Performance management is one of the most outspoken challenges for a manager. And needs to become an habit because, clearly this cannot be considered a one-off activity. Is rather the result of a path that must be carefully planned and followed: defining a coaching and support plan that follows the professional development of the employee is sometimes a costly activity but in medium-long term definitely pays off.
So what elements should be considered when establishing a program to support the growth of one of our team members?
Make it specific. One size fits all at the end doesn’t fit to anybody. Define the purpose: What is the purpose of the mentoring program? Is it to help the growth of new leaders or to increase the performance of operational staff in a specific area? Make it as significant as you can, because is clearly simpler to learn and adopt to something relevant for the person.
Make it a two-way experience. To give everything to the learner, you should also take something out of the journey: the training forms a solid foundation. Thematic areas that may be important to focus on are roles and responsibilities in the development process, program context, and expectations but do not exclude what is meaningful for you both. This requires a preemptive analysis to define which is the common ground to work on.
Be structured. It is important to provide a framework: plan how often people need to meet, for how long, potential subject areas, length of the support process, and potential follow ups. This will establish a pattern rather than appearing as an improvisation.
Foster curiosity and give a method. Provide resources, tools and materials that people can choose to use if interested. These may include: support activity log to track notes, conversations, learning resources, books, podcasts and whatever comes handy to be reused and inserted into a daily routine.
