There are few greater moments that bring satisfaction and joy than seeing people under your care grow, develop, and enjoy the work they do and in time becomes the next leader, manager, or expert. All of your efforts layer towards this, you are critcal to their present and future, embrace the responsibility.
One of your early conversations with your folk is to have the development disucssion. This should be deep if you are just getting to know them, because you need to understand what they enjoy doing and what motivates them, you also need to understand what challenges them so you know exactly how you will need to support them.
Schedule One-to-Ones with eachother
These discussions should be refreshing for you both, they should be safe places to talk openly about anything and everything that is happening in their (and your) work life.
From their point of view they want to see your guidance and feedback on the things they are working on because they want to do their best and be impactful. You also want to be able to procide support for issues or feedback before they become larger issues.
The best discussions begin with sharing whats been happening in your life, outside of work. Do not be afraid to share what your hobbies and interests are, holiday plans or challenges. We spoke about this earlier, its all about building trust and phycological safety.
Both of you are more likely to have productive conversations when you keep notes and have a rough agenda. For example, the first 5 minutes to discuss life, 10 minutes for what they are enjoying, 10 minutes for challenges, 5 minutes for support and actions. Over time you will both refine and develop a agenda that works for you both. Remember these sessions are all about them, but you will also have opportunities to share insights, feedback, and advice.
In order to ensure you both keep on top of development conversations schedule your one-to-ones with every fourth one being special and dedicate that time to discuss goal and development progress. So esentially you are checking in at least twice every quarter to track how well their goals are progressing.
Be smart when it comes to goal setting
“The establishment of objectives and the development of their rexpective action plans are the most critical steps in a company's management process.”
– George Doran
“There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management goals and objectives” was an article published in the 1981 issue of "Managment Review" by George Doran, and it was initially seen as a business tool and thousands of people across the world were taught how to use it. Since then the SMART method of setting goals while slightly tweaked remains the most established framework for creating goals.
It's not uncommon to face the statement “I'm not sure what I want to achieve”, many people dont know what's possible and they even struggle to put a plan in place to achieve it. This is your opportunity be empathetic, dig in, and guide the individual into a place where they do know and whats more you have inspired them on this journey to develop themselves.
Goal setting isn’t something we should do in a rushed manner or without an action plan otherwise you end up with something to the effect of "I just want to do a good job". Setting goals requires plenty of thought and purpose which is why a little bit of structure can help tremendously in getting the most out of these opportunities and the time dedicated to achieving them.
SMART is an acronym that stands for:
- Specific – The goal is clearly outlined, with detailed information such as what is to be achieved, how well it must be done, and why it is important.
- Measurable – The goal must have a definite and measurable indicator to tell if it has been achieved.
- Achievable – While the goal should stretch the employee, it should not be so lofty as to not be realistically achievable at all.
- Relevant – The goal is in line with both the employee’s job and the overall goals of the organization.
- Time-bound – There should be a definite timeline as to when this goal should be completed.
When it comes down to what these goals should be it must be a combination of business and personal development goals, no use folk being completely focused on business delivery and not growing themselves. That is a recipe for disaster.
The key for setting achievable goals is to ensure they can be done without dependancies of others, there is nothing more demotivating than to be blocked achieving your goal by someone else.
Personal development plans
We never want to see people feel lost in their role. Implementing a development plan will help your direct report focus on what matters, their impact and growth.
Someone without a personal development plan will likely find themselves coasting along in their role. Sadly we recognise that this can lead to frustration and result in lack of engagment and growth. We want everyone in our care to know what they want to achieve and craft the bridge with them towards this outcome. By implementing a development plan we are securing and investing into their future and channeling core interests into opportunities for growth.
As someone in your care you want to make sure you can get the best out of each of your direct reports and the best way of doing that is supporting them on their long term journey. Your insight and guidance can be the difference between retaining and losing good people. It doesnt take a lot of effort to maintain but it does require taking the initiative and having a focused discussion to get it started.
An individual development plan is a customized agreement between an employee and their employer that details new skills to be acquired or learned and how performance can be enhanced within a specific time frame. It also includes an action plan for these goals.
Development plans are the framework for determining current goals. As each goal is completed we can see they are moving forward along the master plan in their career focus. This means that things are flexible and provides an opportunity to reflect on what is needed to continue moving forward. A development plan should never be rigid and fixed. Life and Work throws all sorts of challenges at us so being agile will ensure our folk remain focused, engaged and happy with their plan.
Components of the plan
The structure of an individual development plan can vary depending on the person and their focus. Typically these are the components of a development plan focused on multi-year devepment and progression:
- Professional goals and aspirations
- Strengths and talents
- Development opportunities
- Action plans
Within each section, take the time to identify milestones, some of these will be skills others will be deliverables, think about SMART goals that will support what’s needed to achieve them. Over time, you will start to see your people achieve their goals and complete milestones. This is one of the most rewarding and satisfying parts of managing people and seeing them grow. This is the breakdown of each basic section of a development plan:
Professional goals and aspirations
This is where your people can dare to dream big, take them on that journey! What do they want out of their career in the company? Start big and break this down in to achievable productivity and promotion goals. There sould be a timeline associated with each target. This section should include, technologies they want to work with, processes they want to be absorbed with, specific projects they are interested in being involved with, delivery results they’d like to reach, and aspirations they have for promotion levels within the company.
Your role is to work with them to make this a reality. There will be some hard decisions and tough discussions but at the end of the day you want to support them so they can reach their full potential. If you do, you will be there to see them grow, develop, progress multiple times over and that is incredibly rewarding for them and you.
Strengths and talents
This clearly focuses on what they are good at. How can they leverge their specific knowledge, skills, and talents to make an impact. It's incredibly important that we recognise their strengths because they will lean on them when facing new challenges.
Development opportunities
Focusing on opportunities is where the real growth develops, focus and deliberate practice to improve is what this section captures. Training courses, coaching, and management support will be critical as someone is starting from a weak state.
You can see that they are working in a vunerable space so your role here is all about support, building their confidence, positive messaging and celebrating progress.
Action plans
The action plan is all about taking the next step moving forward towards their goal. They should be in the format of SMART goals but can also include:
- Mentoring others
- Learning from a mentor
- Completing development course
- Joining a professional organization
- Earning professional certifications
- Leading or presenting at meetings
- Cross-training for another position
- Attending professional conferences or seminars
- Creating learning programs for others on the team
- Taking on more challenging tasks in their current role
- Coordinating team-building events
- Volunteering with community groups
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This helps you to understand the time you spend with your direct reports is all about them. They bring the agenda in their one-to-one, they drive their career path, they share how they are doing, and your role is to guide them to their success.
As each one of them is a unique individual you will need to adapt your management style to them, this includes communication, reporting, conversation topics, motivations, and taylored support. You will need to take time thinking about them and do this often.
People management isnt for everyone, in order to be successful you must have a genuine desire to help other people.
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People management isnt for everyone, in order to be successful you must have a genuine desire to help other people.
When you reach the point in your career that you have the care of People, often referred to as 'Direct Reports' you have become an incredible part of the success of the team, and the entire company. Take a deep breath, a step back ... well done.