People development in it’s most simplistic form is the practice of making the people around you better. Companies spend millions of dollars a year on training, initiatives, hr programs, classes, and many other things in an effort to develop their people. Why do companies do this? It’s simple, they want better employees who are capable of accomplishing more. I am sure you would love to have your company spend thousands of dollars so you can take a class on the latest software or obtain a new certification. There are obvious personal benefits there. What about the people around you and those who work for you? If they are doing their job well, why should you worry about them learning new skills and possibly leaving your team. That would be counter productive. Right? It would make your job harder. Right? Maybe in the short term, but definitely not in the long term.
I am a firm believer that to advance in your career you need to take on new responsibilities. As you are not an infinite source of energy, to take on new responsibilities you must rid yourself of existing responsibilities. There are two ways to do this.
The first option is to eliminate responsibilities so that they no longer need to be done. That may be possible for some things, but not for all. If you are responsible for the project financials on an initiative, you can’t just ignore the books and hope they come out right. However, you can decide to shut down the project as it is not meeting it’s goals.
The second option is to pass the responsibilities on to some one else to do. The only way to do this successfully is if you have capable and competent people around you who can successfully complete the new responsibilities. You can go a long way in prepping the individuals around you through people development. I like to spend a couple of hours every 2-3 weeks to focus on coaching. I’ll take this time to go through deliverables with the person, work on a skill they will need to move up to the next level, provide feedback on existing work, or go over a side project for the folks to work on in their spare time. This small investment in my time has resulted in utilities being built that sold extra work at clients, the ability to obtain help in a crunch when there is to much for me to complete on my own, and a fully engaged team willing to put in extra hours when needed with out any complaint.
Take time to share with and teach those around you. If you do this consistently I promise you will reap many rewards.
