How to develop your people using a learning culture
Many leaders have said to me over the years, “Vanessa, while I’d love to develop my team, I just don’t have the time!”
Sound familiar?
If so, let me ask you this question:
How will you feel one year from now if you are still overwhelmed by your workload and your team is still underdeveloped?
I’m sure not too good!
But don’t worry, this feeling is normal.
Most leaders want to develop their people but just don’t know how to do so.
So, I teach this skill to all of my clients.
They find it incredibly helpful.
Today, I’m going to give you a sneak peek at some content that I share with my clients.
When we start talking about ways to develop their people, we start with the list below.
Here is a list of 3 strategic ways that you can develop your people:
- Take baby steps. Development takes time. It is unrealistic to think that you can develop your people quickly. Instead, start by delegating one small piece of a project. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Follow up on that specific part of the project. Give lots of guidance and feedback until this specific task is done well. Then you can delegate the next piece of the project.
- Create quarterly development goals. Every quarter you should analyze your to-do list and identify all the tasks that you need to delegate. Then, create a plan to delegate these tasks one at a time. Make a habit of returning to these development goals quarterly to assess your team’s progress and choose new development goals.
- Have development conversations with your people. While your employees should own their development, your job is to guide them in the right direction. This means that you should initiate development conversations. You should also actively delegate to help them to grow. Take the time to have coaching conversations with your team about their career goals. Once you put these pieces in place, their job is to own their development and work hard to develop these new skills.
So, if you want to retain the people on your team, make it a priority to create a learning culture!
The research tells us that people will leave your team if they feel stagnant or are no longer learning.
So, get ahead of the pack and make development and growth a priority!
