I can count on one hand how many leaders I’ve known across 25+ years who welcomed and naturally grasped the skills and necessity of developing employees. In all but one case, they had amazing ‘people skills’ and values including empathy, collaboration and belief in supporting others. They didn’t need skills training—they were eager to share many anecdotes and rules of thumb. (The one exception was a Treasurer who shared his new lease on life, following a heart attack. “Scotty” readily explained how he saw his life so differently and more clearly—he had that Christmas Future insight that creating a capable legacy was even more important than being the top answer person.
So that leaves the other probably 2500+ people wondering how long it would take for this idea du jour to blow away and other, similar “Why me?” sentiments.
I often ponder about development; it’s something I muse over due to a thought planted too long ago to recall its source: “love the problem”—and I do love this problem: I am continually vigilant about how it does happen, why it is not happening, why it seems so alien to leaders, etc. So, here is a thought that bubbled up, recently, that I thought was worth floating as a trial balloon. I welcome comments: The person who is the benefactor of development has more of a vested interest than does his/her leader in having meaningful dialogue. If the recipient were willing to create a list of “Questions I’d Like my Manager to Ask Me” then they could both catapult past awkwardness and learn by doing.
If I were still employed internally I would bring questions for my direct manager to ask me such as:
- “What has surprised you lately around here?”
- “What can you do now that you couldn’t when you first started?”
- “Is there a project you’d like to work on that could be valuable for us?”
- “Do you want to do this every couple of months?”
What do you think?
