Why donโt all managers develop their teams?!
ยธยธโฌยทยฏยทโชยทยฏยทโซยธยธ "๐๐จ ๐จ๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ก๐จ๐ง๐ฒ.
๐๐ญ ๐ญ๐๐ค๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ก๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฒ ๐ข๐ญ." ยธยธโซยทยฏยทโชยธโฉยทยฏยทโฌยธยธ
~H.E. Luccock
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ง'๐ญ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐ญ๐๐๐ฆ๐ฌ?! Earlier today, I was discussing leadership development programs with a prospective organization. The leader said that they have programs to develop first-time managers but are challenged with some of those managers not developing their own teams.
Why? There's probably a variety of reasons ...
Time or budget constraints: Many free resources are available; coaching should be a natural and regular conversation about how things are going.
Lack of experience or uncomfortable with coaching: As the saying goes, practice makes perfect
Prioritizing short-term results over long-term development: The urgent is often at the expense of the important.
My POV is that ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐๐๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ซ, but not everyone knows how to develop others so ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ , ๐๐จ๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ play key roles.
Even if you're not ready to move on or up now, having competent people on your team allows you to take on stretch responsibilities, which sets you up nicely for your next career opportunity.
A few times in my career, I was able to use a Senior-Junior structure on my team with two people on a single project. The Junior person was responsible for the tactical running of the project. The Senior person was responsible for strategy, stakeholder alignment, and developing the Junior person. Then, in a couple of years, when the Senior person was ready for their next opportunity, the Junior person could step into the Senior role successfully. It worked really well.
