ROI of Empowered Managers

By the end of this hour, you will see why your management layer is the highest-leverage investment in the firm; you will have the language and rhythm to develop your managers individually; and you will have three indicators that show whether the investment is working. 

Who this course is for 

This course is built for three kinds of leaders inside a Canadian land surveying firm. 

The owner with one or two managers. You have made the appointment. You can feel the relief and the friction at the same time. You want the management layer to compound, not just to absorb. 

The principal building toward a management layer. No one has been formally named a manager yet, but you can see the work the firm will need them to do. This course gives you the picture before you make the appointment. 

The senior leader of a larger firm. A regional firm leader or general manager with one or more managers below them. You want a common language across the firm and a rhythm that doesn’t depend on you being in every conversation. 

A note on the two shapes of manager. The “manager” in this course can be either a person hired into a dedicated management role, or a technical staff member—often a senior LS, a senior draftsperson, or an experienced project lead—who carries the management hat alongside their client work. The principles are the same. The practical difference is the calendar: the hat-wearer’s management time has to be named as a percentage of the role and actively protected, because the gravitational pull of client work is real. Both shapes are addressed throughout. 

What you will learn 

• The Value Compact™ frame for the management layer: how managers are the daily stewards of co-created value between firm and people 
• The financial and human case for an empowered, developmentally-focused management layer 
• The shared language and framework your managers need to operate inside—and your role in ratifying it 
• A strengths lens for developing each manager individually, anchored in the CliftonStrengths for Managers report 
• A monthly rhythm that makes management visible, accountable, and sustained 
• The three Management Effectiveness KPIs: what to look at and for, what goes wrong, what to do about it

Time Commitment

The lessons in this course comprise approximately 1.5 hour of video.
Plan for 1.5 hours total to allow for application components and reviewing supporting materials.