Create Performance Development Plans that Really Work

Developing people is one of the most critical responsibilities of a leader. Whether running a multi-billion-dollar retail company or a small local restaurant, a company's success is directly linked to its ability to help its employee acquire and master new skills. As the capabilities of employees increase, so do the organization's capabilities. When employees improve their technical and soft skills, they enhance their company's ability to generate revenue, cut costs and improve customer satisfaction. There is an old saying that a general goes to war with the army they have, not the army they want. While this is true, a leader's army tomorrow can be better than the army they have today if they invest time, focus, and attention in helping their employees develop.

Establish Trust

Trust must be in place to help your employee establish an effective personal development plan. Trust is essential because it enables you and your employees to be honest about short- and long-term goals and what is necessary for each of you to help others achieve their goals. The employee, boss relationship works best when it is mutually beneficial. When you take the time to show your employees that you care about them and that you are looking out for their best interest, they will be more likely to care for you and to look out for your best interest. Leaders build trust over time through small acts such as listening, showing concern, holding confidentiality, and providing support.

Commit to using the tool

Once leaders establish trust, they can work with their employees to create personal development plans. Personal Development Plans are a highly effective tool for defining the areas that an employee wants to focus on developing, along with what actions they are committing to take. Much like any tool, it is only effective if used as intended. Hours are wasted annually by employees and supervisors working on Personal

Development Plans that are talked about once and then put away and forgotten for a year. Developing Personal Development Plans and not using them is like purchasing a shovel to help you plant flowers and then keeping it in your shed for an entire year. At the end of the year, you will have a shovel but no flowers. For this reason, leaders should re employee's personal development plans need to be a living document that is reviewed monthly. During each meeting, the supervisor and the employee should discuss every year by

• What was the plan?

• What results were generated?

• What did you learn?

• What changes need to be made to the plan?

Developing the plan

As leaders develop a Personal Development Plan, it is important to clarify the goals of the plan. First, there must be clarity on what the employee needs to improve to best help their career and the company. Many times, there are areas of employee performance that leaders would like to see improvements in, that the employees are not aware of being an issue. Before a leader ventures into the developmental opportunities, start the conversation by talking about what the employee is currently doing well. This is an important step because it helps to build the employee's confidence. It will also help to put them into a positive state of mind. Studies show that people are more engaged and creative when they have a positive mindset.

Next, a leader needs to discuss the areas of development that would best help the employee reach their goals. As a rule of thumb, a leader should share three positive areas that an employee is doing well in, for every developmental area that is discussed. During this discussion, it is important to make the distinction between what development can help them to excel in their current role, in addition; to what could help them prepare for their next opportunity.

Note, some employees will communicate that they are not interested in career advancement. They may do this for various reasons including previous disappointment around not receiving promotions in the past, lack of confidence in their ability, or a host of other reasons. If a leader believes an individual has the potential for career advancement let them know you believe in their potential and encourage them to be open to taking on more responsibilities. A leader may see something in them, that they do not see in themselves. By the leader communicating belief, they can inspire the employee to consider possibilities that they previously could not imagine.

Once there is alignment around the areas of focus, it is important to make sure there is a shared understanding of the urgency that opportunities should be addressed. As a leader, it is important to be clear with employees about the areas of their performance that need urgent attention. If an employee has a critical deficiency that is negatively impacting the company, and potentially putting their employment at risk this should be clear to the employee. There should be no ambiguity when it comes to performance deficiencies, and those should be handled through performance management conversations. When it comes to Personal Development Planning, the urgency should be driven by the employee. A leader can frame up the benefits of them moving fast, for example, if a promotion opportunity is coming, and it is in the employee's best interest to learn a new skill to qualify for the opportunity. But in general, the employee should own the pace of implementation of the plan.

As you conduct the personal development plan conversation with an employee, it is always good to ask them what areas of development they would like to work on. Many times, employees will demonstrate more energy and in persistence working on items they have selected on their own. For this reason, consider swimming with the current, and leveraging their existing energy towards achieving a developmental goal. As a leader discusses with them the items they would like to work on, it is beneficial to help them to understand how working on those items will help their career. For example, if a leader has a salesperson that would like to work on building on presentation skills, they can discuss how developing these skills will help them in their current role, in addition to helping them in future roles. This will help to give more incentive to pursue developing those skills.

Once a leader understands what the employee believes they should be focusing on developing, it is time to share with them the developmental areas that they believe could add value to their career. As a leader does this, it is important to communicate to them the benefit that they believe this developmental action will have on them in both the short and the long term. Going back to the example of the salesperson, if this individual has the desire to be a manager in the future, then one of the skills that they will need to develop is coaching and training skills. As the leader is talking with them about potential areas for growth. They can tell them that training others is a key skill for leaders to develop. The leader can encourage them to reflect on what makes them good at selling and ask if they would be interested in developing training for new hires. In developing this training, they would have the opportunity to work on putting together presentations, in addition to gaining experience training others. In this way, you are killing two birds with one stone. The employees get an opportunity to work on developing their presentation skills, while also gaining new experience in training others.

As a leader conducts personal development conversation, it is beneficial to identify 4 potential areas of development. One aspect of human nature that is universal is a desire for control. By a leader working with an

employee to identify multiple areas of development to work on, they empower them to choose where they want to focus their attention. As a leader and employee discuss the 4 potential areas, they should rate each on two variables. The amount of effort believed necessary to build the new skill or behavior and the amount of value it will generate.

The effort here is a very broad term. Effort should be considered in proportion to the time, money, and resources required to make progress on the desired skill or behavior. For example, if the employee decides that they want to improve their coaching skills, they could consider doing this by becoming a certified coach. It would be important to understand that the process generally takes a year, can cost over $15,000, and requires around a 180-hour commitment. Clearly defining the amount of effort required can help the leader and the employee discuss any constraints that might get in the way of the employee reaching their goal. This will help both parties determine if the effort required is worth pursuing.

When it comes to value, it is important to discuss the predicted value that will be added to the individual and to the company through the development activity. Value can be determined in many ways, but revenue growth, time savings, and improvements to customer experience are great places to start. For

example, if an employee is already very competent in developing presentations, they might want to take a new course on building power points. This course might be fun and interesting for the employee but may provide little incremental value to the company. It is important to discuss with the employee what value will be generated by the employee pursuing the activity.

Once the leader and employee have discussed the amount of value and effort related to each potential area of development, they can now work with the employee to prioritize which development opportunity to pursue first. The prioritization activity should help to guide the employee to identify what focus area would benefit them the most. Since this is not a perfect science, the leader and employee should not get stuck feeling like they have to execute the items that are low effort and high return. Logic would say the employee should focus their energy on these items, but the reality is that humans are not logical beings. Emotions drive behaviors. If an employee is dead set on doing an activity that falls in one of the other quadrants, don’t fight it. The most important thing is that the employee is growing professionally. Leaders frequently get stuck trying to get employees to develop in areas that they have limited interest or motivation to work in. When this happens time and energy are wasted trying to influence change vs accepting the employee for who they are and leaning into their strengths and passions. Follow the natural energy the employee has towards the areas they want to develop. This will allow the leader to help the

employee develop, while also building additional trust. There will always be another opportunity to revisit other developmental opportunities.

As the leader and employee finalize the Personal Development Plan, it is important to discuss what activities will come off the plate. Leaders have the tendency of working with employees on identifying what new actions, behaviors, or skills they want to see a person develop but walking away prior to getting into a discussion around divesting activities. Employees only have so much room on their plates, and leaders provide a great service to them when they help to prioritize what they should and shouldn't be working on. Employees' things-to-do lists are like full plates at a cookout. There are a lot of good things on them, but before you can add more, you have to take something off. If an employee’s plate is full, a leader should help them to decide how to make some space. Space can be made in three ways. They can make room by eating some of the food, which means working on their current task. Once they end a current

project, they will have space to add another. They can give some food to someone else, by delegating some of their tasks. Or they can throw some food away, which means just walking away from a project. Depending on the importance of the task on their plate to them and to the company a leader can help to determine how best to make room.

Leaders give a great gift to employees when they help them with personal development. Employees trust their leaders with their careers. The better able a leader is to develop talent, the more successful they will be in attracting great leaders, and delivering against their own professional goals.

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4 Tips for Creating a Culture of Recognition

In 2021 the Pew Research Center surveyed over 6000 workers and identified low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected as the top 3 reasons for employee turnover. As a middle manager, you do not have autonomy to address the first two reasons for turnover in the short-term, but you do have the ability to have influence with the third. A desire for respect is a universal human need. Every day employees show up to work and do their jobs and as a leader you play a key role in showing your employees that you appreciate what they do.

Showing employees that you appreciate them is easy to do, but you must be purposeful. It is well documented that individuals are more likely to acquire new behaviors when they establish them as goals. If you want to show your employees you appreciate them, review the four actions below and set a goal for yourself to practice these over the next 21 days.

1. Write a note to your employee. Most communication is either verbal or digital. It is rare for us to receive or give positive written communication outside of performance review cycles. As a leader your words matter to you employees. By taking the time to write a thank you note to your employees, it shows them that you genuinely appreciate what they are doing. In addition, it gives them something that they can keep as a reminder of the excellent work they have completed. Make sure the note is specific, add the date and your signature. Pro Tip- develop branded thank you notes with your name on it. Just having these at your desk or in your work bag will encourage you to use them.

2. Praise your employee on social media. LinkedIn and other social media platforms are a great forum to show your employees appreciation. With more workers being remote, shifting to virtual recognition is a great way to provide public praise. By praising your employee in a social media post, you can recognize them in front of their peers, which makes a profound impact especially with extroverts. Pro Tip- connect with your employees and co-workers on social media platforms to maximize the reach of recognition post.

3. Give them a small token of appreciation. Little things matter especially when they are a surprise. Something as simple as a recognition pin, a gift card for coffee, or a candy bar can go a long way in showing someone that you appreciate what they do. The key here is to give the employee something they will appreciate. Take some time over the next week to poll your team on what types of recognition they feel would be impactful. Pro Tip- if the individual you are showing appreciation to has a family, the gift could be for them. Families of employees make sacrifices to support their career, showing them appreciation goes a long way to make the entire family feel valued and respected.

4. Surprise thank you call. Making an unexpected call to an employee to thank them for the work they are doing can go a long way to showing appreciation. An unprompted recognition call gives you an opportunity outside of one on ones, and performance reviews to energize an employee and let them know that their work matters. Pro Tip- if you are a manager of managers, ask your direct reports to provide you with the name, phone number, and reason for recognition of their direct reports. Skip level recognition can be impactful because the employee does not interact with you frequently, and likely see you as a powerful and influential person.

Leaders have a direct influence over the culture of their team. By role modeling recognition, you help to develop a culture that shows respect and appreciations. All businesses have limits on employee compensation, and advancement opportunities but there are fewer constraints on the amount of recognition you can give employees. By providing your employees with better and more frequent recognition, you demonstrated that you appreciate and respect the contribution they provide to the organization.

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Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with your Path Coaching and Consulting. He specializes in coaching service for managers, executives and small business owner.

For tips on leadership and professional development follow me:

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

If you are interested in working with me as a coach, contact me at

• Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

• Phone: 804-220-5771

Developing Communication Strategies that Work

Last week I posted a poll on LinkedIn asking if employees could improve one thing about their company, what would it be. 47% of respondents said communication. Establishing an effective communication strategy is key to driving employee engagement and morale. Too little communication, and employees can feel disconnected and alone, too much communication and employees can feel micro-managed. Getting communication right, is especially important now, as more companies explore remote and hybrid work. Leader can improve communication by focusing on improving employee engagement, providing psychological safety, developing a written communication plan, and soliciting feedback from employees on how to continuously improve communication.

Drive Employee Engagement

An effective communication strategy starts with employee engagement. If an employee is not engaged with the work that they are doing, no level of communication will be the right. You can engage your employees by helping them to understand how important their role is to the success of the organization. Many times, employees struggle to see how their contribution plays into the bigger picture, which leaves them feeling uninspired and unappreciated. As the leader, you can drive engagement by helping employees to find fulfillment in the work that they are doing.

For example, when I was the Manager of Franchise Marketing and Recruiting, one of the core responsibilities of my team was to find and screen for qualified leads. As a team, we spent time discussing how our efforts to find qualified leads helped us to contribute to the company’s overall mission to be the world’s leader of convenience. In addition, we talked about the positive impact we were making in the lives of individuals that decided to Franchise with us. Members of the team were able to take personal satisfaction in knowing that they played a pivot role in helping small business owner pursue their dreams, while also supporting the company’s vision for being a leader in convenience. This sense of purpose, helped to support high levels of engagement with the team.

Create Psychological Safety

The second best-practice to improve communication effectiveness is to create psychological safety for employees. Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (1). This can be done by treating your employees with dignity and respect. When employees feel respected, they are more likely to communicate concerns to you. This will allow you to better understand what your employees value, and how current actions or events are impacting them. This information can also help you to acquire empathy, which is essential for building strong relationship. In providing answers to your employee's questions and acting on their feedback you will build trust and rapport. Listening also puts you in a better position to influence employees when your goals or points of view do not align. After hearing your employee's concerns, you are unable to provide insights on why it is in the company's best interest to do things as they are being done.

One of the biggest reasons that employees are not more open with their employers is that they fear the consequences of being transparent with their opinions. They are concerned that voicing unpopular opinions will impact their status within the company. As a leader, you can create an environment where employees know that they can respectfully share their point of view or ask a question without losing creditability. Organizations are stronger when they leverage the diversity of thought of their employees. By showing dignity and respect, you create the psychological safety necessary for an inclusive workplace.

Develop a Written Communication Plan

A third best-practice for creating an effective communication strategy is to have a written communication plan. This communication plan should define when, where, what and how information should be shared. Creating a shared understanding around how employees should communicate with each other provides a starting point for effective communication within an organization. When questions around overcommunication or under communication arise, members of the organization can evaluate whether the problem is the execution of the communication plan, or the plan itself. This is powerful, because it establishes a shared expectation of what should be happening, along with a way of tweak expectations if individuals feel that current plan is not sufficient.

Written communication plans should be detailed, but not all encompassing. It is impossible to define all the potential reason and ways that people will communicate within the organization. The intent of a written communication plan is to provide guidelines, not to define unbreakable rules. The communication plan should be both global and local. From a global standpoint, expectations around when key meetings should be held, can help provide a predictable cadence for business. Meetings such as business and performance reviews should be scheduled at the global level to help to establish the importance of those meetings. Leadership should also provide guidance on preferred methods of communication. A famous example of this is when Jeff Bezos outlawed the use of power points presentations at Amazon. How we communicate, impacts what we communicate, so it is important to be thoughtful about the benefits and drawbacks of different communication tools. Other parts of the communication plan should be developed at the local level. For example, as a leader, when do you want your employees to text you information, instead of calling you. What type of information should be held for one-on-one meeting verses brought up in group discussions. Providing clarity around when, where, what and how information should be communicated, can help to ensure that the appropriate amount of communication is occurring.

Solicit Feedback on Communication Plan

The final best-practice is to solicit feedback from members of your organization. Everyone’s needs for communication are different. The more you understand their needs, the better able you will be to help identify solutions. When I became a Zone Vice President of Operations, some of the biggest concerns that I heard from Field Consultants were that we had too many meetings, priorities seemed to change every week, and that they were overwhelmed by non-value-added activities and communications. There concerns were all linked to poor communication. There was a lack of clarity around our zone’s mission, and there was not much discipline around how or when information was shared with the field team.

This set my leadership team and me on a mission to streamline our communications and ensure that we helped Field Consultants to have the information they needed to effectively do their job. We did this in four primary ways. First, we shifted all zone wide written communication to be distributed through Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams allowed us to create a library of shared content that everyone could use on demand. We worked with our support and administration partners to develop channels on Microsoft Teams to make information easier to find. Next, we encouraged Field Consultants to post questions on Microsoft Teams. We found that many times our support team would field the same question from different Field Consultants. To accelerate the answering of questions, we asked Field Consultants to post questions on a shared space where the support team could provide answers that were visible to everyone. Next, we defined expectations around communication. We let the team know that at a minimum we expected them to review emails daily and Microsoft Teams weekly. We also communicated that if something was sent via email, that it was urgent and that we were looking for the issue to be addressed within 48 hours. If something was communicated on Microsoft Teams, it was more informational, and we expected it to be reviewed and acted upon weekly. Finally, we would periodically do polls and surveys to gage how we were doing with improving communication. Overtime we heard a lot of positive feedback around the changes that we had made. All these changes were rooted in feedback that we received from Field Consultants. They were the best guide for solving our communication opportunities.

Effective communication strategies are what truly sets organization apart. The quicker you can gather and act on urgent information, the better you are able to serve customers. The fewer times that you must repeat a message to align everyone on a strategy, the more time you will have for executing the strategy. The time you take to build engagement, create psychological safety, establish a written communication plan, and solicit feedback on that plan, will improve organizational productivity by creating an inclusive workplace that effectively communicates information up and down the organization. Your employees are the foundation of the value that your organization creates. The better able you are to ensure they have the information they need to work, and that you have the information you need to lead, the more successful your business will be.

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Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with your Path Coaching and Consulting. He specializes in coaching service for managers, executives and small business owner.

For tips on leadership and professional development follow me:

• LinkedIn

• Facebook

If you are interested in working with me as a coach, contact me at

• Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

• Phone: 804-220-5771

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References

1. Psychological Safety – Amy C. Edmondson. (2022). Amycedmondson.com. https://amycedmondson.com/psychological-safety/