Avoiding the Development Plan Cemetery
Every year, people around the world enter the new calendar year with one or more new years resolutions. Unfortunately, many of these well intended aspirations end up in the New Years Resolution (NYR) cemetery.
For those who haven’t visited the New Years Resolution cemetery (it’s a little tricky to find) you may not know that just across the road is the Development Plan (DP) cemetery, but unlike the NYR Cemetery which tends to be more seasonal, the DP cemetery is busy all year. Like new year’s resolutions, development goals and plans are often well intentioned but too often, suffer a similar fate.
So, as we enter a new year, here’s five tips and traps to avoid when setting and executing a development plan.
It’s a key element of SMART goals but too often development goals are not realistic or relevant. There is nothing wrong with being aspirational and at times it is important to aim high, but setting development goals that are out of reach can lead to disappointment and frustration. One of the most common mistakes I see with leaders and individuals is trying to tackle too many things. There is nothing wrong with focusing on one thing at a time and if this one thing is important to you, your team, and your organisation, then there is a much greater likelihood that you will stay focused. And don’t forget that sometimes the thing you might need to focus on is a strength that is not being utilised as much as it could. Finally, don’t forget context when determining development priorities. What is going on in your world that could influence both the areas to focus on and your ability to execute on your development priorities.
Identify development goals that can easily be integrated into your work life. When identifying development actions people often default to activities outside their normal day to day working life. There are many opportunities to integrate development into an existing portfolio of work and responsibilities. However, if you are leveraging existing work responsibilities or opportunities to facilitate development, the most important thing is to be intentional and put in place mechanisms to track or assess progress. For example, if you are trying to be more involving in meetings, introduce deliberate strategies to facilitate involvement and seek feedback from individuals about the progress you are making.
Remember, the one thing everybody brings to work is ‘themselves’. If you are considering a new skill or behaviour, take time to reflect on the portfolio of skills, experiences and personal attributes that can enable and potentially derail your success. For example, if you are looking to delegate and empower others, consider the assumptions and tendencies that could determine your willingness and approach. For example, people who struggle to let go, may have a predisposition towards perfectionism and until they confront this tendency, no number of frameworks and/or models are likely to deliver sustainable change.
According to research from multiple sources, the greatest challenge associated with development is time. While I’m not suggesting people aren’t busy, when it comes to executing a development plan, try not to blame time. Time is an easy target that can’t defend itself. Development planning is about personal choice and if we are truly committed to a development goal then it’s about making more meaningful choices about how we use time. If you are trying to fit things into less time or hoping for a ‘better time’ then you will probably struggle to find the time.
As Robert Fritz once said, ‘tension seeks resolution’. Adding a little tension to the development process can have a positive impact on your development. It can also bring energy and excitement to development. There are many ways to build some productive tension into your development but one of the best ways is to involve others. Share your priorities and actions with others so that they can support and monitor your progress. While you are still accountable for your own development, others can create some healthy tension that helps to push things along. Another approach involves changing your relationship with time. Make time your friend rather than the enemy. Use time to create productive tension in your development journey. For example, if one of your development goals is to ’enhance your thought leadership in an area’, share with others your commitment to producing a quarterly article or blog on a related subject. In this way, you tick both tension boxes.
There is plenty of useful advice out there about how to approach development planning, but like many other components of a performance and development system, approach these with some caution. While there are useful frameworks to work with, they sometimes focus too much on task and structure. As a result, they drain energy from the process rather than fuel development. As you approach your own development, consider these three areas/questions that are at the core of any approach to growth and development.
Context: What does success look like for you? What are you being asked to do and what are you asking of yourself?
Person: What do you bring that will set you up for success and what do you bring that could interfere with, or derail your success?
Growth: What strengths can you leverage? What needs to change? How will you change and what do you need to manage?
Not surprisingly many of the tips shared here can also be applied to new years resolutions. For those who have set some personal goals for the year ahead, now would be a good time to pressure test these against the tips listed above.