Develop your people by combining coaching, mentoring, feedback, and opportunities for growth to enhance both individual and organizational performance. Leaders who excel at developing others focus on intentional, systematic, and continuous growth rather than leaving development to chance. They recognize that developing people is not just a human resources function. It’s a critical responsibility of every leader, impacting engagement, retention, and organizational success
What Gets in the Way
Leaders and coaches often spend the bulk of their time focusing on what a person is not good at. They ignore what the individual is already proficient at. Focusing on someone’s strengths and incorporating those strengths into day-to-day activities can produce enhanced results. That does not mean that leaders shouldn’t deal effectively with performance issues. If the only feedback an individual receives is around areas that need to develop, it can be very disheartening and counterproductive.
Michael Porter, author of Book Yourself Solid, suggests that when selling yourself to people it’s more important “Who knows what you know?” and “Do they like you?” than the previous premise, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This is equally true for your relationships with internal clients.
Develop Your People
- Know your strengths.
- Determine which of those strengths are also valued by others.
- Ensure that those who can use your strengths understand their value.
- Spend time building relationships with your people, so that they choose to work with you.
- Providing challenging projects allows employees to learn through experience, make decisions, and grow in a safe environment where mistakes are part of the learning process.
When coaching your direct reports, remember to always ask them for feedback about what they perceive to be your strengths and areas for development. Consider asking for feedback from other people representing different groups, such as peers, clients or customers, friends, community, and association members. You may be surprised at the similarity of the answers, or you may find one group sees you differently. Ask people to be honest and enjoy the experience.
Ultimately, building on your strengths and focusing on your personal development as a leader helps you to develop strong teams because it builds confidence, raises morale, and will result in increased retention and better results.
To access our free self-assessment, you can order the Business Size Up survey.