Individualized Support…

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I’m gonna stress this one more time… There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to promoting within an organization. And therefore, offering our team members with career development opportunities (that are indeed appealing to them) and building a business succession plan that’s more than just ink on a sheet of paper will require some very intentional effort on our part as leaders!

But fear not! This can actually be a really simple process IF we’re willing to invest the time it takes to learn enough about each of our team members to know what makes them tick; what they want to accomplish in their lives and careers, which tasks fulfill them and which suck the life out of them, and how we’ll need to communicate with them to tie it all together… I realize this can seem like a lot, but using the right tool can make any job easier! And I’m guessing everything you’ve ever done that’s resulted in any level of success has required more than a little bit of effort so why not invest that effort into achieving long term results?

Once we develop that understanding of each of our team members, and we have a picture for where they can make the most impact in our organizations down the road, we can get the ball rolling by being very clear with them about how we can help them achieve their goals. But one thing’s for sure… We can’t just move them into a new role with different responsibilities and expect them to automatically produce the same kind of results they had been in their previous role. If we want to grow a team that matches the succession plan we’ve mapped out on paper, it’s our responsibility to provide them with the development they’ll need to excel in each step along the way!

Just like I needed to learn a completely different set of skills to order all the non-perishable items for a large grocery store than I had learned for putting shingles on a roof, the career development we need to offer our team members - the ones we hope to have in that long term succession plan - will vary based on they role they’re interested in playing. Sure we need them to be technically competent in our respective industries, but we’ll also need to help them hone more than just their technical skills if we want to be sure they’re passing that technical expertise on in one way or another…

Cindy and I have been very intentional about tailoring the resources we’ve developed so that team members of all levels of an organization can get value from them and to be sure we’re providing them in a way that speaks to the role they’re interested in. I’d love to tell you that’s been easy, but I will tell you that it’s been incredibly rewarding! Whether it’s been through working with the best performers to effectively pass on their knowledge, provide new supervisors with what they’ll need to lead a team rather than just manage a process, or through helping the executives build a culture that the best people are begging to be a part of, it all boils down to creating a clear succession plan then mapping out the career paths for the key team members who will be a part of it!

If that’s not something you’ve put a lot of thought into prior to this point, we’d love to talk through how simple it can really be… I don’t do this often but if that’s something you’d get value from, see if there’s a time that works for you to chat with me or Cindy about how we may be able to help! No strings attached, but let’s not bother if you’re not serious about investing the effort it will take to get real results…