Archive for the ‘developing others’ Category

My husband Ken and the best leaders have a lot in common. At first glance, one wouldn`t think so. He is a nurseryman, and close to the earth. A somewhat unusual leader, perhaps. He has owned and operated Oikos Tree Crops, a specialty plant nursery for almost thirty years. It took several years from the purchase of the property his nursery was to be built on, to the selling of his first trees. My husband is a patient man and one that organizational and business leaders can learn from.

In the time between purchasing (or cultivating stock for) seeds, Ken must nourish the soil, nurture the best plants and market what he has to sell. Many trees take several years, and some never make it to market for a variety of reasons (despite his best efforts); inability to grow, undesirable traits, and outside influences such as the weather, to name a few. Ken loves the “hands on” work of developing nursery stock to sell. It requires great patience to wait for stock that is suitable and ready to be sold – several years, in fact. And yet, he knows that he cannot control everything or always force the plants he cultivates to have the traits he wants them to have; so he nurtures the best qualities in his plants, even if they are unexpected.

Likewise, great leaders understand that nurturing talent takes time and patience:

Nourish raw talent: Start with an employee who has a willingness to learn. An attitude of eagerness to learning new skills, and a willingness to try new things are an indication that you have a winner. Look for unexpected strengths. Nourish strengths by rewarding and celebrating their successes. One of the least used methods to encourage others is to simply let them know you appreciate them, what they`ve done for your organization, and to thank them. It doesn`t cost a penny, yet others are longing for encouragement. Take a moment to recognize that talented employee for being on the right track.

Nurture the best: Spend your time nurturing the best. Once you`ve determined that a special employee has a willingness to learn, coach them. Coaching is, in a way, a nurturing activity. Help them to understand where their strengths will benefit the organization and where their weaknesses must be moderated. Provide them with opportunities to shine and develop by using their strengths.

Market talent: Part of your responsibility is to “market” this talented employee. Give them credit for their success, publicly. Let others know how lucky you are to have such talent in your organization. Allowing your talented employee to take short term or a long term “stretch” assignment elsewhere in the organization is good for them and good for you. Although it may ultimately mean that this employee has grown beyond the boundaries of their current position and needs to flourish elsewhere, it may be the right thing to encourage them to go.

All of these development activities take time and patience. The effort and care you take in developing your talented employees will pay off in the long run.

If you are a leader in an organization and you are responsible for developing others (and of course you are), there are some ways to assure that the learning of new skills becomes sustainable. When you are investing time and money into a workshop or learning event, what you don’t want is for your staff to head back to the office and put the learning (figuratively and literally) back on the office shelf.

So how do you make the learning continue – i.e. become sustainable (to use a popular buzz word)?

As a person who believes in the power of practice for learning new skills, I must admit that I’ve been reluctant to endorse the concept of “workshops”,”off-sites”, “team building”, or “retreats” when the learning is delivered as a one-shot deal. I deliver a few learning events myself every year.

At the very least, I always make sure that participants walk out of a workshop with an action plan and a commitment to connect to someone in the room (with contact information and a scheduled date and time) to review what they learned and how they are using it in the workplace.

So you, the leader, must also consider how to make learning “stick” for your employees. Consider that when the following conditions are present, value and sustainability of the learning are enhanced:

- The new skills are practiced in the learning event in a substantial way, in small groups or dyad’s. I have a personal bias against role-playing. However, having the participants come prepared to discuss their own real-life situations seems to work well after they are warmed up and comfortable with each other (they must feel safe if they’re bringing in their personal scenarios).

- There is plenty of discussion in the class, led by a skilled facilitator; this could be you, someone on your staff, or an outside facilitator. This allows participants who “think out loud” to do so, and encourages learning from each other.

- Individual action plans are created at the learning event, allowing participants to consider where they should concentrate their efforts with the new skill once they leave.

- The learning is supported and continued afterwords. Setting up a “community of practice” or learning group is helpful, as is simply providing a structure and process for class participants to team up and practice or discuss their “wins” or “challenges” with the new skills. If you hire an external facilitator or trainer, ask if they make themselves available at some point in the future for class participants to lead a discussion on topics learned in person or through webinar or teleconference.

- If you lead a team or an organization that has just gone through a learning event, you can also hold your team or organization accountable to keep the learning alive and sustainable. Follow up with group discussions or one-on-one dialog about the action plan that was created; encourage ongoing learning teams (communities of practice); or set up mentor relationships around the learning. ASK your employees or team how they want to assure that the learning is sustainable, and support their ideas. Then hold them accountable to their decisions for keeping the learning sustainable.

While you are at it, when you meet with your staff 1:1 or as a team, ask them what they are doing to reinforce new skills they have learned for themselves and their staff. This is not a one-time question – they’ll stick to it and know you mean business if you ask intentionally and consistently. Finally, let them know what you are (personally) doing to reinforce learning for yourself.

Anything less than using some of the above techniques is akin to throwing your money and your time away. Make sure you ask the consultants or facilitators whom you pay to conduct the workshop what they do to assure that the learning is sustainable for class participants. Don’t hire them without it.

Readers: what kind of processes you put in place, or have worked for you to assure that learning is sustainable?

My friend David Chinsky teaches a year-long course called “The Institute for Leadership Fitness“. Be sure to check it out; it`s a very unique and important program for high-potential leaders. Because I am coaching some of the leaders in the program, I am also attending David`s classes, and though I may be battle-worn and (so I`d like to believe) relatively wise, I learn something in every class.

His recent class was no exception. There was some discussion about the importance of developing others within the leader’s organization, and some discussion about resistance to doing so because of time, cost, priorities, etc. Admittedly, I’ve heard all of the excuses before. However, David`s guidance to class participants helped me to think about the selfish reasons for a leader to encourage and support employee development.

Go ahead. Be selfish.

It is a leader`s responsibility to partner with employees in finding and supporting opportunities for their development, including appropriate training, assignments, mentoring and coaching. Rarely, however, is a leader held accountable for developing their employees, and many leaders spend minimal time or effort on it. It just isn’t a priority for them.

Perhaps it will help to consider how developing your employees will be good for you. It will help you to:

1. Delegate more of your work: you’ll be able to delegate more of your work so that you can focus on the activities that will make a greater impact. Developing your employees allows them to take on new assignments that will lighten your load.
2. Increase your talent pool: when you increase the talent within your organization, you have more people who can be your “A” players. This increases the chances of focusing on high priority initiatives and achieving organizational goals.
3. Get promoted: you need to help your people to get ready to fill your shoes when you leave for that next step up. You may not get promoted unless someone is ready to take your place.
4. Enjoy personal satisfaction: the personal satisfaction of supporting your employees to be their best shouldn’t be underestimated. Remember the leaders who helped you to develop? They’ve left their legacy with you, and you can also leave one with your employees.

Whether or not your company offers programs to develop the employees, your responsibility is to help your employees to find ways develop themselves. These can also include no-cost or low-cost options such as community volunteering, stretch and cross functional assignments, and mentoring and coaching from well respected leaders inside or outside of your organization.

A regular agenda item of your 1:1 meetings with your direct reports should be about their development. Co-create an action plan with them and work with them to find developmental opportunities. Coach them on how to use what they`ve learned in your organization.

P.S. Why not set an example for your employees by developing yourself? The best leaders do!