As 2017 comes to a close, we’re excited to take a look back at this year in Manager Development content.
In this collection, you’ll find helpful articles, essays, and podcast episodes that will help you craft your own Manager Development initiatives in the new year, or at the very least perhaps think about this subject in a new and different light.
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10. How Managers Drive Results and Employee Engagement at the Same Time
In this HBR article, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman examine one of the greatest challenges of management: the balancing act between keeping people engaged and driving a high level of performance.
The question we want you to ask yourself after reading this article:
How can I structure our manager development program to better support both of these outcomes?
9. On being a bad manager
The main reason why this short essay by Jason Fried (of Basecamp and Rework fame) makes our list is that we believe there’s a need for more open conversations about the challenging realities of becoming, succeeding, and failing as a manager. Learn more »
8. How To Build A Coaching Certification Program
In this internal case study, Kristi Thurston, the Learning & Development Lead at Namely, shares how their team took up an intriguing challenge: helping Namely’s leaders become better at coaching their teams.
As the title suggests, one of the most noteworthy aspects of this particular program is including the certification element at the end as a way to drive participation and create a meaningful milestone and reward for the managers.
“We had an initial pass rate of about 80%, and all coaches recertified on their second attempt. Word did seem to travel the office pretty quickly on certification day that not passing was actually a possibility, and our second cohort took the program much more seriously.”
7. What's missing in leadership development?
Claudio Feser, Nicolai Nielsen, and Michael Rennie are the authors of this McKinsey study, and they don’t mince words.
Unfortunately, many leadership and manager development programs today just aren’t that effective, resulting in low ROI, which in turn erodes trust between People Ops and the C-Suite.
In addition to highlighting some of the common pitfalls of leadership development, this article also makes a compelling case for thinking like a CEO and simplifying your approach. Read it »
6. Futureproof Your Organization with These 8 Manager Effectiveness Metrics
Manager Success is a complex topic, and it’s hard to boil it down to a single, simple KPI. Yet, like Visier — the authors of this article — we believe that measuring just how effective your managers are at engaging, retaining, and keeping their teams productive is a worthwhile endeavor.
Note that the specific implementations in this article might be a bit too much for smaller organizations, but the principles still hold true and are worth examining as you plan your Manager Success KPIs for 2018. Take a look »
5. Enterprise Learning and Development in 2017
There’s just something special about hearing a master of their craft talk about it.
In one of our favorite episodes of the HR Happy Hour podcast this year, Jenny Dearborn, EVP of Human Resources at SAP, discussed trends in Learning & Development in 2017 and beyond.
While this resource is about L&D as a whole and not manager development in particular, you’ll find applicable nuggets of insight throughout.
Our favorite part is when Jenny discusses the shifting expectations of just how much support, direction, and prescriptive guidance learners expect from their employers.
But don’t take our word for it and give it a listen »
4. Plato Mentor Stories
Huge props to Plato’s team for putting this resource together. This micro-site includes dozens of case studies from engineering managers from some of the most known and respected companies in the world. From hiring to leadership, to career development, there’s a little something for every situation that engineering managers face. Check it out »
3. [First Round's] 6 Must-Reads for First-Time Managers to Hit the Ground Running
Is it cheating to include a collection within a collection? You might say yes; you might say no. But we’re doing it anyway!
First Round Review’s must-reads are often on par with those of HBR, and the ones linked here will not disappoint. Some of them you’ll find useful yourself; others you’ll rush to share with the newly minted managers at your company. Enjoy »
2. Why and How LinkedIn Rebuilt The Way It Develops Its Managers
One of our favorite internal case studies this year comes from LinkedIn. Sara Dowling, Natalya Williamson, and Nawal Fakhoury spent nine months revising the manager development program at LinkedIn, with some insightful results to share.
“The end result is a program that emphasizes the need to always be learning, as opposed to designating learning at a certain time and place. That's a necessary trend – with the incredible amount of change in business today, employees need to maintain an always-learning mindset to succeed in any job moving forward.”
1. Manager Checklist
This is a unique resource in our collection, as it falls more into the category of enabling managers with helpful tools, and less in the area of learning and development.
Nonetheless, if you’ve read Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto — and if you haven’t, you must — you know just how much impact a simple checklist can have on performance.
This is one of those links you’ll want to share with all of your company’s managers as soon as you finish going through it yourself. Take a look »
Ta-da! 
These are just some of the resources that we’ve been delighted to read (or listen to) in 2017.
We’d love to know what content you’ve enjoyed this year! Share your favorites with us on Twitter @WorkWithHazel, and we’ll gladly take a look!