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As companies grow, dependence on managers and the leadership they must exercise in the pursuit of their goals increases, as it becomes increasingly difficult for partners to follow everything, even in essential and strategic areas and activities.
And it is in this growth process that the question arises: Is it better to train managers or hire them in the market?
The whys, the advantages and disadvantages and everything that involves one choice or another are questions that we intend to answer in today’s post.
What is the difference between managers and leaders?
It is essential that we begin by understanding the aspects that the above question encompasses.
For many managers and leaders, they are the same thing and it is understandable that this type of confusion exists.
But not every manager is a leader and not every leader necessarily needs to be a manager.
Strictly speaking, a manager is someone who occupies a higher-ranking position in the area in which he operates and for which he is responsible.
Among its many duties, we can mention:
- Ensure that your employees fulfill their roles / duties;
- Make sure processes are applied and policies are adhered to;
- Observe that people comply with standard operating procedures, as well as institute new ones and improve those that can or need to produce better results;
- Meet deadlines;
- Stipulate goals and pursue them together and with the support of your team;
- Create and implement sector planning;
- Participate in the company’s strategic planning and ensure that their area performs the attributions contained therein;
- Allocate resources (human, material, financial, technological, etc).
Therefore, some of these tasks require “only” knowledge and supervisory capacity. It is in some cases almost just an operational routine and may not even require large capacities.
But when we think about obtaining the best possible results, in addition to managing or administering people, the manager will also need to have leadership skills.
Yes, the leadership of work teams in its multiple facets reveals that there are leaders who do not even hold a managerial or even supervisory position.
There are people who, due to their personality and their way of relating, naturally exercise leadership over their peers. We see this in soccer teams, in classrooms, in groups of friends and even in the family environment, where people organically exert some level of influence over others.
Leadership seeks to inspire and motivate people, promote change, produce engagement and commitment, develop relationships, influence behavior and get work done towards collective goals.
In other words, leaders manage to build a team from a heterogeneous group of people and with that, they produce the best possible results, without having to resort to the authority of the position.
In addition to natural leadership, it can be learned or acquired, as well as being formal and meaning that it comes from the authority of the position.
Having said all that, it should be clear that more than just a manager, you also need to be a leader.
How to train managers / leaders in the company?
Training managers within a company is a process that consists of developing skills and competencies in the professionals that one intends to lead to the position.
It is worth mentioning here that it is common to confuse good performance with managerial potential, so that it is not uncommon for companies to only consider or give a lot of weight to performance as a decisive criterion for promoting employees.
The practice is more common in areas where performance is more readily observable, such as Sales. The belief that the “Sales Champion” will command a team of other “champions” is not logical. What is reinforced on the contrary, in which a great salesperson is often lost and a terrible manager is gained!
In fact, performance is important, because it can be associated with commitment, dedication, good knowledge associated with functions, among other factors.
However, to assume a management position and also be a born leader, requires that the candidate has a profile, has the capacity or exercises leadership, has good communication and relationship skills, has undergone a thorough training process.
In fact, the set of factors above overlap with performance.
It is, therefore, a process that aims to give you hard skills and enhance and/or improve soft skills.
Some actions that the company can take to prepare its future leaders are:
- Offer training, qualifications, courses, workshops, webinars and specific lectures focused on the performance of your duties as a manager (corporate education);
- Improvement through continuing education, as well as mentoring and coaching;
- Encourage self-management and decision-making by employees;
- Involve candidates in supervised projects and routines that require special participation and learning;
- Recognize and reward team efforts and results;
- Give constructive feedback and guide professional growth;
- Have a talent management policy, as well as a job and salary policy and career plans, all under the coordination of the Human Resources area.
Examples of companies that train managers/leaders internally
There are companies that training managers is practically part of their business model, for reasons that will become clear later.
There is no shortage of examples, but let’s mention just three that value in-house talent and prepare them to assume management positions – Natura, Ambev and Magazine Luiza:
- Natura – Natura’s leadership training program aims to develop skills and behaviors expected of leaders, such as systemic vision, innovation, collaboration and sustainability, comprising four modules: self-awareness, people management, business management and transformative leadership;
- Ambev – through the “Industrial Trainee”, young graduates in engineering, chemistry, pharmacy or biology are selected and trained to become future leaders in the company’s industrial areas. Lasting 10 months, it comprises technical and behavioral training, as well as involvement in real projects under way at the factories;
- Magazine Luiza – at “Academia de Líderes Luiza”, this is where the managers of the network’s physical and online stores are born. Based on three pillars, the program includes business knowledge, personal development and people management, through face-to-face and remote training, mentoring, feedback and evaluations.
Is it better to train managers or hire them “off-the-shelf”?
Just as there are examples of companies that prioritize training their future leaders, there are also notorious cases of those that hire them ready-made in the job market.
The truth is that there is no single answer that meets all realities.
It will not always be possible to wait, for example, because depending on the position, the process can be long.
But there are also other factors, such as the company’s profile, the availability – if you prefer, the lack of them – of internal talent, the specificity of the skills and abilities required by the position, or even the knowledge of the challenges of the training process, many are inclined to opt for the “easier and shorter way”.
There are indeed advantages in resorting to the job market in search of ready professionals:
- The knowledge and experience of operating in the market, experience in competitors and even companies from other sectors, is something that even a well-conducted and extensive training process cannot match;
- The greater the experience, the lesser the possibilities of errors and uncertainties that can naturally happen to those promoted;
- A training program for managers/leaders is a long process that can be costly and that will only yield results in the medium and long term and, in this sense, the return on hiring is more immediate;
- Issues such as “jealousy” and everything related to the relationship of someone who until then was a peer, but who, with the promotion, now has a higher hierarchical level are avoided;
- There is no time to wait, so the company needs to anticipate and have this – leadership training – as a permanent agenda.
On the other hand, and as most were able to envision, a policy for training managers also brings advantages:
- Reduction of costs with selection processes, which depending on the position and the desired profile, can be high;
- Experienced and ready professionals can be expensive, especially because the best ones are not unemployed or when they are, they don’t remain in that condition for long;
- Greater knowledge of the company and its culture, its peculiarities and greater chances of alignment with its values;
- Greater motivation and employee engagement, as they know that their commitment can be valued with a promotion;
- A manager formed from internal staff does not carry “addictions” from other companies and years of experience;
- Preparing the manager to deal better with the different generations in the labor market;
- Better knowledge of the skills and potential of internal talent;
When you choose to create your future supervisors and managers, you need to have a strategic plan that defines the objectives and priorities of the business and the participation of managers in it, so that the training process considers the roles they will have.
Therefore, now that you have a fairly good idea of both scenarios and based on your knowledge of your company, you can decide which alternative best suits your reality.
Conclusion
Deciding between training or hiring a “ready-made” manager involves considering the advantages of each option, as well as variables and the reality of your business.
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