Planning for success: how to help your team put their strengths to work
Edition 8 - Managing risk as teams go back to work
After focusing our last edition on delegation – both the need for it and the process for doing it well – we have been asked for more tips on how to explore development opportunities with employees in ways that are perceived as constructive, not “load shifting”!
In addition, we’ve included a free download of our ‘Guided Discussions on Development Plans’ worksheet, to help you put these tips into action.
“Many of us will be returning to changed businesses, changed work practices and changed selves. ”
The return to work creeps closer
As vaccination rates increase and the horizon of a more “normal” work environment creeps closer, we are reminded that the concept of “business as usual” has changed significantly in many organisations and many of us will be returning to changed businesses, changed work practices and changed selves. In earlier editions of our “Back to work” series we have examined some of the risks this brings. It is important we also recognise the opportunities this disruption has engendered.
During this disrupted period, many of us have learned to do some things differently; we’ve had to stop doing some things we did before; we’ve had to start doing some new things; we’ve had to interact differently with others – colleagues, customers, suppliers; we’ve had to manage our time differently and contribute to projects in ways we may never have imagined before. To achieve this, many of us have developed new skills; others have found opportunities to put old skills to new use or discovered skills we didn’t even know we had. On the other side, some of us have been exposed with gaps in our skills, knowledge or competency which needed support and guidance.
Effective Managers will have…
Effective managers will have noticed such things, acknowledged them along the way and then explored them fully during individual Performance and Job Satisfaction Reviews (P&JS Reviews).
And just in case you are one of those busy line managers who hasn’t had a chance to do that yet (!) we can share some tips for how to do this effectively: recognising the opportunities for development, delegating where appropriate, managing risk within your business area, keeping good staff within the fold and discharging your own responsibilities. Not to mention making your own job easier – and not by being seen as a “load shifter”.
How to Address employee development
In addition to the areas we identified in our recent The Art of Delegation edition, how else can we address employee development through the P&JS Reviews?
It may help to start by thinking of this in three elements:
What skills, knowledge, experience or competencies may need to be developed to do the current (possibly redefined) job more effectively?
What may be needed to achieve more stretching objectives?
What may be needed to sustain future ambitions and contributions?
To identify examples in each of the three areas, it may help to consider:
What are the Key Results Areas of the current JD and what strengths did you observe being employed to deliver these effectively? How can you work together and find opportunities to apply the strengths more frequently?
Are there some observed gaps which if addressed would have had a more positive outcome on results? What can we do to build skills in such areas to continuously improve performance?
How has the JD changed in the past period and what strengths or gaps did this identify? What opportunities can we seize to use such strengths and manage the gaps?
What activity (perhaps beyond the JD) has the employee engaged in which has shown some team role strength which has opened up new opportunities for growth?
What did the employee enjoy most or least, or gain most/least satisfaction from, and how was this shown? What opportunities can we find to continuously improve satisfaction?
What strengths has the employee been most pleased to employ in the last few months and how were these demonstrated? How can we build performance and satisfaction from here?
Where can such strengths be engaged more fully in the current role or beyond?
What steps has the employee taken to develop themselves and with what results?
What performance or behavioural roadblocks are there to hinder employee progression to the next level? What can we do about removing them?
“It is also worth remembering that many of us lack self-awareness and may not know our own strengths or have a misguided view about them. ”
the ‘EAR APPROACH’
TIP: Use the EAR approach to open up discussion on each issue (Example, Action, Result):
“An Example of where you demonstrated … was …
The Action you took by …
Resulted in …”
Using EAR helps you move from general wishy-washy comments to specifics you can both address.
It is also worth remembering that many of us lack self-awareness and may not know our own strengths or have a misguided view about them. Using EAR, and urging each employee to use EAR, is a powerful technique for bringing clarity.
If an employee is adamant about a strength they believe they have but you, as their manager, have not observed, ask for examples of how that strength and has been used, how often and with what results. You may both learn something!
If a member of your team is unaware of a strength you have observed, share examples of where and how you have seen it demonstrated and what the impact was.
Any gaps identified by you or your team members also present opportunities for individual development – sometimes by growing new skills, sometimes by filling the gap with others’ strengths, sometimes by moving the gap elsewhere and redesigning things.
Whether you use your P&JS Review process to identify and address development opportunities, or you have informal and interactive catch-ups with each of your team, as a line manager you have a key responsibility in this area. A responsibility to identify the issues, have a conversation about them and work together to develop plans. Marcus Buckingham said it best when he urged us all to “Go put your strengths to work”.
To assist in your planning, download our free resource including examples of questions you can use to guide your discussions on development planning.
Rarely a list of training courses
If this all feels too onerous, remember, your responsibility is to help identify the opportunities and facilitate the conversation: you don’t have to know all the answers. Each of us as employees have a responsibility to look out for ourselves. Working together with our managers we can find many ways to develop and use our strengths most effectively.
Effective Development Plans are rarely a list of training courses. Other options include:
Coaching or mentoring: receiving or giving
On-the-job-training: receiving or giving
Job enrichment/delegation
Job enlargement/delegation
Job rotation
Job/team/department swaps
Project or committee work
Team Role responsibility
And more…
Ironically, as we mentioned earlier, this period of disruption has enabled many of the development options to have happened almost organically as we all scrambled to deliver results in a different environment.
As we make the move to return to more regular work this is a wonderful opportunity to be proactive and start to recognise and even formalise some of the movement that has occurred and build on this momentum. Line managers have significant influence on the performance and satisfaction of their teams. We know that with appropriate development in place an employee can move from average to above average and deliver as much as an extra day or two worth of outputs per week. That’s an excellent return for the business and very worthwhile for the satisfaction level of each employee.
If nothing else, helping your current good performers become even better is a much easier and satisfying task for you as a line manager than having to recruit new people if your current team members start looking elsewhere for their growth – maybe even with your competition. Give them a reason to stay and develop their performance and satisfaction with you – not against you!
“With appropriate development in place an employee can move from average to above average and deliver as much as an extra day or two worth of outputs per week.”
Interested in learning more about our Management Development Program?
Please send us your details via the form below and we’ll send you some more information. And if you’re interested in discussing further, we’ll schedule a time for chat.