How to deal with the growth of the team members?

As a leader, support your members in their growth. Keyword — support, not grow them.

I mean, it’s the perfect situation where they grow just by obtaining with you, they can learn from your experience, but that cannot always be the case. You might lead people who are far from your expertise and you still can do it very well.

The underperformance topic is demanding and might steal your attention. It happens naturally, it tends to be urgent. I covered how to deal with it here.

But as much as you put the effort into the pain points, you should also focus on the future of the team. To make the future more successful would be good to use the potential of your team. You don’t want to become the guy that solves severe cases only. You want to lead in a way so the team can succeed.

Your attention should be equally dedicated to people who do not have obvious problems, who want to get better at their job, or who want to grow, and develop their careers. You might think that this is even harder. How can you know what they should learn? What book to read? What skills do they need to improve? Those are questions that might arise in your head.

The answer is simple. You don’t have to know, because you don’t have to guide them to get better.

How does working with growth differ from solving underperformance from the Leader’s perspective? It has so much in common. However, there is one significant difference. When you deal with underperformance, you usually know what are minimal requirements. So you have the destination point defined. You still might not know how to help someone get on that level, but at least you know where are you heading to.

So how we can make our life easier? Define the destination.

Easier said than done? Maybe.

I do believe that if we are able to connect the needs of a person with the needs of the team it becomes a perfect marriage. People don’t need to be told how to grow. The best way of growth for them is to grow in the direction they want. We shouldn’t expect them to become the same as the rest of the team. Your role here is to represent the needs of the team or the organization. You should have enough context to know if this is a good place for them to focus on X. If not, look for other teams, other projects, or even consider that this isn’t the best company for them.

Performance reviews are often focused on what to improve. That is good if something is under a minimal level. That has to be fixed. But the area where the most value is generated usually is somewhere else — where people are good at. They can build on top of that and shine like a start, making your team high performing.

Growing up in that area helps to succeed. To have satisfaction from the work. Build a strong career.

So if you already crossed the point where the competencies and skills of the team member meet the job they are doing. You should switch from driving the direction to finding a win-win situation between the individual and the Company.

Discuss what are the needs of the team member. What activities do they feel strongly about? How do they see their career in the future? Then assess that with the needs of your organization. If this seems like a good match, ask what support they need to achieve that. Again, you won’t be able to draw the way on the map. Everyone has their own journey.

It happens that someone does not know where they are heading. What I usually do is try to share my perspective, what areas we need help in the team, and what would be beneficial for us. But I don’t push in any direction. It is supposed to be their commitment. Otherwise, they might quickly forget why they are doing it.

You should also accept that sometimes people don’t want to grow. For various reasons, it’s not their time. They struggle with something else and it feels like too much. That is fine.

In each of those cases, your responsibility is to project how the growth or its lack can influence the team’s mission. You should be able to see the potential, you should be able to communicate the downsides. And as always, look holistically at your team if moving those individual vectors in the direction you agree on makes your team capable of the mission you have. Don’t hold that perspective for yourself. If you feel the direction someone takes has potential, support it will all the tools you have. If not, be honest about it.