In a classic “Bugs Bunny” cartoon, Bugs is chased up a diving board, 500 feet above a diving tank on a stage, by a fuming Yosemite Sam. Sam is angry because Bugs sold him tickets for a vaudeville show that included a daring high-jump act by “Fearless Freep,” a champion diver, but Bugs called off the dive just before it was about to start.

Reluctantly, Bugs climbs up to the diving board with Sam and prepares to dive. He jumps so hard on the board during take-off that he sends Sam, standing on the other side of the board over Bug’s head and down toward the tank. Bugs is left on the board, unscathed. However, he suddenly remembers that the diving tank toward which Sam is hurtling is completely empty! So, he grabs a bucket of water and dumps it from the diving board while Sam is still airborne. The water fills the tank just in time, but Sam misses the tank altogether and crash-lands, breaking the stage. Boom!

Every year, organizations across the world promote some of their most talented and top-performing individual contributors (champion divers) to management roles, hoping that they will replicate their earlier success (an award-winning dive) in their new role. However, the enthusiasm when announcing these promotions is not necessarily followed by the comprehensive support and guidance these champions need to navigate through arguably the most challenging transition in their career.

Most of the time, managers attend some classroom and online training programs that are didactic and fail to address the real-life challenges and stress that first-time managers face when catapulted to their new role. Even the most talented individuals may miss the diving tank. Their crash-landing results in disillusionment, frustration and a high rate of failure – an average of 50 percent globally, according to a 2011 Career Builders survey.

This rate of failure becomes a significant challenge, especially for large global organizations, where there could be more than 2,000 individual contributors transitioning into management roles every year. The issue is further complicated by the fact that organizations mostly focus their leadership development efforts on their top talent and C-level employees and give only a cursory glance at first-time manager development.

However, in the past few years, there has been a gradual positive change. According to a 2014 Bersin by Deloitte report, organizations are spending an average of 29 percent of their L&D budgets (the highest ever) on developing their first-time managers. This is great news for many aspiring first-time managers and their organizations, but it is not enough. It is also critical to identify the factors that have a significant impact on ensuring that this investment is maximized and there is no last-minute panic and crash landing.

A study conducted in 2017 by a global transport and logistics leader found that the success of first-time manager development programs, especially in large global organizations, depended on six key factors:

1. A scalable solution with zero wait time between a person moving to the manager role and the start of the first-time manager program: Use multiple platforms, technology, delivery and language options to ensure scale and reach across geographies and business units.
2. An ongoing journey of learning and development rather than a few intensive bursts of training programs: Support this journey with adequate opportunities to practice new skills. Include assessments, videos, simulations, coaching and mentoring, and peer connections to make it comprehensive.
3. Personalization based on individual needs and available technology
4. Address key challenges and strategies: To make this development journey simple, focused and a real value-add for the participant, it needs to specific to the organization rather than a potpourri of “nice- to-know” topics that the learning team presumes will benefit any new manager.
5. The manager of the first-time manager plays a critical role in the success of this journey.
6. Leverage internal trainers and leaders to facilitate parts of this journey. Doing so ensures that there is a culture of continuous learning within the organization and is a terrific way to build high-caliber leaders in the next levels of the organization.

With a razor-sharp focus on these success factors when designing, developing and deploying the first-time manager program, more individual contributors will confidently dive into their new and exciting role, knowing that there a robust organizational support during their transition. Organizations will also see a significant decrease in the rate of failure and have a lot more of their first-time managers executing the perfect dive – a 10/10!