How to Spot Surprising Opportunities to Develop Team Members
Trying to fix someone is insulting to them and arrogant of you. Development is a partnership, not a dictatorship. But the trouble is…
You don’t always have the luxury of waiting for people to wake up to shortcoming they don’t see and weaknesses they won’t acknowledge.
7 surprising opportunities for development:
Successful leaders watch for opportunities to develop talent.
- Technical people who lack social/relational skills.
- Socially adept individuals who lack leadership/management skills.
- Good employees who aspire to make greater contributions.
- Passionate, but misdirected people. Some people work too hard and accomplish too little.
- Newly disengaged teammates.
- Newly promoted people, along with Individuals and teams facing new challenges.
- Out of balance employees who might learn about priorities and values.
If time allows, let others struggle and suffer until they ask for help. Intervene, when time doesn’t allow.
7 development techniques:
- Go on a journey with them. Developing others requires a relationship of trust.
- Explain that people change themselves. You won’t change others and you can’t help without permission.
- Perform a narrative 360 degree evaluation. When people don’t see themselves, they need to see how others see them.
- Inspire confidence by demonstrating confidentiality, consistency, and respect.
- Explore, identify, and challenge them to take a first step. Development is about taking action, not simply learning theories.
- Ask how we can create a win.
- Describe benefit – development is the path to effectiveness, respect, and promotion.
Tip:
Reject perfectionism. Build an environment where team members feel safe to grow. Great managers don’t change people. They create environments where people change themselves.
How can you tell when opportunities to develop talent occur?
What techniques might leaders employ to develop team members?
“Explain that people change themselves. You won’t change others and you can’t help without permission.” That is a great point! People will not change until they see the need to change. Too many times when we talk about leadership development and change, we look “out there,” rather than looking at ourselves.
Thanks Jay. I find it’s easier to focus on changing others, than to work on myself. 🙂
Incentivize reasons for development. No one is immune to the need for development even at the highest levels of the private and public sectors.
Thanks Jim. It’s great to consider how development might be incentivized. For the most part, this is a neglected opportunity.
I imagine we agree that the main motivation for development is internal. However, wouldn’t it be great if organizations fueled the internal fire?
Personal development can ONLY come from one’s internal ambition. Igniting that ambition is thr challenge.
“How can you tell when opportunities to develop talent occur?” – by watching, listening, learning and understanding, identifying a calm, controlled eagerness, not an excited, out of control one.
“What techniques might leaders employ to develop team members?” – not use leadership as a superiority to others. Don’t just say “do it”, work with the team to accomplish, actually show you know what you, as a leader are talking about.
Another great post!
If we work with them showing the proper methods to accomplish tasks, you have planted the seed. Along the way you need to trust they played attention and take their position to heart.
Enhance them with updates, learn new techniques, webinars, white papers, books etc. to build the root system of the workforces.
Depending on your career and the governing authorities, pay attention to details.
Great post Dan! I totally agree..Interactive Leadership is not something we do to others, but something we do with others. It is important to influence each other and strive for mutuality.
Thanks,
Shilpa
Love this, Dan. Far too often, I would make the mistake of thinking people wanted to know. Now I ask…really ask…because if the pupil isn’t ready, the teacher should not appear!
This is awesome… LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! Thanks!