Turn Your Best Performers Into Managers Who Hold a Team
A manager development programme is a structured course of training, practice and assessment that runs over several months, rather than a one-off workshop. It teaches people the parts of management they were never shown: setting goals, giving feedback, running a review, handling conflict and delegating. Each participant is assessed at the start and again at the end, against their own baseline.
Leadership and Manager Development Programme in brief
A manager development programme is a structured course of training, practice and assessment that runs over several months, rather than a one-off workshop. It teaches people the parts of management they were never shown: setting goals, giving feedback, running a review, handling conflict and delegating, and it measures where each manager started.
- GullyHR is an HR consulting, HR services, training and software company based in Bengaluru, working with Indian startups and small and medium businesses.
- This is a multi-month programme with two tracks, one for first-time managers and one for senior leaders. It is built from GullyHR's soft skills and management training modules, put in a sequence with practice between sessions.
- Each participant is assessed before the programme begins and again at the end, and you receive both the individual and the group results.
- It is measured on team attrition under the managers who completed it, and on assessment scores, compared with the baseline recorded at the start.
- GullyHR does not promise a result. We promise a baseline, a programme that is run as agreed and a report that shows the change whichever way it went.
The starting point
Were Your Managers Ever Taught to Manage?
Almost every manager in a growing business was promoted for being good at the work. Nobody showed them how to get it done through other people, so they keep doing the work and manage in whatever spare attention is left.
We run it as a programme over months, on real work, with an assessment at both ends.
You may be experiencing:
- A strong performer promoted to manager, now doing their old job and a poor version of the new one.
- Attrition concentrated under the same few managers.
- Reviews late, rushed or skipped, because nobody was shown how to run one.
- Difficult conversations avoided until they have become a resignation or a dispute.
- A one-day workshop run last year after which nothing changed in how people work.
- Senior leaders still operating as the best individual contributor rather than building the team.
- Managers with no shared view of what good management looks like, so each team is run differently.
- A manager who was never told what the business expects of managers beyond hitting the team's number.
- Team members bringing matters to HR that their own manager should have handled.
- A new goal-setting or review process that managers nod through and then do not use.
- Managers who cannot say what they do differently since the last training they attended.
What we can help with
What the Programme Covers
First-Time Manager Track
What the promotion did not cover: moving from doing the work to getting it done through others, setting expectations, delegating, running a one-to-one and holding people to what they agreed.
Senior Leader Track
The shift to building a team: leading managers rather than individuals, decision rights and delegation, building a second line, and handing over work that the leader is still personally good at.
Sequenced Modules
Communication, people management, emotional intelligence, conflict management and time management used as building blocks in a deliberate order, rather than as separate workshops bought one at a time.
Practice on Real Work
Each participant takes one real issue in their own team, applies the method between sessions and brings back what happened. This is where the programme does its work rather than in the session itself.
Assessment at Both Ends
Each participant is assessed at the start against the behaviours the programme teaches, and again at the end, so you receive an individual and a group comparison rather than an attendance list.
Briefing the Manager Above
The person each participant reports to is briefed on what is being taught, so the programme is not quietly undone by the level above expecting the old behaviour.
Tied to Your Processes
If managers are taught to run a review, the review process has to exist and be the one they use. Where a process is missing, we say so rather than teaching a method with nothing behind it.
Follow-Up Recommendation
A report on what changed and what did not, with a recommendation on who needs further support and which processes need fixing before more training would help.
The scope
What the Consulting Covers
The aim is to help managers apply a small set of management habits on their own teams, with practice between sessions and an assessment at both ends. These are the parts we can review or design. The scope is agreed with you and can take all twelve areas or only some.
Current Management Practice Assessment
Existing manager expectations, review practices, team feedback and the habits that differ from team to team.
Participant Selection and Cohort Design
Who joins which track, how cohorts are grouped and what size keeps practice discussion workable.
Management Expectations Statement
A short written statement of what your business expects of a manager, used as the reference for sessions and assessment.
Baseline and End-of-Programme Assessment
Assessing each participant against the behaviours taught at the start and again at the end, using the same method both times.
Goal Setting and Delegation
Turning team priorities into clear expectations and handing over work with a limit and a check-in date.
Feedback and One-to-One Conversations
Giving feedback, running a regular one-to-one and recording what was agreed.
Running Reviews
Preparing, holding and documenting a review conversation using your own review process.
Conflict and Difficult Conversations
Raising performance, behaviour and team disagreements early, in a structured and respectful way.
Team Communication and Meetings
Briefing a team, running meetings that end with owners and dates, and passing information upwards as well as downwards.
Time and Priority Management for Managers
Protecting time for the people side of the role while still delivering personal work.
Practice Tasks and Cohort Discussion
Real-issue practice between sessions, and cohort discussion of what worked and what did not.
Line-Manager Briefing and Follow-Up
Briefing the managers above on what is being taught, and agreeing what support participants can expect afterwards.
Working together
Ways to Work With Us
First-Time Manager Track
A programme for people in their first years as managers, run as a cohort over several months with practice between sessions.
Senior Leader Track
A programme for people who lead other managers, covering delegation, decision rights and building a second line.
Both Tracks Together
The two run alongside each other, so first-time managers and the leaders above them are taught a consistent view of management.
Custom Module
A short block on one issue, such as running reviews or handling conflict, where a full programme is not what you need.
Sessions are spread over months rather than packed into days, because the practice between them is what changes behaviour. Cadence is agreed against your operating calendar.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the scope of your engagement, deliverables can include:
- A baseline assessment for each participant.
- A programme plan: tracks, modules, sequence and dates.
- The sessions themselves, delivered in person or online as agreed.
- Participant materials and a practice task for each session.
- A short brief for each participant's own manager.
- An end-of-programme assessment for each participant.
- A report comparing results with the baseline, by individual and by group.
- A recommendation on next steps: further training, process fixes or both.
- A management expectations statement for your business, written from your own roles and used as the reference for the sessions and the assessment.
- A participant practice log, where each manager records the real issue chosen, what was tried and what happened.
- A cohort summary for senior management showing themes seen across participants, shared in a form that respects individual confidentiality.
Step by step
How We Work
Record the Baseline
We assess each participant against the behaviours the programme teaches, and take the team numbers you can share, such as attrition by team and review completion, so the result can be compared rather than asserted.
Choose Tracks and Modules
We agree who goes into the first-time manager track and who into the senior leader track, and which modules your managers actually need, rather than running a standard sequence regardless.
Run the Sessions in Sequence
Sessions are spread over several months, each built on the last, with length and cadence agreed against your operating calendar so people can genuinely attend.
Apply It Between Sessions
Each participant takes one real issue in their team, applies the method and reports back at the next session. We also brief the person they report to, so the level above supports the change.
Assess Again and Report
The assessment is repeated at the end and compared with each participant's own baseline and the group's. You receive a report on what moved and a recommendation on what is needed next. Where it is included in the engagement, a pilot cohort is run first and the plan refined from participant and line-manager feedback before further cohorts begin.
The difference
What a Programme Changes
A sequenced programme helps your managers:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering each participant's starting assessment, plus attrition by team and review completion, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Run a one-to-one, a goal-setting conversation and a review without a template in front of them.
- Hold difficult conversations earlier and more briefly, before they become a resignation.
- Delegate decisions and build a second line instead of taking every decision themselves.
- Share a common view of what good management looks like in your business.
- Give you a per-manager view of where the gap was at the start and whether it moved.
- Apply a method on their own team rather than recall it from a slide.
- Set clear expectations with a team member at the start of a task rather than correcting it at the end.
- Prepare for a review or a difficult conversation with a structure instead of improvising.
- See which managers need further support, and which processes need fixing before more training would help.
- Brief line managers on what participants are practising, so the level above reinforces the change rather than undoes it.
Find your fit
Who This Programme Is For
Businesses Promoting From Within
Companies that moved their best individual performers into management and want to prepare the next batch before promotion rather than after.
Companies With Concentrated Attrition
Businesses where people are leaving from under the same few managers.
Companies Burned by One-Off Training
Businesses that have run a workshop and want a programme that carries over into daily work.
Teams With New Processes
Businesses that have just introduced goals, reviews or a new structure and need managers who can actually run them.
Businesses Adding a Leadership Layer
Growing companies that need senior people to lead managers rather than only teams.
Multi-Location Businesses
Companies whose managers across several sites each run their team in a different way.
HR Teams Supporting Managers
Teams who field people questions that managers could handle themselves and want managers equipped to do so.
Newly Promoted Supervisors and Team Leaders
People in their first months of managing others in offices, plants, clinics, stores or project sites.
Owners Preparing the Next Layer
Founders who want the people they plan to rely on to be ready to lead before they are given more responsibility.
Good to know
A Programme Cycle That Runs Over Months
Before the sessions
- Baseline: assess each participant against the behaviours the programme teaches.
- Select: agree who joins which track and which modules your managers need.
- Plan: set the sequence, cadence and dates against your operating calendar.
During and after
- Learn: attend a session on one part of management.
- Practise: apply the method on one real issue in the participant's own team.
- Reflect: bring back what happened and discuss it with the cohort.
- Reassess and recommend: repeat the assessment, compare with the baseline and agree next steps.
Each stage has a purpose, an owner and a clear record of what was agreed.
Good to know
Track Whether Managers Are Applying It
Participation and practice
- Session attendance: whether participants can attend consistently.
- Practice task completion: whether the method is being applied between sessions.
- Line-manager briefing: whether the managers above have been briefed.
- Participant feedback: which parts of the sessions were useful or unclear.
Change over time
- Assessment movement: how each participant compares with their own baseline.
- Review completion: whether reviews in participants' teams finish on time.
- Team attrition: whether departures are concentrated under particular managers, read with context.
- One-to-one frequency: whether regular conversations are taking place.
Measures use agreed definitions. Team numbers need context and are not treated as a verdict on any one manager.
Good to know
Scope and Service Boundaries
Each engagement defines
The participants, tracks, modules, number of sessions, mode of delivery, assessment and reporting included.
Requires a separate agreement
- Individual executive coaching.
- Psychometric or specialist assessments beyond the agreed assessment.
- Design of the review, goal-setting or other HR processes managers are taught to run.
- Handling individual performance, disciplinary or grievance cases.
- Promotion and succession decisions.
- Additional cohorts or training beyond the agreed participants.
- Learning-platform or software setup.
Promotion, pay and employment decisions remain with your authorised management team. Policies and formal employment actions should receive appropriate specialist review.
Good to know
Timeline and How to Prepare
Timeline
The schedule depends on the number of participants, the tracks and modules chosen, the cadence and your operating calendar. We confirm it after agreeing the scope.
Useful inputs
- Names, roles and teams of the intended participants.
- Your current goal-setting, one-to-one and review practices or forms.
- Attrition and review completion by team, where you can share them.
- The issues managers most often escalate to HR.
- Your operating calendar, including shift patterns and peak seasons.
- Venue or online access details for each location.
- Details of past training and what came of it.
If these are not documented, we can begin with conversations with participants and their line managers.
Good to know
Confidentiality and Participant Information
Handled by agreement
Assessments, practice issues and team examples involve sensitive information about people. Before work begins we agree what is collected, who may see individual results, how they are shared, the confidentiality terms and retention arrangements.
Practice issues and results
Participants choose the team issues they bring, and examples are discussed without naming individuals outside the cohort. Individual assessment results are shared only with the people agreed in advance.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
A workshop is an event; this is a sequence over months with practice on real work between sessions and an assessment at both ends. Behaviour changes through applying something repeatedly to your own team, not through hearing it once.
People in their first years of managing others go into the first-time manager track. People who lead other managers go into the senior leader track. Where both run together, the content is deliberately consistent so the two levels are not taught different things.
Each participant is assessed at the start and the end against the same behaviours, and we take whatever team numbers you can share, such as attrition and review completion. The report compares against that baseline rather than against a satisfaction score.
The soft skills modules are used as building blocks, chosen and sequenced for your managers rather than delivered as a fixed catalogue. Examples and practice tasks come from your own business, which is what makes the sessions land.
Several months, with sessions spaced to allow practice between them. The exact length depends on the tracks and modules chosen, and the cadence is set against your operating calendar so participants can realistically attend.
Yes, in person at your premises or online, or a mix. Multi-location businesses often run sessions online and bring the cohort together for the sessions where practice and discussion matter most.
We say so rather than teaching around it. Training managers to run a review when no review process exists produces frustration. Where a process is the real gap, the recommendation covers that, and the programme is sequenced after it.
It works less well. Much of the value comes from a cohort developing a shared view of management, and a single participant returning to a team run differently tends to revert. Where numbers are a constraint, we discuss who to include first.
After agreeing the participant list, the tracks and the modules. The proposal states the number of sessions, the cadence, the mode of delivery and whether assessment and reporting are included.
Usually when strong performers have been promoted without preparation, when people leave from under the same few managers, or when a new process needs managers who can run it. Starting before promotion is easier than repairing after.
Yes. We brief each participant's own manager on what is being taught, so the level above supports the new behaviour. Including them in a short session can be agreed where it is part of the scope.
Yes. Examples, practice tasks and session timing can be adapted to supervisors and team leaders at sites, and the cohort is agreed in the scope.
Sessions build on each other, so attendance expectations are agreed in advance, along with how a missed session is handled. The cadence is set around your operating calendar to reduce clashes.
That is agreed before the programme starts. A common arrangement is group results to senior management and individual results to the participant and their line manager.
Yes, as a separate piece of work where those are missing, so managers are taught a process that exists. The scope is agreed in writing.
We agree the cohort size during scoping. Practice discussion works best with a group large enough to share different experiences and small enough for everyone to take part.
Pricing depends on the number of participants, the tracks and modules, session length and cadence, and whether assessment and reporting are included. Share your requirements and we will send a tailored proposal.
Teach Management as a Programme, Not an Event
Run the development over months with practice on real team issues between sessions, brief the level above, and measure each manager against where they started.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
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