To GROW your people you
must KNOW your people!
I love growing people!
Essentially that is what I have been doing since highschool. The term
“development” has been in just about all the job descriptions for the various
positions I have held in my career and, shockingly enough, it is my primary
strength according to the Clifton
Strengthsfinder instrument. You can say that developing and equipping
people has been my life mission for some time now, though I may not have always
realized that.
Just like personal growth,
growing others happens by design, not be default. You have to be intentional
about it and that requires you to KNOW the people who you are attempting to
facilitate growth and development. In John Maxwell’s newest book, Good Leaders ask Great Questions,
he dedicates the second part of the work to fielding common leadership
questions he receives. One of the sections deals specifically with suggestions
for helping others grow and some of those insights follow. But first, in order
to grow people, you have to engage with them and ask them crucial questions in
order to learn the following:
- Intention (Do they even want to grow? Are they willing to pay the price for growth?)
- Giftedness (Where do their strengths and talents lie? Are they able to use them in their current role on a regular basis? If so, where? If not, why not? Do you or they need to make a change accordingly?)
- Interests (Where do they want to excel? WHAT do they want to learn more about?)
- Learning Styles (How do they prefer to learn and grow? Do they like to read, attend seminars/webinars, watch videos, do new projects related to their growth areas, etc.
- Eventual Life and Career Goals (How does all of the above align with their eventual career and life goals?)
Based upon those
discussions, and you may need several of them, it is important that you help
them create a Development Plan.
- What will they do by when?
- How and where can they practice new skills safely?
- How will they know they are improving?
- How will you monitor and coach on their progress?
- What opportunities and experiences can you broker for them?
Obviously, it will be
important that they select just a few, well-defined growth areas so as to not
become overwhelmed. At this point, you may be thinking this will take a lot of
work and you will be right! But this is what leaders do. They add value to
others and grow their capacities. The alternative is just to have a bunch of
followers who will be dependent on your actions and decisions. One note of
caution, though, not everyone you supervise, teach, etc. may want to grow. In
that case, help them as much as you can but spend most of your time and effort
on those that want to improve.
As
always, if I can help you Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would love
to hear from you. Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website
(www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will
send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your
organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to
both your people and the organization!
Yours
in Leadership,
Bill
Faulkner
Co-Founder
– Out Loud Strategies
Independent
Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team TM
Email = bill@outloudinc.com
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