Build Business Resilience Through Learning
Step 4: Why Managers Matter in Building Business Resilience
This is the fourth article in our 6-part series on how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can build a resilient business through learning.
So far, we’ve looked at:
- Defining business goals and risk areas (Step 1)
- Choosing the right LMS to align with your needs (Step 2)
- Focusing on priority learning areas that matter most (Step 3)
Now, we turn to a critical—but often overlooked—driver of business resilience: your managers.
The Role of Managers in Building Resilience
Managers are uniquely positioned to influence learning in ways that senior leaders and L&D teams often can’t. They operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, with daily visibility into team dynamics, performance blockers, and emerging risks.
When empowered to lead learning to build business resilience, managers become:
- Early detectors of capability gaps
- Real-time coaches and facilitators
- Translators of business goals into team action
- Enablers of a culture where learning is continuous and relevant
Rather than treating learning as something outsourced to HR or L&D, resilient businesses embed learning into the fabric of team leadership—and that starts with equipping managers.
What Empowered Managers Can Do
High-performing organisations engage managers directly in workforce capability development because they’re closest to performance demands, according to McKinsey & Company. Manager involvement leads to more targeted and effective interventions. Here’s how manager involvement enhances resilience:
1. Address Capability Gaps in Real Time
Managers are best positioned to identify and respond to capability gaps in real time. Frontline managers are sometimes considered the most underrated resources. According to the Harvard Business Review, frontline managers are uniquely placed to observer emerging skill gaps as they occur in daily work and respond faster than centralised teams. Their proximity to operations enables a faster learning response.
Managers are 2x more likely than HR to accurately identify the skills employees need for current roles. This underscores their role in recognising real-time performance issues and assigning relevant training.
Organisations where managers take ownership of learning are more agile, responsive to shifting capability needs and build business resilience.
Managers observe daily challenges and assign learning proactively, before issues escalate. For example, if a team struggles with new technology or client communication, relevant training can be assigned immediately.
2. Coach Teams Through Change
Whether it’s restructuring, new regulations, or digital transformation, managers who are confident in leading learning can support smoother transitions and reduce resistance to change. Coaching is a practical intervention that can play a key role in helping managers and leaders explain possible changes facing their teams, improving readiness levels, and building the capacity of the organisation. Managers who use coaching techniques can significantly improve team preparedness and resilience during transitions.
Managers have multifaceted influence during periods of change—not only delivering training but also advocating for, guiding, and sustaining it. Managers support change and resilience by playing five critical roles:
- Communicator
- Liaison
- Resistance Manager
- Advocate
- Coach
3. Align Learning With Business Goals
Instead of generic training, managers can connect learning to current team objectives—making it more relevant and impactful. This ensures learning isn’t just a tick-box activity but a driver of outcomes.
Learning is far more effective when aligned with business objectives. A LinkedIn survey found that training programs with strong alignment to business goals are approximately 9 times more effective—with 53% effectiveness compared to just 6% effectiveness in poorly aligned programs.
Goal alignment is widely valued, but is often poorly implemented. In the Brandon Hall Group’s 2020 Learning Strategy Study, 87% of companies agreed that aligning learning with business strategy is important or critical. Yet only 13% said they were ready to take action on that alignment. Good alignment also drives performance and engagement. Aligning learning initiatives with business KPIs helps close skills gaps, drive innovation, and transform L&D from a cost centre to a growth engine.
4. Reinforce Learning in the Flow of Work
Learning doesn’t end when a course wraps up. Managers who embed knowledge through follow‑ups, stretch assignments, team discussions, or mentoring ensure that learning is applied—not just completed. This consistency helps prevent a common pitfall: short-lived gains.
The Learning Pyramid shows that practice by doing yields a 75% retention rate—meaning applying what you’ve learned in real contexts dramatically solidifies memory over passive approaches.
WorkPlan Learning: Enabling Managers with the Right Tools
In many organisations, managers want to support learning—but don’t have access to the data, tools, or time.
That’s why WorkPlan Learning gives managers:
- Dashboards to track completions, overdue items, and learning trends
- Insights into how learning aligns with team goals or compliance needs
- Control to assign training and support performance development
No technical expertise or admin access required—just the visibility and autonomy managers need to lead learning effectively.
Why This Matters for Business Resilience
In resilient businesses, learning is not a siloed HR function—it’s a team-led, goal-driven habit.
When managers take ownership of learning:
- Training becomes aligned with real challenges
- Skill gaps are closed faster
- Teams adapt quicker to change
- Learning becomes part of how work gets done—not a distraction from it
When managers are involved, employees are 75% more likely to engage in learning, which is key to building business resilience.
Next up: Step 5 – Make Learning Continuous, Not One-Off
References
-
Workplace Learning Report 2023. LinkedIn Learning. 2023.
https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/workplace-learning-report -
Building Workforce Skills at Scale to Thrive During—and After—the COVID-19 Crisis. McKinsey & Company. 2021.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/building-workforce-skills-at-scale-to-thrive-during-and-after-the-covid-19-crisis -
Surviving the Trial by Fire: Five Crucial Capabilities for Today’s Frontline Leaders. Harvard Business Publishing. 2021.
https://www.harvardbusiness.org/insight/surviving-the-trial-by-fire-five-crucial-capabilities-for-todays-frontline-leaders -
The Role of the Change Management Coach in a Continuously Changing World. Forbes Coaches Council. 2020.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/03/09/the-role-of-the-change-management-coach-in-a-continuously-changing-world -
Learning Strategy Study. Brandon Hall Group. 2020.
https://brandonhall.com/aligning-the-ld-strategy-with-business-goals -
Learning Pyramid. The Peak Performance Center.
https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/principles-of-learning/learning-pyramid
Part of the “Build Business Resilience Through Learning” Series This is Article 4 of 6 in our series designed to help small and medium-sized businesses identify and prioritise the learning areas that will deliver the greatest impact in terms of business continuity, team capability, and agility under pressure.
Previous Article:
Step 1 – Define Your Business Objectives and Risk Areas
Step 2 – Choose an LMS That Aligns with Your Needs
Step 3 – Empower managers to lead and track learning
