Talent Development for Rising Stars
Just because a person is good at their job, does not mean that they will automatically make a good manager.
It’s an assumption made too often when an organisation promotes a talented employee into a management position.
Myself and my partner Kelly McSherry have already been working with Gaming Innovation Group for some time, delivering our ‘Art of Feedback’ programme. When Claudia Ginex, GiG’s Head of People asked us to support them in developing their key talent, we jumped at the chance.
GIG identified 18 members of staff based variously in GIG’s offices in Malta, Copenhagen and Spain. These are potential successors for key positions, who have either recently been promoted into management roles, or have been managers for a while. Although they had not had any specific training to help them perform their management roles to the best of their abilities.
They asked us to work with them to help them to embrace their new roles, facilitate self-growth, encourage teamwork and enable them to realise their potential as managers as fully as possible. In essence, we were asked to devise their talent development programme.
A 12-month program offering time for talent development
You might be the super-keenest employee ever, but it still takes time for new things to be fully taken on board and made an instinctive part of your managerial arsenal of experience and techniques.
So we have developed a 12-month programme of support, offering alternate training sessions and then coaching sessions.
Very simply, I’ll facilitate a piece of training, then follow it up with coaching. And then this training-coaching couplet is repeated twice more. And each time, the focus is on a different aspect of management.
Gallup StrengthsFinder
The first tranche of our work concentrates on training and coaching around the results of the @GallupStrengthsFinder test which each participant does at the start of the programme. StrengthsFinder is a key too for talent development to help assess what each person is naturally talented at.
As I write, we are just at the start of this piece of work with GIG and are looking forward to being able to share more updates along the way, plus a round-up at the end of this entire process. Excited? I know we are!
So where we are at currently is in the midst of delivering five bespoke training courses:
- The Art of Feedback
- The Power of Leadership
- The Impact of Words
- Confidence Building
- Team Management
I like to give the people we’re working with what I call ‘shower homework!’. In other words, the focused thinking/reflection you can do in the shower before you even get to work.
Each individual then has a final coaching session with me. They have the space and time to reflect on the learning and what it means to them. Where they are now, and where they want to be.
A performance in three parts
After a suitable break – these people have got to do some work as well! – we’ll move on to Part II of the process. I call this the ‘Dig A Little Deeper’ section, and whereas Part I concentrated on the top 5 strengths identified through the Gallup StrengthsFinder process, during ‘Dig A Little Deeper’ we will look at all 34 strengths in the order they have as identified per individual. This helps us to really tap into the right direction for talent development.
Our training courses will be:
- Build a Great Team
- Become an Awesome Manager
- Emotional Intelligence
- Coached to Outperform
- Managing Change
And again these will be followed up with an in-depth coaching session per individual.
Finally, in the ‘Deep Section’ of the programme, we will repeat the process again with training courses in:
- Peer-to-Peer Feedback
- How to Hire Talent
- Presentation Skills
- Creative Thinking
And the finale
A final one-to-one coaching session with each participant then acts as an opportunity to review all the course content. Also to review how it has impacted on the individual new or new-to-management manager. I work with them to help them to think strategically, to empower themselves as a leader, and, to add value to their teams and their overall workforce.
So there you go. This is a round-up of our development programme for new managers. For anyone who thinks that this sort of development can be delivered in-house, I would urge them to think again. Because having external practitioners in to deliver the work facilitates objectivity of support and adds gravitas to the programme.
But don’t just take my word for it! This is what Claudia Ginex, Head of HR, has to say about it;
Claudia Ginex Head of HR at GiG
When thinking about our leaders of tomorrow I really wanted them to grow throughout an unforgettable experience. I believe that everyone selected for this development plan will always remember the practical insights given by Luke and Kelly. Each module enables them to reflect on their coaching sessions when faced by challenging decisions at work and as talented individuals in their private lives.
MadeYou has the power of making people to enjoy a full training day. And, with the right partnership from the internal People Management / HR department we also had good fun in thinking about the overall initiative. We combined the workshops with informal “get together” focused on diversity, situational leadership and cultural exchanges!
Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
