Move to Manager
Most managers fail for a simple reason–they were never trained to lead people.
Your best individual contributors don’t automatically become your best managers. Most are promoted because of strong technical or functional skills—then handed a team with little to no training in what it actually takes to lead people.
Why do strong individual contributors struggle as managers?
Most organizations promote new managers into leadership roles without providing the ongoing support needed to navigate the transition successfully. While technical expertise may earn the promotion, leading people requires an entirely different set of skills—many of which are best developed through practice, feedback, and coaching over time.
Without structured development, new managers are left to figure it out on their own—often in real time, with real consequences.
- Promoted without preparation
- Managing former peers and shifting team dynamics
- Avoiding or mishandling difficult conversations
- Holding on to work instead of delegating
- Burnout, misalignment and team friction
These challenges don’t resolve on their own—they compound, impacting performance, engagement, and retention across the team.
Move to Manager is how organizations close the gap—early
Designed for the Realities of Leadership
Combining applied leadership development, cohort learning and embedded coaching support, Move to Manager helps new and emerging managers build confidence as people leaders in real time.
Participants don’t just attend sessions—they actively apply concepts between modules, receive guided support and strengthen leadership behaviors in the context of their actual teams and your organizational challenges.
- On-site, cohort-based experience for your team: builds shared language and consistency across managers
- Built around real work—not simulations: focused on challenges that matter to your teams and organization
- Designed for immediate application between sessions: reinforces learning through real-time practice
- Creates shared leadership expectations across teams improving alignment, accountability and performance
- Embedded coaching support throughout the experience reinforces accountability, reflection and real-world application between sessions
Rather than learning in isolation, participants apply each concept in real time—creating stronger alignment, clearer expectations and more consistent leadership across your organization.
Connect with Our Team
At a glance
- On-site delivery
- 8-20 participants
- 5 modules of content
- Research-backed, applied learning
- Custom for your organization’s challenges
The Impact for Your Organization
Move to Manager is designed to help organizations develop managers before common leadership challenges begin impacting performance, communication and retention. Rather than focusing only on individual skill-building, the program creates a shared leadership experience that strengthens how teams work together across the organization.
Participants apply what they are learning in real time—building confidence as leaders while addressing real challenges connected to their teams, communication practices and organizational goals.
The addition of coaching support helps leadership development extend beyond the classroom—creating stronger follow-through, deeper reflection and more sustainable behavior change across participating managers.
Organizations often use Move to Manager to support:
- Greater consistency in how managers communicate and lead
- A more aligned leadership culture as teams grow
- Stronger communication and clearer expectations across teams
- Reduced friction, escalation and manager burnout
- Higher engagement, trust and long-term retention
FAQs
Move to Manager is delivered on-site for your organization as a corporate cohort. Sessions are scheduled around your team’s availability, with time between modules designed with included coaching sessions and for participants to apply what they’re learning in real time.
The program is designed to integrate directly into your organization—not pull people away from it.
Move to Manager is built for organizations developing new and emerging people leaders including:
- First-time managers and supervisors
- Recently promoted leaders managing former peers
- High-potential employees preparing for management roles
Move to Manager is not a generic leadership course or open-enrollment experience. Participants don’t just learn concepts—they practice leadership in the context of their actual roles by working on real challenges that directly impact team performance and your organization as a whole.
- Delivered on-site with your team
- Built around real challenges your managers are currently facing
- Structured for immediate application between sessions
- Designed to create a shared leadership approach across your organization
While Move to Manager follows a proven five-module structure, delivery is aligned to your organization’s context—including your culture, leadership expectations, and current business challenges.
This ensures the experience is relevant, practical, and immediately applicable for your team.
Yes. Coaching is an integrated component of the Move to Manager experience and plays an important role in helping participants apply what they are learning in real time.
Rather than relying solely on workshop-style instruction, the program reinforces leadership growth through reflection, accountability, guided application, and coaching-oriented support throughout the experience. This helps participants move beyond understanding concepts to actively practicing and strengthening leadership behaviors within their teams.
How We Collaborate
Move to Manager is delivered as a collaborative engagement between your organization and the Center for Innovative Leadership at Furman University. The process is designed to align the experience to your team’s goals while making implementation straightforward and actionable from the beginning.
Our process typically includes:
- An initial discovery conversation to better understand your organization, managers and goals
- Alignment around cohort structure, timing and organizational priorities
- On-site cohort delivery built around applied leadership development
- Real-time application between sessions so learning is reinforced through practice
- A post-program leadership action plan participants can continue applying beyond the experience
During the discovery conversation, we’ll also discuss how the coaching and application components of Move to Manager support sustained leadership growth beyond the sessions themselves.
This approach helps organizations move beyond one-time training experiences by creating leadership development that is immediately relevant, practical and connected to the real work teams are doing every day.
One conversation is all it takes to know if Move to Manager is the right fit for your organization.
Let’s Talk About Your Team