Helping Your Team to Grow and Unlock Greater Potential
Strategies to help people progressively achieve more
As pointed out by Andy Grove in his book High Output Management, we are responsible for our team's output. There are many ways to increase it. One of the most effective ways is helping people grow. However, as much as you can influence, nudge, and direct, they are the ones pursuing their growth goals, not you. Your role is to support them and create opportunities.
Supportive plans start with great conversations
Good development conversations help build awareness. As a manager, we can bring clarity and different standpoints by linking people’s perceptions to facts.
The most effective way to increase awareness is to deliver timely and candid feedback during one-on-one’s. We will explore an objective approach to drive conversations later but for now, you only need to know one-on-one's will be the medium to consistently analyze progress, gather information, orient, direct, and support them.
Also, it is very important to observe and reassess outcomes, learn from experience, and correct the course. Creating a good structure with defined cadence helps with consistency. Open opportunities for them to plan, execute, reassess, and learn from the result of actions.
I personally like to inspire this process on Colonel John Boyd’s OODA loop (observe-orient-direct-act). Once applied to fighter combat operations, it was later extended to military ops, and business strategy. I find it very effective for other purposes such as running projects, product research, and career development. By following the four simple steps described below, you will have the opportunity to gather information, influence, direct, and help others make more informed career decisions.
Observe — Listen, be curious, and ask questions
Understanding their current moment and aspirations is the bedrock to create an effective plan. Being aware of one’s skills, traits, and interests helps setting a north.
Naturally, one tends to focus on aspects they already excel in. It is difficult to notice blind spots, and this is where, as a manager with an outsider and neutral point of view, you can help the most.
During one-on-one’s, ask about interests, what makes them excited, preferences, working philosophy, and infer their level of engagement, motivation, and happiness. Ask what they feel succeeding with and what is still difficult. Motivate them by recognizing achievements but also help them overcome their struggles.
Orient — The art of creating awareness by giving feedback
These conversations create perfect opportunities to build alignment. Ask about what is going well and what can be improved based upon their own perception.
Create synergy by asking for feedback. Ask what can you, as a manager, do to better support them. By doing such, they become more susceptible to feedback and keen to ask for it. Do it with genuine intent. It will help to build trust.
Sometimes, we tend to directly prescribe solutions, often when speaking about gaps. This approach is ineffective as people do not internalize the reason behind issues. Be curious and ask them how they perceive the situation and why. Let them analyze facts under their own lenses. Understand where they stand, so you can meet them on their own territory.
Understanding them creates a powerful connection and helps you connect their perception to different standpoints. State things impartially, impersonally, and pragmatically. Ask how other people may perceive the situation differently, curiously showing important missing points. Create links between their own perception, others’.
As you pave the way to the common ground, show your own perception of facts and tell them how things can improve and candidly highlight much it was achieved so far. It is fundamental to avoid sugarcoating. Tell them what are the expected outcomes. Ask how they think such can be practically achieved. Mention how they can leverage their strong traits to get there.
Direct — Create a realistic, actionable, and measurable plans
Conversations are kickstarters. However, only words won't help anyone with progress. Together, manager and mentee can document long term goals and small steps to move closer to what was pictured. Plans are important because they give people sense of progress and completeness. It is also important to keep in mind the plan should be realistic and achievable to avoid frustration.
A great option is to document desired steps and outcomes similar to SMART Goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound). As they cross that road, managers can help individuals to create goals that are inspiring and meaningful, with small but consistent steps, getting closer and closer to their long-term objective. Document what are these specific goals and give them time to achieve them.
Ensure steps are specific, small, and connected with the bigger goals. Analyze progress during one-on-one's and gut check how motivated they still are. Long-stalled progress can mean they are either unmotivated or the goal is not achievable, thus, needs to be adjusted.
Reassess and adapt as needed. Just be careful to not fall into the “bad-is-the-new-normal” trap. The intent is to get better and achieve goals, not bringing the bar down upon each unmet goal. If failures become a pattern, be candid, analyze the situation, and share your thoughts. Explain that feedback is about perception and this is your standpoint looking from the outside. The message should resonate as an opportunity to change the perception.
Act — Support their growth journey
With a good and realistic plan of actions, as managers, our role is to create opportunities for individuals to thrive, showing effort and commitment toward their goals. We can help open doors and pave the way but they need to cross the path, and learn as they grow.
Observe their successes, struggles, and challenges. Nudge when needed. Ask what else can you help them while they go through their growing journey. Praise them publicly for their achievements. Discreetly deliver critical feedback. Make sure they are proactively taking provided opportunities.
Time-bound goals make reassessment easier as both of you agreed on a reasonable timeline to observe improvement. However, you don’t need to wait until specific goal dates arrive to check-in. Verifying and stating progress should be a continuous process. Set the correct cadence and analyze the trend. Identify patterns and help them to change the plan if needed. Nothing is set in stone. Keep orienting and directing as necessary while defining new goals for continuous growth.