Own Your Future
As a leader, I enjoy checking in with the Team Members whom I supervise. I often ask about future goals. “Where do you see yourself in 1 year or 3 years”? Often the answer is “I want to grow with the organization”. Then I ask, “what are you doing to get there” and the answers, if any, become very general. “Well, I am just going to do everything I can here”, or “I am going to perform better than my peers”. It is rare that there is ever an actual plan in place. As a leader of a team I must assume ownership of this and if I truly want to develop those who trust in me or who have trusted me to develop and mentor a team for the company, I need to provide direction. Just as John Maxwell said, “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of a leader”. I don’t need to own their development; however, I do have an obligation to provide the framework and support.
When you get into your car to travel somewhere, you type the address into your phone, start the car and follow the directions. When you start a career, you get the job, go to work and go home. There are really no directions to get you where you want to go. You are basically working until offered something else. The same way we use the phone for directions when traveling in our car, we need something to help provide us direction in our careers. Something that will help navigate us toward where we want to go.
This was my strategy too. A couple of years ago, I was introduced to an Individual Development Plan (IDP). Apparently, these are commonly used in Corporate America, however through the USMC, Law Enforcement, and then being self-employed, I had never been presented with this tool. My recommendation is that we, as leaders, create our IDP and work with our team members to create a development strategy and own their future.
The foundation is a personal mission statement, and everyone should have a mission statement. What do you stand for? What is your mantra? What are your values?
Next, list where you hope to be professionally in 1-3 years. Follow that up with some reflection.
What are my key strengths that I can build upon to help reach this goal? If you are a strong communicator and that strength will help you reach the goal, how can you leverage that strength to help you move forward to your next level?
What are my areas of opportunity? If you lack organizational skills and the next level position requires strong organizational skills, how can you improve in this area?
Now that we have identified our key strength and our opportunity, we need a plan.
1. What are critical behaviors or actions I can engage in to model this competency (1-2 items)?
2. Development Activities or Action Steps for each (assignments, courses, books, etc.).
3. Ask your manager to provide input on how they can support (stretch assignments, etc.).
4. Target Dates/Milestones (what should be accomplished by when).
5. Progress Summary (monthly updates).
If we take the time to complete these steps, are disciplined in our action items and our follow up, we will see improvement in our current role and become a more qualified candidate for that next level opportunity.