Your Startup’s Management Training Probably Sucks — Here’s How to Make it Better

Earlier in their careers, Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale worked at Mozilla when the company was just a few dozen people. Like plenty of startup folks, they grew with the organization. “We got promoted into management to lead teams because we were really strong individual contributors, but we didn’t get any training on how to manage. We quickly found out that the expectations of being a great manager are wildly different than that of an individual contributor,” says Melissa.

Cut to many years later, with more startup experiences under their belts, and those early management stumbles still stuck with them. The married couple then decided to team up and found Raw Signal Group, a management and leadership training organization.

Now, when you hear “management training” you may envision snooze-worthy PowerPoint presentations or slightly awkward role-play exercises. Or maybe, like in Johnathan and Melissa’s experience, your startup doesn’t have any sort of formal leadership training. While many column inches have been devoted to tackling the challenges in front of brand-new managers, effective training remains a missing piece for many organizations. “There are a lot of people who have been given power in an organization, but no training on how to wield that power,” says Melissa.

In this exclusive interview, Jonathan and Melissa offer an alternative approach to traditional management training, honed from teaching thousands of leaders how to be better bosses. 

Here's a preview of what's in store:

• A guide to evaluating if it's time to implement management training at your startup.
• 7 management training mistakes to avoid.
• The 4 topics you must cover in any management training worth its salt. 

Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing!

-The Review Editors

Healthcare folks — apply to join First Round's Health Unconference

At our first-ever Health Unconference on Feb. 23rd, our goal is to create a cross-functional event that bridges the gap between Product, Clinical Ops, Providers & other leaders across the org chart. Rather than listening in to a high-level presentation, most of your time will be spent in small breakout discussions, focused on the most burning questions and topics top-of-mind for healthcare in 2022. You'll also get a chance to engage with the cream of the crop of healthcare startup folks across different industries and growth stages, including leaders from Thirty Madison, Clover Health and Candid Health.

Learn more and apply here by Feb. 2! 

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