Here is an excerpt from an article written by Sydney Finkelstein for Harvard Business Review and the HBR Blog Network. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, obtain subscription information, and receive HBR email alerts, please click here.
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As a manager, you know you need to think about your team members’ careers and help them develop professionally. But are you challenging yourself to go beyond the standard resources your company offers and provide customized coaching and support to each employee?
A 2016 Gallup poll of Millennials found that almost 90% of them valued “career growth and development opportunities,” but less than 40% felt strongly that they had “learned something new on the job in the past 30 days.” That same poll found that managers are critical to the experiences that younger employees have at work, accounting for “at least 70% of the variance in engagement scores.”
My research not only confirms that bosses matter a great deal, especially when it comes to learning and development, but that some have tremendous positive impact on the people who work for them. The exceptional leaders I studied don’t leave it to HR to create career progression programs for their team members. Rather, they personalize their coaching, support, and teaching efforts. They don’t just track the big learning opportunities granted to their employees. They also understand the nuances of how people are growing week by week and month by month and adjust their actions accordingly. As a result, they keep their teams engaged and excited.
Managing each report in this way might sound daunting, or downright impossible to many managers, given the demands on their time. But, as my clients have found, it’s easier than you think. Here [is the first of] the key steps:
Organize developmental information about your employees into a spreadsheet. For each employee, keep track of a range of information, including:
- Your own observations of the person, and your assessment of his or her potential
- Feedback he or she has given you about your management style
- The employee’s preferred ways of working
- Key motivators for the person, including extrinsic rewards like financial compensation and intrinsic rewards like recognition
- Opportunities you see to further his or her career, including networking connections you can make, stretch assignments, and promotion targets
- The employee’s stated career and developmental goals
- Feedback you want to give the person
- Broader wisdom about the industry or life you wish to impart
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Here is a direct link to the complete article.
Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth professor of management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the author of The Superboss Playbook, and the host of The Sydcast podcast. Twitter: @sydfinkelstein.