As a manager, their successes are your successes, and the positive impact you have on their careers can resonate far beyond your immediate team. It's a win-win.   The power of a growth mindset is a game changer for your team. Focus on your own growth, but also focus on the growth of your team. And of course, it's always good to help people out. You never know who you may end up working with (or for) next. It’s a small world afterall. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!