Chances are that providing professional and leadership development opportunities to the people you lead is important to you. In fact, every leader I know expresses the importance of developing others. Sadly, however, very few have implemented meaningful development strategies or programs.
Leaders often struggle to wrap their heads around just exactly what a development program should look like. This is due in large part to the fact that many leaders are not able to point to a developmental program from which they benefitted. Rather, such leaders were lucky enough to come up through the ranks under some other great leaders whose investment approach was “let me show you the ropes” instead of a holistic development strategy. Thus, with no frame of reference to build their own program, current leaders may allow urgent things to overrun the important things. Despite its importance, then, development is relegated to the long list of things that “we’ll get to later.”
In fact, development programs stay on the “to-do” list for so long in some organizations that leaders begin to sell themselves on the belief that development is happening on its own — by nature of doing work. Some even sell themselves on the belief that the conversations they have with their people in passing are meaningful developmental conversations. Don’t be that leader. Meaningful conversations are the ones your people want to have with you, not the ones you have while passing in the hall. This minimization of professional development is compounded by ineffective annual evaluation programs and the absence of multi-echeloned training and education.
1. Training and Education: Many organizations have phenomenal entry-level training and onboarding programs. Entry-level training is vital to a new team member’s ability to understand organizational expectations and standards. However, that’s where most organizational training and education programs begin and end. Though many include periods of training for people moving into leadership positions, such training programs are seldom as robust as the entry-level training. Think about that for a minute: Organizations typically invest more quality time and effort into training new team members than into training those moving into leadership positions! World class development programs include multi-echeloned training and education programs that equip team members with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to be successful at every level of their careers.
2. Developmental Experiences: To be sure, experience gained on the job, especially as it relates to leadership, is invaluable. However, expecting that every member of your team is getting the experience on the job necessary to prepare them for future roles of increased leadership responsibility is unrealistic. Furthermore, believing that everyone understands the importance of reflecting on and examining experiences to extract valuable learning is unreasonable. World class development programs include experiences that are designed to challenge people to practically apply their training and education in real time. These developmental experiences should be monitored by leaders who are involved in the team members’ development. Monitoring team members’ performance during these experiences allows leaders to assess individual performance, determine strengths and weaknesses, and prepare for targeted feedback sessions.
3. Feedback: Feedback must be more than an annual evaluation. Most annual evaluations are not designed to be developmental tools. When delivered appropriately, feedback is deliberate and intentional. It occurs both formally and informally on a frequency that supports a team member’s development. Informal feedback may occur in the moment as leaders see opportunities to address strengths and weaknesses. Formal feedback is planned and scheduled. It provides for two-way dialogue intended to enforce points made during informal moments of feedback while also addressing long-term goals, objectives, and other developmental needs. A world class development program makes proper feedback a high priority. When done properly, feedback is documented accordingly for each team member, which reduces the amount of time leaders spend writing annual evaluations.
4. Synchronization: Training and education, developmental experiences, and feedback each carry the same weight. One is not more important than another. In fact, each relies on the others as part of a synchronized world class development program. In organizations wherein leaders build relationships of trust with their people and offer a synchronized development program, team members are more apt to thrive as they perform their jobs and navigate their careers in the organization. Years of research also indicate that these employees are also more likely to stay in the organization. World class development programs demonstrate to team members that their leaders care for them and are invested in their future.
Does your organization’s developmental program have room to improve? Is developing others important to you…but being overrun by urgent day-to-day issues? If either of these is true, consider the negative impact on your team. Yes, development is that important. Make your development program part of the discussion next time you meet with your leadership team. A world-class development program is within reach.
Instituting a World-Class Development Program was originally published in Horizon Performance on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
