N- is for Nurturing

Developing your team

In the last of this round of reviewing the skills supporting A.C.T.I.O.N Management I thought I’d look at the importance of developing your team and suggest some different ways of doing it.

I used to work with someone who’s interpretation of development was promotion.  If they weren’t rising up the business structure they weren’t developing.  Irony was they needed to properly develop in order to be suitable for advancement!!

Similarly I’ve known many people who see advancement as being facilitated by formal training, they needed a certificate in order to ‘prove’ they’d developed.  Quite often they were developing in so many ways – they just didn’t recognise them. I may be a trainer by profession – but formal training isn’t the only way to develop people, and sometimes other approaches are more effective.

So what is development – and why’s it important?

In the context of managing people, development is very similar to growth.  It could be improving existing skills or learning new ones.  When I say skills it’s not just technical abilities, but what are also annoyingly called soft skills (they’re not soft at all, I’d rather call them essential or universal skills, but there you go!). People skills, communication skills and the like.  Some individuals are keen to develop skills related to work, others don’t have the same ambition at work, but are driven to develop a hobby or other non-work aspect of their lives.

Whatever drives us determines where we want to develop.  Supporting someone to achieve their ambition is incredibly motivating.  If you’re helping your team to improve in areas that are important to them, they will be more productive, and more willing to support the business in achieving its aims.

By investing in the development of your team is clearly shows that they are valued.  If people feel valued they are more loyal to you and the business.  They will also advocate for the business – the best type of reference you could wish for.

If formal training isn’t always the answer what are the alternatives?

Helping your team to develop and grow needn’t involve vast resources, it doesn’t need to take up a lot of time or money.  Here are some alternatives to formal training, and when it might be appropriate to use them.

Shadowing

Let someone ‘follow’ another member of staff.  This is great for not only finding out about other people’s roles and responsibilities, but also about the key skills used for that role.  Just be careful when selecting the person to be followed, pick someone who will be a good role model. If you want someone to see what it’s like to fly don’t have them shadow and ostrich!

Mentoring

A mentor is a kind of sounding board.  Someone who will listen and question and individual, usually on a specific area of development.  They will encourage the individual to find their own solutions, but call on their experience and knowledge to ask open questions that will steer the individual towards achieving their aim.  A mentor doesn’t give advice or opinions – so make sure anyone you ask to be a mentor can keep their opinions to themselves! A mentor doesn’t have to be an expert in the area for development. Having a mentor is usually a relatively short term arrangement.

Coaching

Unlike mentoring, coaching usually covers a broad range of issues.  They will directly call on their experience when having discussions.  They may provide advice, but they are not there to tell the individual what to do.  A coach is likely to be an expert in the area(s) the individual wants to develop, or to have had first hand involvement.  A coach can be around for quite a long time

Secondment

A great way to develop people is to give them an opportunity to work in a different department so they can experience first hand how others work.  A secondment can range from a week or two to a full year.  Either way the key is to make sure the change gives the individual the chance to use different technical skills, but also to see how other skills come into play.  Longer term secondments could be facilitated by swapping a couple of people, giving both the experience of working in a different section, but making sure that team resources aren’t put under pressure.

Flexible working

If you have someone who is trying to develop skills relating to a hobby, or non-work aspect of their lives, consider offering flexible working so that they can better achieve those goals.  You will still get the same amount of work from them, but as you are accommodating their ambitions they will be more motivated at work, and less stressed about trying to manage both work and non-work pressures.

Networking

A great way to develop is to mix with people who are already doing what you want to be doing.  This could be role related, but it could also be skill related.  Encourage your team to make connections with people who are high achievers in those areas your team member wants to improve.

Conferences

This is a good informal way of developing technical knowledge as conferences are often business/topic related.  It also helps with networking.  Simply being sent to a conference often makes someone feel appreciated, but they also get the opportunity to mix with experts in specific fields.

And don’t forget, you can always make recommendations of good books to read on specific topics/skills, or online videos etc.

There are many benefits to developing others, and not just for the individual.  Investing in people has been shown to reduce staff turnover, increase productivity and morale.  Who wouldn’t want that in their team?

In case you’re wondering - I’ve played around with AI generated images for the first time in this article - I thought it would be amusing to leave them as generated rather than editing. Have a close look - there are some interesting features! Obviously I need more practice at explaining what I’m looking for!