How can you help a team member develop their career skills?

Building strong confident team members is crucial to eliminate hesitation and reluctance. Fearful individuals tend to be hesitant, so as a leader, it's your responsibility to provide unwavering support and ensure your team is fully capable of performing their roles with utmost confidence. The success of your team reflects your leadership achievements.

I've found that having a "Current Learning Topic" for each of my team helps. Not everyone knows their goals and helping employees figure out their internal personal goals can be a challenge. But it is easy to ask "What would be a good thing for you to learn next?" or "What do you want to learn next?". Go through a few cycles of this and the larger goals becomes clearer.

The key is identifying what they know and what they don't know yet. From this we can knowledge share and refine. Introducing weekly check-ins to support the growth and the process is a great way to add value to the learning. As well as this they can collaborate on projects with more experienced team. members to learn and fill knowledge gaps.

In my experience: - Observation: Take the time to find the primary skills of them. - Ask to other for feedback, use 360° method. - Open conversation: Use an active listening to hear what they really want, or what is the they own perception. - Gap: In a conversation, make an agreement with them in what are the gaps. - Set the goals: Be realistic. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals. The team members need to understand that there is a balance between the company goal and their goals. I prefer say Win to Win.

As manager my job is to make sure i understand the ambition of the person well and see how career skill at job can enhance his/her ambition..if I find a connect rest is cakewalk

In my monthly 1:1s with each team member I have a fixed topic to hold them accountable to career goals, coach them, challenge them

I pride myself on never having said "no" to a request for training, as well as working training into my teams' annual goals. That said, when the pandemic started, the modalities open to training changed substantially. We found some excellent online resources to continue growing skills - especially in cloud technologies, and I made everyone on the team a deal: If they would commit to 40 hours of training in a year, I'd get them an all-access pass for online training with a top-level provider. What was impressive is that by opening the door to all-access, some folks didn't stop at 40, or 80 hours - going all the way past 150 in one case. They learned a ton, and it was all because we gave them the opportunity.

I find that having all knowledge in one place is great but it needs one level up to why learn this. Tools like Notion and Miro boards are awesome for personal development and now Udemy or Datacamp for Business opens more possibilities and range of learning.

My first advice is, If you do a promise of any resource, any project leadership, or certification, or anything, you have to find thee way to provide it. Is an usual mistake for the managers promise things than later on are not possible. The value of word that you give to them represent how much they will trust on you. There are many options, but I will suggest a practice of role rotation or sharing roles, if is possible with area where they are service provider, as example if the role is maintenance supervisor, move or share to the production supervisor role. Give the possibility of have the an other view doing the role, kind of feels than others feels with your decisions. Le them play with out of the box ideas.

As part of any career development conversation, you/the manager need to understand what your company's needs are skillset-wise and what options and resources are available to you. Know this information before having the career development chat with your team member. If the company's needs and the TM's desires are in sync you have a stronger argument for funding, if needed, and it'll be seen as a win-win for all. A no-cost option, usually a TM's desire, is cross-training all members of a team. Think about going on vacation when everyone on the team is capable of doing any of the team's tasks. How nice would it be if, after your time away, there was no work to catch up on?

Use feedback and feedforward. The past is from where they are comming, is important, but the feedforward is the future, means, to where they want to go. Is a game, both view has to be present during the conversation. Recognition words are equal to motivation, feel good, don't forget.

Absolutely not! In my view, this practice is extremely obsolete. I will encourage the person to seek feedback, but a) a 360-degree one, and b) from whomever they choose. My view only will be extremely subjective, not to mention that my personal opinion might not matter to that person. The fact that their promotion depends on me (as their Manager) is a negative side effect of a broken management system, and I'll do as much as possible to minimize those side effects.

Certainly, I'll condense the feedback. In my role as a CTO overseeing Scrum teams, I've seen the importance of tailoring feedback to align with an individual's career goals. For instance, a developer eyeing a tech lead role would benefit more from feedback aimed at fostering leadership traits, not just coding skills. Also, I support 'real-time feedback.' In a Lean development setting, immediate feedback serves as a quick iteration cycle for personal growth, much like how we iterate rapidly in software development. It allows for real-time adjustments and enhances agility.

In my role as a Technology Manager, I find that one of the most impactful ways to provide feedback and recognition is through regular "retrospectives," a technique borrowed from Agile methodologies like Scrum. During these sessions, team members reflect on their recent work, discussing what went well and what could be improved. Importantly, these aren't just managerial assessments but a team-wide exercise, which promotes a culture of shared accountability and growth. In terms of recognition, we often practice "peer shoutouts," where team members acknowledge each other's contributions. It's not just about management's perspective but creating a culture where recognition flows freely among peers.

By encourage self-learning and decision-making. Embrace innovation, learn from failures, and share best practices. This empowers team members and boosts their skills.

You not only can, but you MUST give autonomy, flexibility, empower decision-making, experimentation, and so on, if you want to build a team.

In my tenure as a CTO implementing Scrum methodologies, I've often found that team members flourish when they're granted not just autonomy, but "guided autonomy." For example, in Lean Software Development, one practice is "Amplify Learning." We actively encourage team members to participate in Sprint Retrospectives to identify what went well and where they could innovate. This not only creates a culture of self-improvement but also taps into their creative thinking in a structured manner. Trusting your team to make decisions is important, but setting up boundaries, like Definition of Done criteria in Scrum, can help steer creativity toward outcomes aligned with organizational goals.

In my experience as a Technology Manager, I've seen that autonomy and creativity flourish when there's a framework in place, such as Scrum in Agile Project Management. Scrum provides a structured yet flexible environment where team members can exercise creativity within the bounds of sprints. This enables them to make independent decisions while remaining aligned with project objectives. For example, during sprint planning, we set well-defined goals but often leave the "how" open to team interpretation, allowing individuals to contribute unique solutions. Additionally, we've adopted the concept of "fail fast," creating a safe space for team members to experiment, learn from setbacks, and iterate.

Encouraging autonomy is key to nurturing career skill development. Everyone approaches self-growth differently. As mentors and leaders, it's crucial to recognize this diversity and allow space for individual creativity. Granting autonomy enables team members to discover their unique path to development, fostering a proactive and innovative approach to skill enhancement. By supporting autonomy, we empower individuals to take ownership of their growth journey, creating a more resilient and adaptable team.

I guide and mentor to show the art of thriving and surviving. One to One meetings with effective Relevant Q & A will give context to why a methodology is needed while growing and learning.

In my role as a CTO, I emphasize the principles of Lean Software Development and Scrum in mentorship. Leading by example, I practice continuous improvement and promote open dialogue. I share my own career trajectory, emphasizing the balance between technical expertise and collaborative skills. One innovative strategy I employ is "cross-mentoring," pairing developers with professionals from other departments to broaden their skill sets. While I offer my own insights, I also push for team members to gain visibility through avenues like internal tech talks or article contributions. This multifaceted approach to mentorship aims to develop a well-rounded set of skills in team members.

You can very well be a role model, but you cannot be a mentor if your mentorship is not requested. You cannot give anything by force; you can only take by force. And mentoring just because you're in a position of power is again abusing a negative side effect of a broken management system.

Early in my career, I was aggressive at learning new technologies as deeply as possible. I was cranking out certifications really quickly. What helped me establish myself as a mentor was doing little study groups with folks on my team who wanted to get the same certifications. We would meet for about an hour three or so times per week, and we'd go over the objectives in the exam. We'd all work through different designs and stuff together. This was truly win/win, because I'd end up learning much more than the certification required, and we got several other folks on the team certified as well. While I don't do this hands-on anymore, the culture has persisted, so it's an ongoing thing.

In my role as a CTO, the value of mentorship isn't just in sharing one's own experiences, but also in helping team members cultivate their own perspectives. For instance, while implementing Lean principles in our software development projects, I often engage team members in "Go and See" exercises. Instead of merely offering solutions, I accompany them in the process of problem-solving, enabling them to feel the constraints and make decisions themselves. This approach often uncovers innovative solutions and it allows them to internalize the lessons more deeply. Additionally, mentorship can be peer-based. Encouraging team members to co-mentor each other can often provide diverse viewpoints, thereby enriching their learning experience.

Nurturing a team member's career skills is not just about aligning with their assigned role, but also recognizing their unique strengths and potential in areas beyond their current responsibilities. As a leader, it's crucial to identify these strengths and provide mentorship to help them flourish in those areas. When team members excel in what they are genuinely good at, it not only benefits them personally but also brings tangible results to the team and organization as a whole. It's essential to foster open communication and discuss their aspirations, aligning their career development with their future goals. This proactive approach not only helps team members grow but also contributes positively to their overall career trajectory.

The current management system is based on an unequal distribution of power. I would advise Managers to be extremely mindful of that fact, and do everything possible not to abuse that power in the slightest. Even better if they actually circumvent the prevailing management system (assuming they cannot change all of it) and build another one, for their specific team(s) only, which equalizes the power dynamics. Then a lot more of these interpersonal relationships will happen naturally.