What are you doing to expand the talents and skills of your people?

One of the main reasons people seek out other opportunities is because they are bored.  They have done this job forever, and simply can’t see themselves going through another year of more of the same. Or, they have tons of talent and are quick learners, and they have outgrown their current set of responsibilities.

What can you do to keep your top people challenged and engaged and motivated?

First of all, do you know who these people are? Have you taken the time to ask them what they like about their job and what they don’t like? Have you ask them about how challenged they feel? Have you asked them if they are still learning?

IF you know who needs more opportunity to grow and develop, here are some things you can do:

1. Ask more questions—by asking questions rather than always providing answers, you invite others on the team to step up and create solutions. This provides an opportunity to take ownership, be more creative, and be responsible for showing good judgement and discernment.

2. Assign problems, not solution implementation—give people problems to solve rather than telling them what to do. This allows them to take ownership of developing the solutions and then implementing them successfully.  Provide guardrails for the solution, but not the solution itself.

3. Provide opportunities to shine—rather than you making the presentation to leadership, have your team member be the point person. While you are there for support, they get to be in the spotlight.

4. Share responsibilities—take turns leading the team meeting, including creating the agenda and running the meeting. Bring each person to your leadership meetings so they get a feel for the bigger picture.

5. Identify his/her genius—what is their gift? What do they do better than anyone else? Provide opportunities to exercise that gift.

6. Move people around—people are less bored when they are learning so provide opportunities for cross-training, or ‘internships’ in other departments.

7. Ask each person what he/she would like to learn or to work on—create a three year and annual development plan. Include classes, conferences, mentoring, and challenging projects.

When people are provided the opportunity to grow and develop skills that add value to their career they will appreciate you, and be better prepared to step up to more leadership within your company. You have a loyal employee, and they have a job they love. Win-win!!