I have three kids who are young professionals in their mid-twenties. A former boss of mine would often say he tried to be the kind of boss that he would want managing and developing his own daughter or son. What a great inspiration for each of us in our leadership roles. Think about it, if you’re a young person like my kids, early in their careers, you want to learn and grow and you want a leader who cares and will help you grow and develop as a professional.
Glenn Llopis, a leadership expert and coach, says “you know that you found the right leader for your career when the leader is eager to take an active interest in your growth and success. If your leader doesn’t show interest, this may be an early warning sign that they are the wrong leader for you. So ask yourself, does your leader push you to see the full potential in yourself?”
The following are some helpful tips for becoming the leader for others that you would want for your early career adult kids:
Know their career goals: get to know them. Know their passions and their emerging skills. Get a sense for where they see themselves in ten years and beyond. Get to know how they like to learn. Some of them love digging in and learning by experience (being thrown into the deep end) and others like to be coached and eased into bigger and bigger responsibilities. In either case, be there for them when they need encouragement and support.
Help them create and implement a well thought out development plan: help them understand their likely career progression to preempt disappointment or discouragement. There are lots of paths to their ultimate career and the more you can help them see that, the less stressed out they will be when their path takes twists and turns. Help them to understand core competencies and experiences that will be good for them to develop and to understand what potential roles will help them gain those competencies and experiences. And make sure they know that they own their own development.
Give them stretch opportunities: the fastest way to grow is through stretch roles. These are experiences that can be scary because you feel unqualified to do them. It’s during these experiences that a young leader builds key competencies quickly and develops courage, confidence and resilience which will pay dividends throughout their remaining career. Just make sure that you as their leader are keeping close contact with them, supporting them as needed, and having their back if they stumble, which is bound to happen with stretch roles.
Have frequent development discussions: regularly meet with your emerging leader to check in on how things are going. See how they are developing in those key competencies that the role is designed to develop. Let them share their struggles without giving them solutions. Ask good questions that can help them develop their own effective problem solving process and skills.
Be their sponsor and advocate: as they develop and grow as leaders, be their advocate at the management table for new roles and opportunities that might continue to stretch and grow them as leaders and professionals.
Build your brand as a developer of talent: doing all the above will grow your brand as a developer of talent which is a great benefit to the company and to you personally. The more you have that brand, the more likely it will be that great talent will find their way onto your team. As your bench grows deeper, your business can grow and expand more effectively. Also, as you become viewed as a leader who develops leaders, you will be an excellent candidate for promotion to more senior roles.
Remember, be that kind of boss that you want your kids to have some day, and you will see your organization and your personal value blossom.
As I’ve shared, gardening is a great leadership metaphor. Over the last ten weeks I’ve taken a coaching approach to this blog asking many questions to help you more deeply understand the “why” of the practices. Understanding the “why” will help you to develop deeper convictions leading to instinctive actions that create great teams. We’ve talked about goodness of fit of your employees for their role, hiring practices, approaches to developing your team members, setting clear expectations, being a vulnerable and caring leader, equipping your team with the tools they need, giving them recognition, listening to their opinions, helping them see the organization’s mission more clearly and how their role contributes to it, delivering ongoing feedback, and giving increasing responsibilities so your team members can grow. These tips are all about creating an environment and providing the nourishment for your team to grow and flourish.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the journey. Now let’s get back to our leadership gardening with passion!
Ken Volpert, Executive Coach
Passion Coaching and Consulting (passioncoaching.org)
February 2021