Developing People

• People learn best on the job with constructive feedback and coaching.
• Help people learn to accept feedback constructively.
• Encourage them to set up a process to develop themselves.
• Strive to develop skills in others that you think are important while also helping them to find themselves.

Who to develop

• Everyone who asks for it or strategically?
• What are your main criteria - immediate performance improvement, to meet key strategic goals - these should be the main ones.
• Also, development can be used as a reward for excellent performance.
• Or as a retention tool.
• A career or succession planning aide.

How to develop people

• Put people into a range of stretching projects, ones outside their comfort zone.
• A good developmental process should include some form of log book for them to record what went well and what they want to improve for every aspect of a project.
• You, or a mentor, should review their progress regularly.
• Regular reviews help to consolidate learning and plan next steps.
• Feedback from others on key developmental areas is also critical.
• Anonymous feedback through questionnaires might be more honest.
• A training course is only a one-off event; developement is an ongoing process.
• Developing personal skills amounts to changing bad habits - not as easy as learning technical skills.
• Bad habits will re-surface unless a concerted effort is made over a sufficient time period for new habits to become ingrained.