Cultivating promising employees who are already within the organization makes good business sense. Every company needs a plan for moving high potential employees into superior performers. It’s a process that shouldn’t be allowed to fall through the cracks, but with front line managers busier than ever, it might.
Supervising a team used to be the bulk of a manager’s job, but today they are increasingly tasked with helping the company respond to changing market conditions. There are new avenues for connecting with customers, technologies to monitor results data, and managers must help integrate them into current strategies. Combined with ongoing client contact and the day-to-day complexities of business, managers are kept fully occupied. Yet, somehow they must fit in the pressing responsibility of helping individual staff members plan their career path.
Developing today’s high potential employees into tomorrow’s managers doesn’t have to be a burden on supervisors. It’s possible to move employees forward with an optimum blend of solo learning, one-on-one supervision and classroom style group events.
For example, when an employee has completed an assessment that profiles their unique mix of skills, it’s easy to identify the lowest-score skills as the ones to address. If their assessment process also matched them to a benchmarked job, it will supply a gap report that shows any discrepancy between the skills they have and the ones they need to boost performance in that job. Armed with that information, the manager and employee can decide together which skills will best prepare the employee to step up to the next level.
Some aspects of employee development lend themselves to customized online trainings that truly enhance the learning experience. TTI University Online Rx is a program that addresses each skill with its own stand-alone training to be completed via the internet whenever and wherever makes the most sense for the individual employee. Each component centers learning on ways to continue developing a certain skill over time, with suggestions for action and understanding. Because they are prescribed in the context of job performance and career progression, they are perceived as relevant, purpose-focused training. Employees are more receptive because they have the option to reflect on and revisit each skill program as they prefer and to work in privacy.
Smart managers will allow the employee a range of choice about the order for working on skills. The beauty of component-style skill training is that it satisfies employees’ desire for self-direction, makes them accountable for learning and lets them choose a comfortable pace. Because it can be conveniently accessed at any time or place, it encourages efficiency. Time that could have been lost to delays or schedule changes can be used to foster growth.
The manager is now free to spend one-on-one meeting time hearing what the employee has learned and discussing its application to actual on-the-job experiences. Employees get the professional encouragement they need, and the manager/employee relationship is supported in a way that results in better performance for both. That’s important because while today’s superior performer may be tomorrow’s manager, companies may find the executive leadership they need in the future among star managers in their own backyard.
To learn more about how industry leaders are paving the way to overall growth and profit by developing the next wave of managers and leaders, read TTI’s white paper, “Moving High Potentials into Star Performers.”
