Developing Others

Do your part to help others grow

One key aspect of leadership – perhaps one of, if not the most rewarding – is the opportunity to help others grow, develop, and reach their full potential.

To build skills within and across the workforce, and to identify the next generation leaders – guiding them on their journey to take on greater and greater responsibilities.

Your role in their growth and development can take many forms.

Hands-on: As a leader, sometimes you have a direct hand in that success. You can provide hands-on training, guide their apprenticeship, and/or demonstrate techniques to increasingly raise the level of difficulty until they traverse the challenge.

• o  How are you directly involved in your team’s learning and growth?


• o  What skills and knowledge do you have that would be even more beneficial if shared?

Hands-off: In different situations, you may simply orchestrate the assignment and match the appropriate employees to the tasks that will give them the greatest opportunity for growth and test their fortitude, skills, and potential.

• o  How well do you know your employees’ strengths and opportunities for growth?


• o  How might you engage with your employees to learn more?


• o  How might you co-design / co-create opportunities with your employees that align with their growth goals?

Training: You can identify training opportunities for an employee or for the whole team, arranging for on-site, virtual, or immersion training.

• o  What training is currently being provided and how does it align with your team’s developmental needs?


• o  What training might be offered to enhance learning?

Coaching: You can arrange for an external or internal coach to provide your subordinate leaders with one-to-one coaching with a trusted confidante who can help them dive into and explore professional and personal growth. You can also look into team coaching to bring about peak performance and wellness for your team(s).

• o  What coaching can you and your employees benefit from today? In the near future?


• o  How well known are these opportunities [as well as the other tools]?

Mentoring: You can host spot-mentoring forums, establish a formal mentoring program, and encourage folks to team up in mentor-mentee relationships. As mentoring is often a relationship between people outside of each other’s leadership chain, you can offer to mentor employees from other parts of your business.

• o  What formal and informal mentoring programs exist?


• o  Who are you conscientiously mentoring?


• o  What do you feel are the benefits to them and to you?

On-going Feedback: Another forum for demonstrating you care about your employees’ professional growth is through on-going feedback. Not everyone approaches feedback as a gift, so it is important to not shame the other person. We all have vulnerabilities and areas for improvement – whether to strengthen a strength or strategically shore up a weakness. Find a way to deliver feedback in a way that evokes ownership, capability, emotional courage, and futureproofing. [Reference: You Can Change Other People: The Four Steps to Help Your Colleagues, Employees – Even Family – Up Their Game by Peter Bregman and Howie Jacobson, PhD].

• o  How might you contribute to a culture of learning, self-discovery, and a safe space to explore vulnerabilities?


• o  What other tools do you leverage to help yourself and others grow?

Modeling: You can model these behaviors yourself by ensuring your professional and personal growth is visible to your team. This serves as encouragement for others as well as an accountability tool for your own development.

• o  How might you contribute to a culture of learning, self-discovery, and a safe space to explore vulnerabilities?


• o  What other tools do you leverage to help yourself and others grow?

From childhood forward, continuous learning and the development of new skills and/or refinement of existing skills are essential to our ability to thrive. To feel proud of our efforts. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey of growth and learning that makes us feel energized, hopeful, and excited.

“We all need someone who inspires us to do better than we know how.”
- Anonymous

Thank you for reading! I am an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) specializing in Performance Coaching for Senior Executives, Flag Officers, and STEM professionals, and mental fitness for all. Don’t miss out on information and techniques that can take you to the next level. Schedule your one-on-one coaching here!

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