Don't wait to nurture potential

As an organisation, your people are your biggest asset. They also become your biggest ally. So don’t wait to invest in their development and above all make it personal.

People are unique and resourceful. They are the ones who come up with incredible ideas to drive the business forward. They are the ones you need to nurture. Through being cared for, they will in turn find you more people who have great potential and allow your business to go from great to excellent.

I have spent many years specialising in talent management and succession planning. I have seen first hand the value of identifying people in your business with talent and investing in their development. But what does it actually mean to invest in their development?

The key is to make their development plan meaningful, personal and stretching. And who is better placed to do this than their direct line manager. They see day to day the potential that this person can bring to the organisation.

Making development personal is often what lacks. We all have off the shelf courses we believe in. But how often do we put people on courses as a tick box exercise where team members don’t always come back with visible practical applications of learnings. In my view, the more personal you can make their development the greater the return will be. Of course it comes at a cost. But focus on the return on investment you will get from that person - their loyalty over years; their contribution to innovation, their over delivery of performance targets; their direct or indirect impact on the bottom line.

There are many ways to make development personal. It starts with ensuring your managers invest time in knowing their people; helping them identify their strengths and their areas for development. For each development area, they need to think about what would be best suited to that individual; consider their learning style; and the most important step is support, follow up and recognition.

One way to make it personal and meaningful is to look at coaching - whether it be through internal, external, or up-skilling your managers in coaching. As an internal coach for a FTSE 250 company, I can vouch for the incredible impact that coaching has had on identified talent: numerous promotions within 6-12 months of finishing a programme. You could argue the person has talent and therefore may have gotten promoted anyway. I would argue that coaching allowed them to unlock their inner resources, push aside their doubts or lack of self confidence and fight for what they wanted most for themselves.

People come and go in companies. Those that stay are those that feel valued, cared for and know that their managers have their backs when it comes to their future career. I would challenge you to make leaders out of your managers. we all have nuggets of gold within us waiting to be unlocked. Too many people are overlooked too quickly. Get your leaders to seek the nuggets of gold early on, nurture that individual and create a personal impactful development plan which will reap short and long term benefits.

And yes - those talented individuals you invested in will leave you one day - but they will come back ready to deliver more than you could have ever hoped for.