How to Create a Strong Development Priority

- QUICK COURSE -

My aim is for conversations and simple tools that create clarity.  This quick course is designed as pre work inputs for either an individual conversation or workshop .

What it covers

Objectives Introduce tools to support the creation of strengths-based development priorities. Creating a development plan is coaching conversation 4 of 5 that supports strong workplace performance.  At the end of this course you will have:

  1. Identified the stage you are at in your current role

  2. Completed the What I Do Best exercise to spot a potential WHAT development area

  3. Reviewed the Strengths-Based balconies and basement guide to spot a potential HOW development area 

  4. Started to craft a development priority based on the above inputs

  5. Be able to describe your preferred learning style to others

Duration 60-minutes

Step One: Why development?

There is always something to learn. A sense of progress and hope is one of our core needs. Having an activated development pathway significantly increases the enjoyment of and significantly decreases disengagement in our work.

The problem is the corporate ladder is broken.  Job titles and pay rises are too infrequent to satisfy our need to learn and grow. In addition, the workplace development conversation and documented plan often become a “tick the box” exercise, versus something we can leverage. 

The opportunity is that your development plan is one of the few work conversations where you get to focus on what you want, and align this with your current and future career roles.

An important factor is having a broad approach to what development looks like. American Psychologist, Carol Dweck has done a significant amount of work in the area of “growth” versus “fixed” mindset. A key influencer that determines our success. 

 

Having good inputs and awareness is the key to a strong development plan. Steps one to five are designed to create a starting point to identify a development priority.

Step One Determine what you need

The first step is to understand what you need with your work. We have a number of core psychological needs. Depending on where you are in the cycle of your role, this will influence where to focus your development.  Identify which one of the following three statements sounds most like you:

  • Trust Am I OK?  Do you believe me? Especially important if new to role where you are aiming to build credibility, prove reliability and connect with your new team. New to role.

  • Impact Does what I do I matter? Are you getting results that are being noticed? Establishing the role as your own.

  • Progress Am I getting anywhere? A sense of hope, experience growth, there is something to aim for and look forward to. Where am I heading to next? Looking for additional responsibilities or a different role.

 
 
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Step Two Identify potential development by how you are leveraging your strengths relating to what you do The WHAT

Our roles run busy. This means a development plan can often be a tick the box exercise and then forgotten.  It is important that we identify a common benefit between where we want to develop and what the organisation and our role requires.  

We all bring something unique to work. Completing a CliftonStrengths profile, the “top 5” results, reveal our 1 in 33 million point of difference. More often than not, we unfortunately don’t get to leverage all that we do well. Focusing on what you do well can unleash your 800% potential. See the case study.

This following exercise is to show the opportunity for you to leverage more of your talents in your work.

  1. If you have not already, complete a CliftonStrengths profile

  2. Review the results in the Strengths Insight Guide report. To access

    • Login in to https://login.gallup.com using your e-mail address and password

    • At the top left hand side click on Menu and select Strengths

    • On the secondary menu under the Clifton Strengths heading click on Reports

    • Click on the Download Report for the Strengths Insight Guide

    • A PDF will load.  Print this

    • Highlight any statements that resonate with you, cross out what doesn’t matter and circle any meaningful words. 

  3. Complete the What I Do Best exercise which relates what you do in your role back to your strengths

Step Three Identify potential development by understanding the impact of your strengths, how you do it The HOW

The more senior a role you hold, the more important the HOW’s (our behaviours) become. In turn the WHAT”s (the priorities), become less important as the people closest to the work know what to do. 

Strengths are the natural thoughts, feelings and behaviours that can be productively applied, our how’s.  These are our filters. Read more.

Sometimes our strengths can aid our development. Sometimes they can hinder and be problematic for us and others. It is important to note, our strength themes don’t manage us, we manage them. Strength themes don’t make people bad or terrible. Each person must decide if they will be a theme poster child or a theme problem child. 

Review the balcony (a strength that is good for me and good for you) and basement guide (when a strength theme can cause trouble for you and others) for your top 5 strengths and answer the questions

  • Does the use of a strength theme ever undermine your opportunity to thrive in your roles and relationships?  Have you ever received negative feedback related to one of your themes?

  • If you answered “yes” then think about how you might leverage or “dial up” one of you other strength themes to manage this better?

 
 
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Step Four Identify a development area 

Determine one area for development. Note priorities will change with time, and development is an ongoing conversation, so the priority you choose for now does not mean it will be a priority forever.

To determine a priority:

  1. Take the above inputs from

    • Your core identified need Trust/Impact/Progress

    • From the What I Do Best Exercise, take the item with the least number of connections between “What I get paid to do” and “What I do best”

    • The highlights in your strengths report and balcony and basement guide

  2. Craft a development objective answering the question “Is there a particular skill or area that you would like to learn?” OR “Is there an area where you know you already do well and want to amplify more?” 

  3. Share this with someone you know. Ask for feedback leveraging the questions (a) what’s working? (b) where am I getting stuck? (c) what could I do differently?

Step Five Support your development objective by understanding how you best learn

We all learn in different ways.  How can we describe the best way someone can explain something us? The VARK model of learning styles suggest there are four types of learners: visual, auditory, reflective (reading/writing), kinaesthetic (through doing).  

Knowing your learning style can be helpful.  If you know that visual learning appeals to you most, asking someone to draw a diagram, or drawing a diagram yourself might help you remember.  

 
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Develop your plan further

Determine detailed actions that support your development priorities. Next steps will be covered when we meet.

Not registered for a workshop or individual coach? Have a follow up quick chat with Jase to explore.