How Managers Develop Their Employees

We're working with several organizations helping them
prepare their next tier of managers to eventually take over
the senior leadership positions. However, before we focus on
developing this next tier of managers, we spend a good bit
of time working with the current senior leadership team to help
them comprehend their level of responsibility in developing their
own employees. It's not Human Resources' job; it's theirs.
Whether they hold the position of VP of Operations,
Director of Eastern Markets, or Senior Supervisor, every manager,
supervisor, or team leader has the responsibility to continuously
develop the skills, knowledge, and abilities (S/K/A) of the individuals
they supervise. So, how do they do this?

First, to help the current senior team start to think in
terms of how they might help their team members develop, we have
them review their own position descriptions and answer questions such as:
- Does your current position description accurately reflect the
skills, knowledge, and abilities (S/K/A) needed to effectively
fulfill your current job responsibilities?
--- If not, what is missing and how does this S/K/A help you
do your job. Be specific.
- What specific training or experience (i.e. projects, etc.) have
you been provided that you believe helped you gain critical skills
to do your job?
- As you look into the future to the Company's vision, how will your
job be different 3-5 years from now?
--- What additional S/K/A will you need to do your job then?
--- What would help you gain those required S/K/A? (Identify specific
training, coaching/mentoring, cross-training, field experience, etc.)

This process gets the senior managers thinking about their own skills
and what really is needed now and in the future to do their jobs well.
Often this step alone helps them to identify training and experiences they've
had that helped them gain their knowledge that they hadn't fully appreciated before.


Second, we have the senior managers review their middle managers' position
descriptions and answer questions such as:
- Does the current position description accurately reflect the
S/K/A needed to effectively fulfill their current job responsibilities?
--- If not, what is missing and how does this S/K/A help each manager
do his/her job. Be specific.
- What specific training or experience (i.e. projects, etc.) have
each of the managers been provided that you believe helped them gain
critical skills to do their jobs?
- As you look into the future to the Company's vision, how will their
jobs be different 3-5 years from now?
--- What additional S/K/A will they need to do their jobs then?
--- What would help them to gain those required S/K/A? (Identify specific
training, coaching/mentoring, cross-training, field experience, etc.)

This process helps the senior managers really focus on what their middle
managers do and don't know and do. It also helps them clarify what skills
really are needed now and in the future to do these jobs well. This step
often highlights for them long-overdue training and project experience
many of their middle managers need.

Third, we have the senior managers ask themselves:
- Who currently fills in for you/serves as your "Acting" when you are out
or unable to do your job?
--- What S/K/A does this person have that allows him/her to do your job?
--- Does this person hold the position within the company that would
logically be considered your successor?
------If not, what S/K/A is the person missing who does hold the position
that would logically be considered your successor?

This process and many others help the senior managers "wake up" and see
anew what S/K/A their current middle managers do and don't have.

Often, just these few steps provide great insight for the senior team
to take action and help develop their employees. It also helps them realize
that developing others is not Human Resources' responsibility; it's theirs.
They also start to see how managers can develop their employees. Can you?


Copyright 2007 - Liz Weber, CMC - Weber Business Services, LLC.
WBS is a team of Strategic Planning and Leadership Development
Consultants, Trainers, and Speakers. Liz can be reached at
liz@wbsllc.com or (717)597-8890. Additional articles on strategic &
succession planning and leadership can be found at
http://www.wbsllc.com/articles.shtml or
http://www.liz-weber.com/articles.php


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