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When you are strategically developing others, be sure to include specific job competencies, plus generally useful skills like public speaking. Certain personality traits are key when you are looking to develop others, such as assertiveness. You can check out a blog post on assertiveness if you are looking to apply this characteristic to your own work. Increasing people’s value to the organization is always a smart choice. Create a plan in consultation with each individual. Find out what they are interested in learning. Challenge them with goals that stretch them as people. I’ve seen amazing results from this type of process. For example, if someone has great leadership potential but struggles with being shy, make overcoming that a goal. For example, give them opportunities to help you lead meetings with a small number of people. Then have them work in a group to deliver training to a small number of people. Then have them work in pairs to deliver training to a significantly larger group. Then finally, have them deliver training to a large group on their own. This process will help them incrementally build a new level of confidence, and shyness will no longer hold them back from pursuing or landing new opportunities. Once your people experience success with this process, your team will be invested in continually learning, growing, and improving.
Make this fun! You and your team can have a lot of fun together setting, working towards, and attaining new goals in a variety of areas. You know you’ve gelled as a team when everyone is all-in and working towards the best possible results for themselves and each other. That’s what it’s really all about. Business, sports, academics, family life, whatever sector you’re in is just a vehicle for learning how to accomplish something great by working together with a team of people for the common good. This is one of life’s most valuable lessons.
Until next time, I’ll be praying for you to have fun while deciding what is a strategic development plan for each individual on your team.
