Once we hit the scale up phase at Pardot, we made the decision that we wanted to promote managers from within, whenever possible. This meant we had a number of first-time managers, and a need for a management training program. Next, we built a simple management training program that was part book club and part peer discussion.
Here’s how the program worked:
- Weekly hour-long meeting of managers (we had two groups so that no manager’s manager was in the same group)
- Reviewed a different book chapter each week. Some book ideas:
- Discussed one manager training topic each week
The real value was building a culture of experience sharing with a focus on becoming better managers. Entrepreneurs would do well to start a management training program when they experience rapid growth.
What else? What are some more thoughts on building a management training program?
David Cummings on Startups 