Whose development is it anyway ?

Who owns the people or talent development (or whatever it is called) in your organization ?

Many will point to the HR department or one of their activities such as OD or training. I often see participants in a seminar or training session who explain they are there because "HR told them to participate in this program". This ticking-off-the-list mindset is great for the corporate balanced scorecard indicator ("number of training hours per employee per year") but most often counter-productive when it comes to motivating someone to change. That is not to say that training sessions are not popular: a new environment and a sumptuous lunch buffet are appreciated by all !

If not the HR department, then it most likely is the direct manager. After all, it is him or her who will evaluate you and identify your "growth opportunities". These will then be discussed and prioritized and at the end of the performance review, your manager will add your name to the list of the people who need to be trained in this or that. And that is in the best case. Quite often the "growth opportunities" are pushed down the list or urgencies or priorities once the review fever has subsided.

But what if each of us took ownership of our own development ? Do you have your development target or priority for this year ? Have you identified the steps you can take (with or without help from the manager or organization) to make progress towards your goal ? There are so many resources around these days that you can find very high-level knowledge information about any development topic. But this is the easy part ... Just as a training session or workshop is meaningless without follow up, learning about a new topic without taking action and implementing is also a waste of time. And definitely not "developing" you.

My advice - to all - is to own your own development, and not outsource it to your manager or your organization. Fix your own development targets, and use the resources around you to contribute to that development. And take action. The greatest satisfaction comes from setting your targets and making progress towards them (I can testify on that !).

Explore the ideas from your team, for real !

Dear boss

We are writing this letter to ask you why you don’t ask us to solve problems by ourselves. When is the last time you really asked us to solve a company problem other than the company travel day destination or the theme for the New Year’s party ?

We love this company as much as you do. Yes, you have a lot of experience all over the world, more than we do. And it is true that the consultants are smarter than we are, and they explain things more clearly. And they have fantastic Powerpoint slides that we don’t know how to make (and frankly, even if we did, we don’t have the time). These consultants have experience in other industries, and they know about state-of-the-art and best practices.

But we really have ideas.

You tell us you want our input, but very quickly you explain why our ideas won’t work. You explain that you have tried them before, in a previous assignment. Or you just know that this won’t work. In a culture where hierarchy is respected, it is a challenge for us to express our thoughts. And when the person in authority then explains us , with reasons and facts and figures, that this is not really such a good idea, how do you think we feel about speaking up in the future (not to say losing our face and self-confidence) ? Have you  gained your experience by executing the ideas of others, with your own being squashed ?

Give us a chance. Give us a problem. Really give it to us. And let us implement our solutions, make some mistakes, and learn from that experience. Isn’t that what the leadership books write about ? Maybe this can be applied to real business problems and not just the company entertainment activities.

Best regards
Your team in Asia