Promoting loyal staff to managerial positions often seems like a logical step for business leaders. These employees have several years of experience and a deep understanding of the business, making them strong candidates for leadership roles. While promotions can significantly boost staff motivation and retention, it's crucial to ensure that employees feel fully prepared for their new responsibilities, especially when it comes to leading other team members.

Astonishingly, only 20% of managers in the UK consider themselves as purposeful leaders, according to the CIPD, which is why Aberdeenshire-based Align People HR developed a leadership training programme to support employees transitioning into people management roles.

The L³ Lifelong Leadership training is specifically designed for people managers in SMEs and has been adopted by numerous companies who are seeking training tailored for smaller businesses. One of these companies is Acumen Accountants & Advisors. Ross Murray, Managing Director, said: “We had been searching for leadership training for a number of our newly qualified accountants who had recently been promoted to management positions. Their new responsibilities include managing team performance and supporting the development of junior members of the team.

“The training we came across through our research was targeted at larger organisations with more staff as opposed to an SME where their impact as a manager and contributions to the leadership team develop at a much faster pace.

“We pursued Align’s L³ programme and what the delegates found particularly useful was meeting like-minded peers from other SMEs and being able to share expertise and experiences with each other.”

Common recurring challenges which are seen by the Align People HR team include new managers not having the confidence to have difficult conversations with their team, they may be unaware of how to work effectively with different personalities and lack knowledge in ways to motivate individuals. Delegates on the L³ programme can expect to overcome these challenges by gaining an understanding of themselves individually as leaders while learning how to develop trusting relationships, influence others effectively, build a high performing team, and create a positive team culture.

The programme was developed in partnership with highly respected Chartered Organisational Psychologist Seren Trewavas who has vast knowledge and coaching expertise. It is suitable for businesses in all sectors and has been undertaken by professionals in industries ranging from energy transition and business services to manufacturing and technology.

One of Align’s clients who specialises in renewable energy services, explained: “As a young growing business, we do not stand still, and one of our key strategies to support our growth is the development of our talented team. We want the team to feel motivated, fulfilled, and appropriately challenged by working with us, so it was important for us to look at ways to nurture and grow the teams’ leadership capabilities for the future.

“We have been working with Align for four years and Alison, the Managing Director, mentioned to us that they had developed a leadership programme which was an ideal solution for our staff. We have incorporated L³ into our training and development plan to support our team develop into leadership roles in the future. For everyone who has completed the course so far, they have all commented on how much they gained from the L³ programme.”

Since Align People HR launched the leadership programme, it has garnered interest from larger companies which has led to the training now being offered as an in-house programme for those with multiple people managers who can benefit simultaneously. Learning is delivered over the course of six months in a combination of virtual group sessions and focused one to ones.

Alison Paton, Founder and Managing Director of Align People HR, said: “We are hugely passionate about supporting SMEs with their growth and development, as well as being advocates for lifelong learning. Our L³ programme has proven to enhance engagement and motivation among the workforce and we have also identified that a more condensed version of the training would be beneficial to businesses, so we very recently developed L² which is aimed at staff of supervisory level and is delivered in three 2-hour sessions.

“Throughout my career, I have observed many employees transitioning into managerial roles and encountering initial challenges. These new managers shift from focusing solely on technical or operational tasks to considering their team’s workload, wellbeing and development. Recognising this common pattern, it made sense to develop training which would address these challenges.”

The L² training is a balance of essential employment law basics and soft skills development delivered by the Align People HR team who share insights into their practical experience.