Prepare employees for leadership
It doesn’t do much good if you just identify your top performers and then sit on the sidelines. The next step is polishing their skills to prepare them for leadership positions down the road.
First, of course, you need to let them know they’re on your radar. Acknowledge their potential and find out what they want to achieve so you can help them achieve it. Although this goal setting is a mutual process, you can’t set career goals for someone else. It has to start with the employees, so begin by asking what they would like to be doing in three, five and 10 years.
“If I don’t know what their goals are, I can’t do that much to help them,” Vadnais says. “Once you have that feedback, then [your] job is to give them feedback on how they could achieve those goals.”
Your appraisal of employees’ leadership potential should have already signaled their strengths and weaknesses. Match those against the skills and capabilities required in the positions they’re eyeing. Then you can either discuss the areas they need to improve or suggest roles that may be a better fit. And, of course, let them know what kind of training is available.
“Once you understand those goals, it’s important then that you communicate with your employee as to what you’re doing to help them achieve those goals,” Vadnais says, adding that feedback and training are the best tools you have to develop employees.
Of course, that means you have to keep tabs on the employees to see whether they’re actively improving those skills. You have to stay in touch with them and keep measuring them with the scales you used to first identify them.
The key is staying in sync on their goals and their progress toward achieving them.
“You’ve had that kind of dialogue, so one day, you call them into your office and say, ‘Congratulations, I’m promoting you to this position,’” Vadnais says. “That shouldn’t be a big surprise.”
