Management training · Victoria, BC
Practical training for the human side of management.
Hands-on workshops in communication, conflict, coaching and storytelling, built from leadership programs delivered to more than 500 staff.
The problem
The conversation nobody wants to have.
- A strong performer starts slipping, and nobody says a word until it is a much bigger problem.
- Feedback is given so gently that it never lands.
- A conflict between two people simmers until the rest of the team starts picking sides.
- Two people hear the same sentence and understand two different things, because they grew up with different rules about feedback, silence and respect.
- A newly promoted manager is expected to lead former peers with no training at all.
- Expectations are perfectly clear in the manager’s head, and nowhere else.
The workshops
Six tracks, built around real situations.
Every session is designed around what your managers are actually dealing with. Expect practice, scenarios and discussion, not a slide deck read aloud.
Hard Conversations and Conflict
Say the difficult thing clearly and kindly, and keep the working relationship intact.
Leading Multicultural Teams
Build a team that communicates clearly and performs well, whatever mix of backgrounds is in the room.
Communication and Influence
Get your message across, and get people on board with it.
The First-Time Manager
The move from doing the work to leading the people who do it, including leading the people who were peers last month.
Leading Through Change and AI
Keep a team steady while the work changes underneath them, including the honest conversations about what AI will and will not do to their jobs.
Train the Trainer
For companies that want their own people delivering the training, so the development does not stop when I leave.
Formats
Group workshops for 4 to 20 people, as a 90-minute session, a half day, a full day or a series over several weeks. One-on-one coaching for individual managers.
Where
In person in Greater Victoria, elsewhere on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. Online for teams anywhere in British Columbia.
Not listed here?
Every program is built around your team. Tell me the challenge you are facing and I will tell you honestly whether I can help with it.
How it works
Three steps, no long sales process.
A short call
We talk about your team and the challenge you are facing. Twenty minutes, and no sales pitch. If a workshop is not the right answer, I will say so.
A session built for your team
I design the workshop around real situations your managers face, then deliver it in person or online. Participants practise, rather than listen.
A one-page follow-up
Everyone leaves with a simple framework they can use the next day, and you get a short written summary of what came up in the room.
About
Hi, I am Jack.
I started Manager Lab because of the work I have enjoyed most in my career: helping people grow into leaders, and watching what that does for the team and the company around them. Good training changes how somebody shows up on Monday morning, and that is the part that keeps me doing this.
I have spent fifteen years building and training teams in two very different places.
In Nairobi, I was Head of Talent and Capability Development at M-Gas, where I built and delivered a professional development program that trained more than 500 staff across three modules, and then trained the company’s own internal trainers to carry it forward.
In Moscow, I founded an English language school in 2010 and built it to more than US$1 million in annual revenue. Along the way I hired, trained and managed more than 1,000 teachers and staff, and delivered business training to corporate clients.
I have managed and trained teams made up of more than 20 nationalities, in Russia, in Kenya and now in Canada, one of the most multicultural countries in the world.
So I have run a business, and I have trained inside one. I know what a manager is actually dealing with on a Monday morning, and I know what training has to do to be worth the time it takes people away from their work.
From the training room
Questions
The things people ask first.
How big can the group be?
Is it in person or online?
Do you offer one-on-one coaching?
Can you tailor it to our industry?
How long are the sessions?
How much does it cost?
What if my managers are skeptical about training?
Get in touch
Have a management challenge on your mind?
Tell me about your team and the situation you are facing. Together we will work out whether a workshop would help, and which one.
No pitch, no obligation, and no long sales process. If I am not the right person for the problem, I will tell you that too. If you would rather just pick up the phone, the number is below.
(250) 661-3518
jack@managerlab.ca
Based in
Victoria, British Columbia
Reply time
Within one business day