Advanced: The Manager-of-Managers Program
The second transition — from running a team to running an org. Twelve modules on org design, strategy, calibration at scale, comp ownership, reorgs, succession, and executive influence. The advanced tier above the 12-Week New Manager Program.
For: Senior managers becoming directors, directors becoming VPs, founders building their first leadership layer
The Manager-of-Managers Program: Advanced Curriculum
Twelve modules for the second transition — from operating a team to designing and stewarding an org. Org design, strategy, calibration at scale, comp…
Module 1 — The Second Transition — Stop Operating, Start Designing
Redesign your week around what only a manager-of-managers can do: org design, strategy, calibration, coaching managers, executive influence.
Module 2 — Org Design — Span, Layers, Levelling
Span-of-control trade-offs, the cost of layers, levelling discipline, and how to redesign an org without breaking the people in it.
Module 3 — Strategy at This Layer — Setting It, Not Translating It
Move from translating company strategy into team goals to setting the strategy for your function. Hypothesis-driven planning, bets-based portfolios, and…
Module 4 — Operating System at Scale — Cadence, Metrics, Reviews
Design the weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual cadence, the metrics that get reviewed, and the operating reviews that actually move decisions.
Module 5 — Calibration Across Managers — Owning the Distribution
Run a calibration across your managers that produces a defensible distribution, surfaces manager-level rating bias, and protects the people the system would…
Module 6 — Comp Ownership — Budget, Philosophy, Exceptions
Own your comp budget end-to-end: defend the philosophy upward, allocate the budget across managers, handle exceptions without breaking the system, and…
Module 7 — Hiring Bar at Org Scale
Own the hiring bar across loops, levels, and functions. Calibrate interviewers, surface loop-quality issues, and prevent the slow drift that erodes every…
Module 8 — Coaching Your Managers — Skip-Levels & Manager 1:1s
Run manager 1:1s that develop a manager (not status-update them), skip-levels that surface real signal without undermining the manager, and decide when to…
Module 9 — Reorgs, RIFs, and Structural Change
Plan and execute a reorg or reduction-in-force: criteria, sequencing, legal pre-clearance, communication architecture, and the after-care that determines…
Module 10 — Succession & Bench — Building Your Replacement
Build the bench two layers down, develop your own replacement deliberately, and make succession a real practice not a yearly slide.
Module 11 — Executive Influence — Coalitions, Boards, Politics
Build coalitions across peer leaders, navigate exec politics with integrity, prep board materials, and influence decisions you don't formally own — without…
Module 12 — Your Own Scale — Presence, Sustainability, Career
Build the personal operating system — calendar discipline, executive presence, peer support, sustainability — that determines whether you compound at this…
Bonus 1 — Portfolio Prioritisation — Allocate, Don't Add
Run your function as a portfolio: rank projects, allocate capacity, name what you'll stop, defend the cuts. Stop accreting work; start choosing.
Bonus 2 — Budget & Financial Management — Own the P&L
Own the full operating budget: headcount, vendors, tooling, T&E, contractors. Forecast, defend, reallocate. Stop being a comp-line owner; start being a P&L…
Bonus 3 — Executive Communication — Narrative, Memo, Stage
Install the disciplines of executive communication: 6-page memo, board update, QBR narrative, exec stage presence.
Bonus 4 — Organisational Risk Management
Build the risk register every senior leader should own: delivery, talent, compliance, security, vendor, knowledge-concentration, single-point-of-failure.
Bonus 5 — Organisational Culture — You Shape It Now
At this layer, culture is something you design: which behaviours get reinforced, which rituals get installed, what cultural debt accumulates, how values show…
Bonus 6 — Building Leadership Pipelines
Beyond succession: build the pipeline of future leaders. Identify hi-pos, design stretch assignments, run leadership academies, define promotion readiness…
Bonus 7 — Cross-functional Leadership at Scale
Own shared outcomes across functions: company initiatives, multi-team alignment, executive sponsorship, large programs.
Bonus 8 — Large-scale Change Programs
Run company transformations, system migrations, process redesigns, M&A integrations, strategic pivots. Install the change-leadership disciplines that survive…
Bonus 9 — Governance & Decision Forums
Senior leaders don't just attend governance — they design it. Build steering committees, leadership meetings, decision councils, escalation frameworks, and…
Bonus 10 — Data-driven Leadership
Install the dashboard, the cadence, and the literacy to lead with data: hiring analytics, attrition trends, engagement, productivity, performance trends.
Bonus 11 — Vendor & External Partner Management
Procurement, vendor performance, contracts, outsourcing, consultants — the external surface of your function is often 20–40% of budget and 100% of certain…
Bonus 12 — Innovation & Organisational Improvement
Senior leaders improve the system that produces the output: continuous improvement, AI adoption, automation, process redesign, experimentation.