How can you develop your team members' skills and potential?

Don’t forget to ask your team members what they think their areas of opportunity are. Simply asking, “What is one thing you want to improve upon or learn this quarter?” Many people already have a great idea of what they want to work on so why not include them in the process? It creates more buy in since it’s their idea in the first place - not yours.

To develop your team members' skills and potential, start by identifying their strengths and areas for growth through regular feedback and assessments. Encourage continuous learning with tailored training, workshops, and mentoring. Set clear goals and provide opportunities for real-world application. Foster a culture of collaboration and innovation, allowing them to take on new challenges. Recognize and celebrate achievements to boost morale and motivation. Create a safe space for constructive feedback and open communication to support their development. By investing in their growth and aligning their skills with organizational goals, you'll enhance their capabilities and drive overall team success.

One of the best tools that I have used with success in the past has been to conduct a training needs analysis with all team members. I use past evaluations, any training courses attended, job role experience, academic education level, and knowledge of other job roles/additional responsibilities. Oftentimes, you will hear senior levels of management talk about the costs of providing additional training for team members, where this is quite often tied to retention. One must ask themselves the question, if team members are not trained and mentored properly, what happens when they stay and the status quo is maintained?

How can you develop the skills and capabilities of your team members? Evaluate their strengths and needs. Create individual development plans. Providing training and guidance. Encouraging learning opportunities. Enhance collaboration and feedback. Recognize and reward achievements. Spare no effort and do everything you can to treat them as if they were your family.

Creating development plans can feel like a big task, however I've found success with the 70-20-10 framework: 70% of development is job focused (think skill development, project assignments, cross-functional leadership opportunities, etc.) 20% of development is through relationships (a combination of both coaching and mentoring) 10% is of development is through learning (courses, books, certifications, etc.) In maintaining a focused balance to develop, individuals will see the impact of the investments they are making and become more engaged employees as they reach their goals and set new goals.

Creating effective individual development plans (IDPs) is essential for cultivating a high-performing team. Best practices include: Goal Setting: Engage in open dialogue with each team member to jointly identify their career aspirations and development objectives. SMART Goals: Establish clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that align with both individual and organizational objectives. Feedback: Provide ongoing feedback and mentorship to track progress, offer guidance, and address any challenges. Resources: Provide necessary resources, training programs, and mentorship opportunities to facilitate development. Accountability: Implement a system to monitor progress, address roadblocks, and maintain accountability.

I think this is spot on. I would refine the mentoring relationship further. Early on in my career I believed the best mentoring relationships were a one way street. Knowledge was passed down from the mentor and gratefully consumed by the mentee. As I gained experience, I realized as a mentor, mentees could bring in completely different perspectives that could challenge assumptions on how to best solve issues. As a mentee, I also learned that there is always something I can bring to the conversation. Sometimes it was listening actively and asking thoughtful questions. Or simply asking the direct question, “How can I best help?”.

Coaching and mentoring are invaluable tools for developing team members' skills and potential. Best practices include: Build rapport: Establish a trusting relationship based on open communication and respect. Set clear goals: Work with the individual to define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Provide regular feedback: Offer constructive feedback and guidance to help individuals grow and develop. Encourage self-reflection: Foster self-awareness and critical thinking skills. Create a safe space: Ensure individuals feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns. Offer support and resources: Provide access to relevant training, development opportunities, and networking connections.

Pairing team members with someone in other functions that has the skills they need to develop can be a great way to create team collaboration and individual growth. It’s a more natural way to develop functions you don’t own without overreach. You can also create small teams that further reinforce skill transfer and teamwork serving the needs of multiple individuals and the overall program team. Creating a collaborative culture from the bottom up demonstrates a true commitment. It’s also will make the team more successful by building virtual safety nets.

Incentives to learn, tied to loyalty, otherwise you are training the employee for their next employer. If you tie training to significant monetary rewards, go figure, employees will take more training. To retain the employee, tie the training to retention to the company or the employee has to refund the training fees. As an example: pay for college courses (any of them) but if the company pays for one semester, then the employee has to remain with the company for six months, etc. or they must pay the tuition back to the company in full. Training is personal sacrifice for personal gain. Company training is for company gain. Training is not for fun. So, everyone needs to have "skin" in the game.

In cross-functional teams, the synergy of diverse perspectives is a powerful asset. To maximize this potential, fostering a culture of collaboration and open feedback is paramount. Here are key strategies:   Expectations: Define explicit guidelines for communication, behaviour, and contributions.  Open Dialogue: Create a safe space to freely share ideas, concerns, and feedback without fear of judgment.   Diverse Perspectives: Actively seek out and value the input of individuals from various backgrounds and areas of expertise. Constructive Feedback: Offer specific, actionable feedback that supports professional growth and development. Recognize and Reward: Celebrate individual and team achievements to foster positivity.

Knowledge sharing cannot be left to chance. Positions such as knowledge manager, change agent, and so on, should be created (even if overlapped with regular positions without additional pay) in order to lead cross-training and knowledge sharing across the organization. Just meetings and events won't cut it. A database of best practices, policies, and procedures should be implemented and available to all members, with the ability to contribute articles and documents.

Coaching, mentoring, training, feedback, stretch assignments, and recognition create an ideal framework to help develop your team members' skills and potential. I also believe the true key to success lies in ensuring that associates take ownership and drive the process themselves, ultimately being accountable for the outcomes.

A think a key point missing in this article is asking what skills, experiences, exposures, training your team is looking to develop in themselves or each other. While it's helpful to help coach and mentor them along the way, as well as help provide guidance on a plan, it's important that they own their path. No one is going to create your career journey for you.

There is a difference in developing an individual and improving every skill. In my experience, it is better to focus in enhancing their strengths rather than forcing them to improve on certain weaknesses. Obviously, we do not want any skill to be poor, yet it could be low, when the strengths overcome those low skills. As everyone has strengths, management needs to focus on how to provide employees opportunities according to the skills set that best match their highest self. A team is best suited when the skills are complementary.

Don't forget to ensure that the development of the team aligns with the organization's goals in order to maximize the return on investment of the company's training initiatives.

A structured approach has worked best for me, starting with a clear vision of where I want to see the team's skills and potential in the next 3 months, 6 months, and a year. This roadmap must align with the project's overall vision. Next, I prepare a skill matrix to identify areas for development, opportunities for cross-skilling, and existing expertise. Based on this matrix, I create individual development plans. Providing the right training opportunities is crucial. Since the plan aligns with project goals, assigning tasks that reinforce new skills becomes straightforward. This method ensures continuous growth and effective skill application, driving both individual and project success.

Individuals have different motivations. The identification of one's particular motivation is key in developing talent. Whereas someone might just seek recognition/visibility, another one might want more knowledge (training), whilst another employee just wants more monetary rewards, and yet another only wants work stability. People can be in different stages in their careers and still be very valuable to the organization. A give-it all approach to development does not fit everyone. It is paramount to match individual needs and wants with an individual development plan.