Developing a team
This week my friend Dr. Neal Anderson is taking over The Data Daily emails. He’s the Founder of CARTO Leadership, a leadership development and coaching firm. This week he’s writing about leadership. Read his email from Monday.
As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to maximize the effectiveness of your team. Maximizing people can sound utilitarian, but in reality, it’s about helping your followers realize their full potential. Research shows that investing in your people, providing them resources to grow in their careers, and elevating their success opportunities lead to greater performance and engagement. Leadership is people stewardship, and when you invest in your people’s development, the return is tenfold.
So, you have a team, or you’re new to leading a team. Where do you start? Here are three steps you can take to move from managing your people to leading them by developing them:
1. GET TO KNOW YOUR TEAM PERSONALLY
Get to know about each team member’s hopes, aspirations, and career goals. Take an interest in their journey. Ask questions about what got them into the role in the first place. Ask about what gives them the most energy and excitement. Ask, listen, and learn. Be a relationally-oriented leader. You will build trust and create a foundation for building a personalized development plan for each team member.
2. ASK EACH TEAM MEMBER TO CREATE A DEVELOPMENT PLAN
There are many templates out there. Don’t have one? I’d happily send you a template I use. Use it or adapt it, but get your team to put pen to paper and think about their hopes and dreams for growth. This step aims to set the vision as the first piece toward co-creating a development plan. This may be a good place for your underperforming employees to include some elements you would like them to focus on. However, the primary point is the majority of this plan is follower-crafted and owned.
3. REVIEW PLANS REGULARLY AND CHAMPION DEVELOPMENT.
During your next 1:1 with your team member, have them share their development plan with you and walk you through the rationale for each step. As they do this, take notes about the goals, resources that come to mind, or ways you can help them realize their aspirations. A professional development plan with a 6-12 month, 1-2 years, and 3+ years timeline provides enough room to dream and think bigger than the job while also giving clear tangibles to focus on in the immediate future.
Your job as the leader is to speak encouragement into these plans. Connect your team members with colleagues or friends who might help them on their development journey. Gift them a book. Send them to a conference. Give them a new responsibility that helps hone a skill they want to grow in. Resource them and cheer them on!
Leaders don’t develop their people by teaching. Leaders develop followers by asking questions that prompt them to further their development, and then they champion them on the journey!
Neal Anderson, PhD
