Can you grow your people?

Colleagues,
 
Yesterday I asked you to think about some questions related to how you can grow your people:

• What skills do your people need to learn that they do not already have?
• Who will teach them those skills?
• Who will provide follow-up and support?
• How will you monitor mastery of those new skills?

 
In order to answer those questions well, we need to think about the different ways that people grow. I’ve organized five of them into the cube of development:

1. External trainers and workshops are generally off-site events. They may occur as part of a training sequence or be single “one-shot” events.

2.   Internal trainers and workshops are likely to occur on-site and to be part of a series of trainings.

 
​The advantages of these forms of development is that they can train many people at one time and are usually conducted by effective and qualified trainers.

1. Mentoring and peer networks are great for providing timely support, follow-up to formal training, and for building organizational trust and culture. Additionally, since mentoring and peer support also improve the capacity of those providing the support, this form of development builds organizational capacity.
2. Coaching and direction from leadership also occur on-site and should be integrated into daily work. Because leadership is already in place, coaching requires few additional resources. 

 
Unfortunately, coaching from organizational leaders is often neglected. Part of this is due to being on the urgency treadmill. Another barrier is lack of training in how to coach. 
 
A strategic organization will invest in developing the coaching skills of their leaders. Until then, you can try five-minute coaching.
 
Tomorrow we’ll look at self-reflection and individual initiative.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick

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