by Richard Avdoian
Throughout my career I had bosses that scheduled weekly or bimonthly quality time offering supervision. These one-on-one meetings provided the opportunity to discuss and get help on any issue I was experiencing, to receive feedback regarding my performance, to enhance my professional skills, and to address my personal and professional goals.
As a speaker and trainer, it is not uncommon to hear attendees state that they have never worked for a boss or company that offered structured or regularly scheduled supervision to improve their work performance, or been asked about their personal or professional goals.
HR professionals, CEOs and business owners across the country believe they have employees with the talent they need to grow their business. However, they also recognize these employees need ongoing supervision or coaching/mentoring, and that it is up to leaders to manage that talent.
Here are few ways to help ensure developing the talent needed to continue future business growth and prosperity.
1. Personal and Professional Enrichment Plan. Every employee in an organization, regardless of position, should meet with their manager yearly in addition to the annual progress review to discuss their personal and career short- and long-term goals. These meetings should be in-depth discussions that lead to a detailed, written individual development plan. This should include established action plans, how the manager and the organization can help provide or get access to professional and personal programs, resources, and guidance they need. Managers should also schedule several follow-up meetings throughout the year to monitor and review an employee’s progress. Employers need to require and monitor with no exceptions that every member of the leadership does this with every employee.
2. Offer on-going professional and personal enrichment programs. If you want to retain a solid workforce, don’t wait until key employees decide to leave for elevated positions or new experiences to search for their replacement. Have talent already developed, eager, and ready to step up to the plate and ready for a new challenge. Having a structured leadership and employee development program designed for people who want elevated positions or to be leaders will offer a smooth seamless transition.
3. Don’t just promote key employees to leadership positions. Far too often, business owners and CEOs promote employees to leadership positions with little, if any, formal leadership or coaching training. It is essential that those promoted be competent talent managers with excellent coaching skills.
4. Be creative and invest in developing talent. Certainly, talent can be developed through attending conferences and workshops, but there are other innovative approaches. These may include onsite classroom training, establishing a company resource room, and including professional and personal development books, CDs, DVDs which employees can check out. Encourage leadership during team meetings to jointly view and discuss DVDs, TED Talks, or previously distributed articles.
5. Incentivize and acknowledge development. A key objective every leader should be rated on is how well they identify and produce talent. Employees, on the other hand, should be evaluated on how well they’ve executed their personal and professional development plan.
It is never too late to start establishing policies and procedures to develop talent. Effective, engaged leaders and employees are the most valuable assets for any businesses wanting to be prosperous.
Richard Avdoian is president/CEO of the Midwest Business Institute Inc., a business consulting and training firm. For information about training and seminars, contact Richard at 618-972-8588 or Richard@RichardAvdoian.com.
Submitted 4 years 118 days ago