Newly promoted managers
Build a clear starting point as your role shifts from individual contributor or peer to people leader.
Practical workshop for new managers
First-Time Manager Training
Learn to set expectations, build trust, lead useful one-on-ones, give timely feedback, document observable facts, and prepare for difficult conversations with a clear path to HR support.
Request manager training informationRecommended as a full-day workshop
The manager standard
AI drafts. Humans still decide.
AI can help with preparation, drafting, and hypothetical rehearsal. People leadership, direct observation, listening, and high-stakes judgment stay with the manager and HR.
- 01Set expectations
- 02Lead useful one-on-ones
- 03Know when to involve HR
The leadership shift
Lead people with a clear starting point.
First-time managers move from owning their own work to helping other people do their best work. That shift changes how they set priorities, delegate, communicate, give feedback, and ask for support.
This workshop puts people leadership first. Participants practice the conversations and routines managers need in real weeks of work. AI remains a supervised aid for preparation, drafting, and hypothetical rehearsal, with every output reviewed before it is used.
01
Own the role
02
Build trust
03
Ask early
Who this is for
A strong start for every manager path.
The workshop supports the first stretch of people leadership, while giving experienced supervisors and sponsoring teams a shared language for expectations, feedback, documentation, and escalation.
Supervisors
Strengthen the everyday habits that help a team understand priorities, support, feedback, and follow-through.
Team leads with direct reports
Practice the conversations and routines that come with responsibility for other people’s work and experience.
Individual contributors preparing for supervision
Start building a practical leadership foundation before the first direct report arrives.
Experienced supervisors
Refresh core skills and create a shared management standard across a group of leaders.
HR and L&D sponsors
Give manager cohorts a repeatable framework for expectations, documentation, escalation, and responsible AI use.
Learning outcomes
Leave ready for the next conversation.
By the end of the workshop, participants can make the next people-leadership step clearer, more factual, and better connected to HR support.
- 01
Describe the shift from individual contributor to people leader, including what to own and what to stop taking back.
- 02
Set clear expectations around outcomes, priorities, deadlines, and support.
- 03
Plan and lead useful one-on-ones that make space for obstacles, development, agreements, and follow-up.
- 04
Give specific feedback and document observable facts without labels or assumptions about motive.
- 05
Prepare for difficult conversations and recognize when HR should be involved before acting.
- 06
Use AI only for safe, de-identified preparation, and review every output before using it.
The seven-part workshop
From the role shift to daily practice.
Each module turns a common manager challenge into a practice point, then connects it to the routines and HR pathways that support good follow-through.
- 01
From Peer to People Leader
Understand the role change, delegate instead of taking work back, build authority without fear, and navigate former-peer dynamics. Create a personal 90-day manager statement.
- 02
The Manager’s Boundary Map
Clarify confidentiality, the manager’s role, and when HR enters the conversation. Learn what must never go into a general-purpose AI tool.
- 03
Expectations and the First 90 Days
Turn listening and learning into clear outcomes, priorities, deadlines, support, and team routines. Build a practical 30-60-90 day plan.
- 04
One-on-Ones That Help
Use open questions, active listening, and consistent follow-up to discuss obstacles, support, development, and agreed actions.
- 05
Feedback and Factual Documentation
Give timely feedback using observable behavior and impact. Separate facts from assumptions and write notes without labels or judgments about motive.
- 06
Difficult Conversations and When to Involve HR
Prepare the purpose, example, question, and next step. Practice staying in the manager role, responding when someone is upset, and escalating at the right time.
- 07
Routines, Team Norms, and the 30-Day Plan
Choose repeatable manager habits, set team communication norms, map HR pathways, and finish with a responsible AI rule of the road.
Participant takeaway
Leave with a New Manager Starter Packet.
The packet turns the workshop into practical next steps. Participants leave with tools for the first 90 days, the next one-on-one, a feedback conversation, and the moments that call for HR support.
Ready for the next working session
A 30-60-90 day manager plan
A one-on-one meeting template
A feedback and difficult-conversation checklist
A factual documentation guide
A When to Involve HR reference card
A responsible AI rule of the road covering purpose, allowed inputs, review checks, and stop points
Delivery options
Choose the shape that fits your managers.
The recommended format is a full-day workshop, with shorter and more focused adaptations available for your group and goals.
Recommended
Full-day workshop
About seven instructional hours, with lunch and two short breaks. The day moves from role foundations to practice, routines, and a 30-day plan.
Adaptation
Half-day adaptation
Focus on the manager shift, expectations, one-on-ones, feedback, and the moments that call for HR guidance.
Adaptation
Three-session series
Build the foundation, practice conversations and documentation, then return to routines, team norms, and follow-through.
Adaptation
Audience-focused adaptation
Practitioner sessions can emphasize labs and role-play. Leader, HR, and L&D sessions can emphasize standards, escalation, and reinforcement.
Responsible-use boundaries
People leadership stays human.
Managers own the relationship, the observation, the conversation, and the decision to ask for HR support. AI can help prepare the work, while every output stays under human review.
What the manager owns
- Set expectations around outcomes, priorities, deadlines, and support.
- Listen directly, lead consistent one-on-ones, and follow up on agreements.
- Describe observable behavior and impact, separating facts from assumptions.
- Document what was observed, discussed, and agreed in plain, factual language.
- Use HR guidance before acting on sensitive or high-stakes matters.
When to protect information and involve HR
Keep the following out of general-purpose AI tools, and pause for HR guidance before acting on a sensitive matter.
- Names, identifiable employee details, personnel records, and performance notes
- Medical, accommodation, and leave information
- Complaints, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and investigation details
- Pay, promotion, selection, discipline, and termination details
Bring the question to HR when:
- Medical, accommodation, or leave information is involved.
- A concern includes a complaint, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or investigation.
- The question involves pay, promotion, selection, discipline, termination, policy interpretation, or credibility.
- A manager is unsure what to say, document, promise, or do next in a sensitive matter.
AI may assist with
- Generic one-on-one agendas and coaching questions
- Non-confidential task organization and neutral reminders
- Hypothetical conversation rehearsal with fictional scenarios
- Safe, de-identified preparation and first drafts for human review
- Checking a draft for clarity, tone, accuracy, and possible bias
AI must not decide
- Assess employees or infer intent, character, or protected traits
- Recommend ratings, pay, promotion, selection, accommodations, discipline, or termination
- Decide credibility or interpret a live policy situation
- Replace direct observation, listening, factual documentation, HR guidance, or legal counsel
If an output would change what happens to a person, AI is not in that decision step. Practice uses fictional or de-identified scenarios only.
Instructor
Guidance grounded in the HR seat.
Marilyn Lopez-Haddad, J.D., AI+HI SHRM, brings more than 30 years of employee and labor relations experience, more than 25 years of HR leadership, and 18 years as Vice President of Human Resources for a nonprofit.
She has hands-on experience leading AI adoption and training managers and leaders. Her approach is practical, careful with confidential information, and grounded in clear expectations, factual documentation, timely feedback, and human accountability.
30+
years in employee and labor relations
25+
years in HR leadership
18
years as VP of HR
Request manager training information
Start a conversation about your managers.
Share your participant roles, preferred format, and where managers need practice. Marilyn will follow up to discuss fit and scope.
This starts a conversation. It does not book a calendar appointment automatically.
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