Think You're Developing Your Employees? Think Again.

Think you’re developing your employees?

Think again.

(Yeh, this is about magic sauce and this photo is actually the beginning of sauce I’m making.?Drool-worthy for sure!)

Identifying high potential (HiPo) employees and giving them training resources to become even better invests money and time into employees who may not need it.?Those employees may have innate managerial skills, really great communication skills or be really good at strategic execution already.?Giving them more training may not give a company the biggest return on the training and development dollar. ?

If they have high potential, then maybe the company wants to smooth the outer edges of an employee to help them grow into the next role.?That’s great, but that creates disparity & inequity in the company’s culture when HiPos are identified and are the only employees where development is invested. It also eliminates the chance for others to show their strengths, especially if they are in a role that doesn't currently use them. A recent Harvard Business Review article by Navio Kwok and Winny Shen highlights such disparity.

This isn’t to say “everyone gets the same training”.?This is to highlight the importance in learning everything you can about your employees by uncovering the skills they aren't using and listening to employees when they share their vision for improvements or their own future.

Leaders and managers can use these questions to lean into diagnosing an employee alignment gap:

“What do they actually DO for the company?” “What are they accomplishing??How are they contributing value to company goals?”?

“Are they doing what they are GOOD at doing?”?

And this is a doozy many managers avoid. Dare we even ask “Are they doing what they WANT to be doing?” ?

If the company isn’t asking that final question and caring about the answer, then the organization could have a big problem they don't even realize.

Imagine you have employees that are in roles they:

... aren’t good at (productivity decreases, mistakes are made, behavior is toxic)

... don’t like doing those tasks (irritability, gossip, sabotage)

... have to do them anyway (complaining about management, low morale, hates their job, takes frustration out on coworkers and those close to them at home)

Often those employees do not get the opportunity to show their strengths, and when training investments are not made for them, and then they don’t grow.?Worse, they stay stagnant in a role they hate, working for people who don’t see their value and will never try to see it.

When an employee isn't assigned to work they are good at and want to do, there is a gap called emotional labor and it takes its toll on people and their companies. ?The bigger the gap between strengths and desires for the work, and the actual work they are doing, the more emotional labor they engage in. They spend significant time and mental energy balancing their frustrations about the work they are doing so that it doesn't show, effectively shutting themselves down to get the job done. For example, think about a call center team member who has to deal with angry customers and solving their challenges every minute of every day. If this employee has zero desire to deal with people or the skills to do so, but it still doing their job well, they have a big gap in who they are authentically and the person their work requires them to be. They probably hate their job. As the gap widens, it is difficult for them to do good work, care about their work or their colleagues. They 'white knuckle' through their day until they can finally leave. Employees who are not authentically aligned with their work are spending enormous energy just to get the minimum done, and that helps no one.

Now imagine you have employees that are in roles they:

... are authentically good at (productivity is stellar, little if any mistakes are made, feeling valued)

... enjoy their work daily (verbally supporting management to their peers, increased organizational bond, committed)

... are actually tasked daily with what they are good at and enjoy doing (surpassing goals, leading others, modeling the standard, goes home energized)

For example:

Employee A has always been great at math, even as a young child. Their math strength showed up early and they did well in all levels of their education. They are really attracted to numbers and love engaging in anything numerical, financial, statistical or otherwise. They love math. Their job requires them to use numbers every single day. Math skills and tasks that use math are explicitly listed in the job description and performance review. Maybe Employee A is a bookkeeper, or a data scientist. They are in full alignment with the strengths, gifts, talents and doing what they love doing. They will thrive in their performance reports and will go above and beyond any goals set for them. Employee A becomes a positive leader who radiates team energy throughout the organization.

Employee B has always been great at math too and has always loved working with numbers. The difference for this employee is they are in a role that doesn't use math at all. Employee B may be in a role teaching people how to paint a picture from listening to a song. There is no math involved which leaves Employee B longing to incorporate math somehow into painting. They may insert a "Paint By Numbers" approach just to feel good about their work and to use their strengths, but they won't find enough fulfillment to do well and achieve more than what they have to in order to keep their job. However, there is no math required to fulfill the job, nor is Employee B's performance measured by using math to do their job. Additionally, the new approach is not what managers have wanted from this work and goes against the goals of the company. Employee B may engage in unwelcome behavior with their colleagues and student artists, and they probably go home with a lot of irritation on their mind.

"When employees are doing work they are good at and want to do, they experience higher level of job fulfillment, perform better and achieve higher results."

These are the ingredients to the magic sauce development efforts can make for an employee.?But it doesn't stop there. We don't serve sauce by itself!

Just think, sauce is really yummy, but it's even better with pasta and a great glass of wine. Amplify the impact of your magic sauce into a holistic talent management strategy (recruiting, development and culture) for exponential return on training and development dollars.