In 2021, over 38 million workers quit their jobs. The professional services sector has endured their share of this challenge, with staffing levels at all-time lows and workload at all-time highs.
Developing employees and planning for their growth is a strategic way to decrease turnover at your organization, while also improving productivity, and boosting business development results. This is especially important as we continue to work in virtual environments.
Growth plans play an integral role in this process. Think of a growth plan as a road map that helps your team members enhance their skills and positions them for future roles in the firm. Anyone in your organization can have a growth plan; your high-potential team members, future leaders, and individual contributors should be at the top of the priority list.
Don’t let the thought of creating a growth plan intimidate you. It doesn’t have to be an onerous project. In fact, the plan can be as simple as one or two pages. At its core, the goal is to create a tool that people can be motivated by and want to engage in.
In this article, I’ll share five elements of growth plans.
Assessment of current and future skills
Successful leaders take time to uncover the gaps in their organizations. Rather than relying on intuition, a data-driven assessment will study your team member’s current productivity and performance so you can truly understand their competencies. Where are they strong? What are their weaknesses? And importantly, where would they like to be in the next 12-18 months?
This exercise also gives you the opportunity to stop and reflect if you have the right people in the right roles with the right skills to get you where you need to go as a business.
Key goals, measures of success, timing and accountabilities
Once you know the employee’s aspirations and how they fit within your organization, you can create a set of key goals and measures of success that can be documented in the plan. This accountability is integral.
In the assessment work I do with business development teams, they’re measured on how accountable and how coachable they are (yes, it can be measured as well as observed). Those qualities and the actions the employee puts in place will determine how successful they are in reaching their goals.
Coach or mentor
Does your organization promote coach or mentor relationships among your team? A coach typically focuses on career performance, while a mentor helps the mentee shape their future career path. In either case, these types of relationships pay off. According to Training Magazine, retention rates for mentees are 50 percent higher than those not mentored.
For an example of how a coach or mentor might work in terms of a growth plan, I like to point to my own experience when I was writing my book, The Modern Seller. Throughout the process, I had a weekly check-in with my publisher to report progress and review drafts. That consistent cadence helped me to stay on track to accomplish the long-term goal.
A mentor or coach can also go a long way in building better rapport and enhanced engagement, especially in a virtual team environment.
Regular check-ins
After it’s written, don’t just let the growth plan gather digital dust. Be sure to include a schedule for how often you will revisit the plan. Throughout the year, it’s integral to update the plan based on unforeseen changes and assess how the team member is progressing.
Again, with the example of my book, I revisited my plan weekly. But I also included larger, quarterly milestones.
Compensation or rewards
Lastly, what compensation or other rewards will be connected to achieving the growth plan?
Everyone’s motivations are different. Of course, financial rewards are important. But also consider intrinsic and non-financial rewards. Peer recognition, experiences, swag, professional development opportunities are all viable ideas.
In a recent coaching session, I was reviewing the results of the client’s business development assessment. When I asked what motivated her, she shared that she is motivated by helping her clients accomplish their goals and solve problems. This person was also motivated by recognition from leadership. As a leader, understanding each individual’s mindset can be powerful.
Creating a healthy, productive growth culture starts with putting your plans in place. Make growth plans a part of your organizational culture, and you will cultivate a knowledgeable and invested team that will stick with your firm for the long run—and lead to measurable results.
