A Leader’s Guide to Effective Ongoing Development Discussions

This Leader’s Guide is designed specifically to help leaders and employees have strong and productive development discussions, across time and on single occasions. Having these kinds of discussions help to ensure that the leader knows what is important to the employee’s engagement and feeling valued by the organization. They also help to ensure leaders and employees have the information they need to explore various career directions and opportunities for employees.

The Foundation for these Discussions – What Matters to the Employee

The first thing a leader should really understand are the goals, values, and interests that are important to everyone on their team. This kind of conversation should ideally happen when the leader and team member first start working together, and then of course, can be referenced again and again during development discussions. However, if the leader and team member have not had the conversation even after they have worked together for some time, the leader should still initiate the conversation. The leader should ask questions like:

• What short-term career-related goals that are important to you?
• What long-term career-related goals that are important to you?
• Are there other goals that are important to you that we haven’t discussed yet?
• What values are most important to you?
• What interests do you have that you want to explore further given the opportunities in the organization?

Once a leader understands these things about their employees, they can refer to them as they continue working with the employee and helping them to continue to grow and develop in ways that are important to them. Without this conversation, a leader has no context for providing feedback, any feedback provided can be suspect to the employee, and the leader misses a great opportunity for building trust and the relationship.

Equally Important – The Organization’s Success Factors

Say that an employee has short-term career goals of being as successful as possible in their current role, and the envision being in it for the next 2-3 years. The leader’s job then is to help the employee understand the most important success factors for the current role. They then can discuss how the employee’s strengths and development needs compare against these success factors. However, first the success factors should be clear for the employee. Often, companies help this understanding by having competency/capability/skill frameworks in place that clearly define the success factors at the company and often by levels or roles. Often, companies have frameworks that reflect the values of the organization and leaders and employees understand that “living these values” are also important to success in the organization.

At times, though, there is no framework to guide employees or leaders, and no attempt to define what success looks like in the organization, or what leadership looks like in the organization. In these situations, it is important for leaders to fill in those knowledge gaps for employees, and do have discussions about what is important for success in the organization broadly, with respect to an employee’s current role, and with often, with respect to possible future roles. For example, if an employee shares that they want to move up in the organization to a role like their leader’s, then the leader needs to help the employee understand the important success factors at the next level as well. They then can discuss how the employee’s strengths and development needs compare to the current role, but also to desired future roles.

The discussions about the employee’s goals and the success factors related to these goals will come up again and again in ongoing development discussions. Ongoing feedback can and should be linked to these conversations about the employee’s goals and the organization’s success factors.

Strengths to Leverage and Needs to Improve

With the employee’s goals and success factors understood, a leader should help the employee understand their perspective on the strengths the employee should leverage more or differently and the development needs that the employee should work on improving. While it is true that the employee should “own” their own development plan and actively working on that plan, the leader has critical perspective to share. For example, the leader understands what strengths the employee has that could be strategic differentiators for the employee, given they were leveraged differently or showcased somehow. The leader also usually has first-hand knowledge of the impact and import of the employee’s development needs. Therefore, they understand the priority of working on these needs.

Strengths as Strategic Differentiators

Some research suggests that strengths are important for every employee to focus on. It is true that every employee should understand their strengths and seek to use them fully, it is not the case that every employee should focus on further leveraging a strength in their development action planning. A person can really only focus on 2 or 3 overarching development objectives at a time, so the decisions about what to focus on should be very strategic decisions.

Here is an example of when focusing on leveraging a strength in an employee’s development and growth can be very strategic and important:

The Role of Potential Derailers

If an employee has a potential derailer that is recognized by those around the employee, then the leader needs to ensure that the employee understands this and focuses on it as the top priority in their development. The leader and employee should be discussing and working on these things well before the derailing factor leads to the employee having some type of Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) in place. When there is a potential derailer that the employee needs to work on, this takes precedence.

When an employee is working on a potential derailer, it can be difficult for them to think about, and discuss with their leader. Often, they don’t want others to know they are working on this area. However, the leader should be open about discussing this topic with the employee, and the employee should try to be as open with others as possible that they are working on improving in this area. By sharing with others what they are working on and enlisting their ongoing feedback and support, they will have a greater chance of succeeding in their efforts. It is not always easy to be transparent about what we are working on improving. It takes courage. But, courage, hard work, and actively working on development are almost always rewarded.

There is a very well-known coach that will only take on leaders as coaching clients given the stakeholders working with the leader have said that they are willing to give the leader a chance and to provide support and input as the leader works on improving. This is indicative of how important it is to involve stakeholders and ask for their support, especially when potential derailers are involved. Trying to improve potential derailers in a vacuum is not the best strategy.

Improving Development Needs

Decisions about what development needs to focus on should also be strategic and could include needs related to improved success in the current role, and/or needs that will help a person prepare for future roles. This depends on what makes the most sense for both the person and organization. For example, when a person is rather new to a role, their development is more about being successful in the current role. If a person really does not aspire to higher-level, different, or broader roles, their development is also often more focused on improving success in the current role. Once they have become fairly accomplished in the current role, the focus can be on things like giving them opportunities to pursue certain areas of interest or sharing their knowledge and expertise across the organization.

When a person does aspire to future roles, and they are fairly accomplished in their current role, then the focus becomes about preparing them for future roles, either broadly or related to specific roles. When a person is on the succession plan as being ready for future roles in 1-2 years, their development should be heavily focused on their preparation. If a person is on a succession plan as being ready for future roles in 3 – 5 years, it implies they have more work to do related to demonstrating success in the current role. In both situations, the leader should help the employee ensure that they are actively working on their growth and development in the right arenas.

It is so often the case that succession review meetings take place, the people who work for the leaders in the room are discussed, along with an assessment of their readiness for future roles, and a summary of their development needs. It is also so often the case that the needs summarized are not very substantive, and do not have the kind of detail or depth behind them to really drive the right development forward. It is up to the leader and the person on their team to make sure the detail and depth is there to really drive a person’s growth.

Leaders who are involved in succession need to become more adept at raising the level of conversation for the good of the organization and the employees. They need to ensure that plans for employee development make a difference to employees and the organization. They also need to push for improved processes that make it easy to capture substantive plans that can be easily accessed, reviewed, and discussed in succession reviews or any other context.

In determining what development needs to focus on, consider the following questions:

• Should the plan be more focused on improving success in current role, or preparing for future roles, or a balance of the two?
• What is the employee’s point of view on most important development needs? What is the leader’s and organization’s point of view? How do these align?
• If the focus is on success in current role, what gaps are most important related to the employee’s goals and the organization’s success factors for the current role?
• If the focus is more on preparing for future roles, what gaps are most important related to the employee’s goals and the organization’s success factors for future roles?
• If the focus is more on preparing for future roles, what needs, if worked on, could be strategic differentiators for the employee (in comparison to other talent and the organization’s success factors)?

Here is an example of focusing on a development need that can be very strategic and important:

• Completing an Executive MBA, perhaps with a focus on marketing, which is very outward focused and often more strategic and innovative in nature (if she wants to be      positioned for the President role eventually, this is very important)
• If not completing an Executive MBA, identifying, and completing the best strategy program(s) available
• Taking a bigger role in working more closely with her leader on the sales strategy plan for the company, challenging them to be bolder and more visionary than previous
• Develop and implement her own regional strategy plan that is bolder, more innovative, and visionary than previously
• Building a strong mentoring relationship with a key leader in R&D (a very influential function in the organization) who can help Jean think about innovation and strategy in new and different ways
• Looking for leadership roles in certain associations very respected by the company
• Identifying and pursuing opportunities to be on a Board
• Organizing forums for her clients to visit the company and talk about trends in the marketplace, taking opportunities to really guide strategic discussions
• Identifying projects she can work on or lead that are part of the President’s agenda
•  

Because the roles above Jean also require more influence across the organization and beyond the organization then her current role, she also needs to be working on building her influence network and skillset as she is working on her ability to be strategic and visionary. Several of the action steps that help with building strategic thinking skills will also help build influence (e.g., building a strong mentoring relationship with a key leader in R&D). She and her leader should identify other substantive actions to take as well. They should consider things that aren’t included in her plan for building Strategic Thinking skills, such as the steps Jean might take to build more of a relationship with the President, her manager’s peers, and her own peers across the organization.

Finally, Jean and her manager should consider even further how she can leverage her strength with clients to build influence across the organization, as well as improve the organization’s awareness of her ability to think strategically. Leveraging a strength in an action plan that can have impact for improving development needs can have an amplifying effect. It often can make a person more comfortable as they are working on their development needs, and people will become even more aware of the strength.

In this example scenario, Jean will be focused on improving her ability to be strategic and visionary, and her influence across the organization and beyond. She will also be leveraging her strength with clients in working on her improvement in these two areas, and more specifically, to help ensure that this strength continues to really differentiate her in the minds of others across the organization. It is a very valuable strength in this organization and should not be overlooked in thinking about Jean’s action plan.

What to Do If The Employee Gets Stuck

We all can get stuck in many different contexts (e.g., in our jobs and careers, in our relationships with our families). When team members seem to be stuck in pursuing their own growth and development, consider the following arenas.

Organizational Context

As the leader, consider what characteristics of the company and its culture are motivating or demotivating and constraining for an employee. Ask the employee about this when you first start thinking the employee may be feeling stuck. The longer a leader waits to have this discussion, the more likely that the employee will leave the organization. Determine the characteristics that might be impacted, and as the leader, seek to impact these.

There is a great deal of research around engagement that can help a leader understand why an employee may be stuck or disengaged. For example, Gallup identifies these 12 areas that most influence employee engagement:

• I know what is expected of me at work.
• I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
• At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
• In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
• My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
• There is someone at work who encourages my development.
• At work, my opinions seem to count.
• The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
• My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.
• I have a best friend at work.
• In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
• This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

So many of these can be directly or indirectly influenced by the leader. In fact, Gallup’s research indicates that “managers -- more than any other factor -- influence team engagement and performance. That's not an exaggeration: 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager.”

The Leader’s Role

As noted above, the leader has the ability to directly or indirectly influence so many factors contributing to employee engagement. Beyond considering more tangible factors like those identified by Gallup, a leader should also consider things like:

• What kind of an example do I set in terms of growing and developing as a leader? Do people see me as being self-aware and knowing what is important for my growth? Do people see me as actively working on my growth?
• How can I stretch myself further in terms of what I have to offer to employees? What can I help people understand and learn that goes beyond the tasks of their role into more humanistic arenas?
• Do I have the courage and knowledge to confront the things I need to confront in the organization, in the interest of organizational culture and of employees?
• Does the employee trust me? If not, start by trying to understand why and address these things.
  
  

The Employee’s Role

Employees can get stuck for reasons very personal to them. Some of the best research on where employees get stuck was originally conducted by Personnel Decisions International. The research identified five building blocks for development that included:

• Insight – Does the person know what to develop?
• Motivation – Is the person willing to invest the time and energy to develop themselves?
• New Skills or Capabilities – Does the person have the skills and knowledge they need and how can they build these?
• Real World Practice – Does the person have opportunities to try the new skills at work?
• Accountability – Does the person internalize their new capabilities to improve performance and results? Does the organization add to or detract from this accountability?

These factors were shown visually as a pipeline and referred to as the Development Pipeline. An employee could get stuck (the pipeline could be blocked) in any of the five areas. The role of the leader, in part, was to understand where an employee may be stuck and to address that area or need. So, if an employee seemed to lack insight or self-awareness about their development needs, the leader can help them gain insight. Often, this can be addressed through something like a 360-degree feedback process, which can also help with motivation for change.

Just as a leader can use the Development Pipeline to think about where an individual is stuck in their development, they can apply it in thinking about where the organization is stuck or creates blocks to development. For example, organizations may not hold people accountable for change and growth. They might provide all the tools needed to raise self-awareness and provide every kind of learning opportunity available, but if they do not hold people accountable for growth consistent with the needs of current or future roles, then the organization undermines its own efforts.

Ongoing Dialogue

There are leaders who never discuss development with their employees. There are leaders who do once or twice a year when the organization expects it of them. Then, there are leaders who understand that their role with their employees is, in part, to be a coach and to help employees advance their growth and development in ways that maximize employee and organizational success. Truth be told, if leaders were fulfilling their roles as coaches for their employees, they could eliminate the need for the coaching profession (I say this as someone who has been a part of this profession for decades)!

• Leaders need to always be in a coaching role for employees. Among other things, this includes:
• Being very clear about the employee’s goals, values, and motivators, and linking coaching and development to these areas.
• Helping the employee to understand the success factors for their current and desired future roles.
• Knowing what the employee is working on in their action plan (leveraging strengths and/or improving developing needs) and seeing things within that “frame” or context. This allows leaders to pick up quickly on actions and behaviors that call for reinforcement, additional coaching, or development action steps.
• Providing timely and constructive feedback and recommendations.
• Keeping an eye on the opportunities that exist that can be helpful for the employee and pursuing the opportunities with the employee as it makes sense.
• Working with the employee in advance of key events which have some link to the employee’s development arenas, and then debriefing and coaching after these events.
• Representing the employee well and honestly in various organizational forums, such as succession review meetings.

Really above and beyond all of this is the fact that the best leaders and coaches really care about the people on their team and in their organization. This is hard to fake, but very key to having an employee trust the leader and value any coaching and input they might have for the employee.