HR- or L&D Manager: You are not a firefighter, even if your workday feels like it

David Buirs | Leadership Expert

Summary: This article addresses HR managers dealing with high operational pressure due to inexperienced first-time leaders. It explores the psychological transition from specialist to manager and the necessity of personal leadership as a foundation. The content highlights the 7:1 ROI of management training to reduce turnover and absenteeism and improve engagement and retention.

You open your inbox and there is the first sick report of the day again. Followed by a message from a frustrated employee who “needs to talk” about their manager. You know exactly what is happening. That one talented specialist who was promoted six months ago is stuck. He is working harder than ever, but his team is falling apart. For these experts, targeted management training for new managers is crucial to make the leap from content to impact.


Searching for the right course

New managers often lack a clear compass in the beginning. They fall back on their intuition or on how they were once managed themselves, which is not always the best blueprint for their current team. Sometimes they are overconfident and steamroll over people with a tunnel vision on results. Others withdraw and become too detached out of fear of making mistakes. You see them searching: one day too task-oriented and authoritarian, the next day too soft because they do not want to lose the connection. These fluctuations in style cause a restlessness that lands directly on your desk.


Why HR often needs to “clean up the mess”

It is a classic pattern for which you pay the price. A good technical expert is pushed into a leadership role without hesitation. The result? A manager who micromanages because he does not dare to let go of the wheel. And who gets to conduct the difficult conversations, manage the absenteeism, and handle the exit interviews when talent leaves? You.

This constant patching up eats your calendar. You simply do not get to the strategic work you were actually hired for. You are busy all day closing holes in the culture caused by faltering leadership. Targeted management training for new managers prevents HR from remaining the organization’s cleanup crew.


Stop the bleeding with personal leadership

Real leadership is not a list of skills you simply check off. It starts with the courage to look in the mirror. We must return to the foundation: Personal Leadership. Only when a manager understands why he holds on to that control so convulsively or why he avoids that confrontation does something change on the shop floor. Without that psychological depth, any management training remains a case of mopping with the tap open.


The calculation your Board understands

Let’s be honest: you also have to sell this internally. The cost of high employee turnover in teams is enormous, but the solution pays for itself twice over. Figures show that every dollar you put into decent leadership development yields an average of 7 dollars in value.

That means less absenteeism, lower recruitment costs, and above all: a team that runs independently again. It gives you the space to be that strategic partner again instead of the permanent crisis manager. A good investment in leadership coaching or management training for new managers is therefore not a cost, but pure profit for the peace in your organization.

Schedule a free introduction call here to discuss the possibilities for your context.