Unlocking Leadership Potential: Inside ButterflyMX's Leadership Development Training Program

At ButterflyMX, we recognize the critical role that people leaders play in driving organizational growth and success. They bring out the best in our people to achieve exceptional results.?

Together, our people leaders — including managers, directors, and executives at all levels — recently embarked on a five-month leadership development training program.

Take a peek inside the what, why, and how of ButterflyMX’s leadership program:

Why we invested in leadership development

ButterflyMX is committed to investing in its people — and we believe that means giving employees the resources they need to thrive.?

A people leader is tasked with defining results, ensuring teams achieve those results, celebrating successes, and navigating the challenges that come with a high-performing team. But these are big responsibilities! So, we wanted to ensure that every leader had the skills, training, and resources necessary to lead their teams to greatness.

We ultimately invested in leadership development training to achieve the following:

1. Ensure career advancement opportunities: We strive to promote from within and help employees further their careers here. Ensuring career advancement opportunities not only helps employees feel fulfilled, but it improves employee retention and business outcomes.
2. Improve the employee experience: Our people leaders are the reason people stay at ButterflyMX. They bring our values to life by creating and leading a positive cultural experience for everyone on their team.?
3. Strengthen the business: Strong leadership directly improves business productivity and efficiency. When people leaders are strong delegators and problem solvers, less time is spent on frivolous administrative tasks, and more time can be devoted to meeting our company’s goals.

The importance of leadership development in remote companies

ButterflyMX is a remote-first company with employees based around the world and across several timezones.?

One challenge employees often face in remote work environments is career growth and advancement. Without daily face-to-face meetings and in-person collaboration, it can be easy for employees to fall into a rhythm without taking on new challenges or responsibilities. Likewise, managers might easily fail to notice employees’ potential or desire for growth.?

So despite being a distributed workforce, we at ButterflyMX made it our mission to keep our teams engaged and motivated to chase growth. We believe that leadership development for our remote teams will yield greater trust in a distributed environment and more effective communication.

How we built our leadership training program

In 2022, ButterflyMX proudly partnered with HumanSide , a learning design and culture development company, to curate a program designed to strategically align people managers.

Before kicking off a five-part virtual training intensive, our leaders came together to refine the company’s vision and expectations of people leadership, and define what it means to be a people leader at ButterflyMX.

Then, from December 2022 through May 2023, 61 people managers at ButterflyMX met once a month to learn new skills and discover new tools to improve their leadership abilities. In each multi-hour session, employees were encouraged to disable notifications, remove distractions, and lean into every conversation.

The training program covered a range of topics, including:

• Communication
• Delegation
• Establishing psychological safety at work
• Leadership styles
• Supporting employees through change
• Receiving and giving feedback
• Conflict resolution

During each virtual session, HumanSide representatives led ButterflyMX people managers through various exercises and activities. Each session was interactive and hands-on, requiring participants to think critically, brainstorm, and share their perspectives and ideas.

Session activities included:

• Guided discussions and presentations from HumanSide experts.
• Small breakout group sessions — anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes — with one or more fellow people managers to practice using new tools and techniques.
• Games, Jeopardy-style quizzes, polls, and other engaging activities.
• Open-ended questions and time for self-reflection.

Here’s what our people leaders learned

After completing the program, ButterflyMX leaders came away with a comprehensive people leader toolkit, a deeper appreciation for the work of a leader, and a well-aligned community of people managers.

More specifically, some of the greatest takeaways that our people leaders learned include:

• Establishing psychological safety is the key to a successful team.
• There are four common temperament styles that inform how an employee processes, communicates, and operates. Successful people leaders consider and accommodate a direct report’s temperament style when working together.
• To guide teams through change, people leaders must assess which stage of the change curve a direct report is at: denial, anger, exploration, or acceptance.
• Successful delegation follows the STRAM model — ensuring assigned tasks and goals are specific, trackable, relevant, attainable, and motivating.

Become the next great leader at ButterflyMX

Through the leadership development program, ButterflyMX has demonstrated its commitment to building a talented and dynamic leadership team that will drive the company's success today and in the future.?

If you’re looking for your next role, consider joining the ButterflyMX family! Learn more about joining our team by visiting our Careers page .