The Savvy Manager: Know Your Workers to Help in Their Growth

By Mike Bohlmann

July 1, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 3)

Professional development is an afterthought in a lot of companies when it comes to budgeting and planning. One important caveat to a discussion about professional development, though, is that it is up to each employee to have their own plan. No one in management is going to be able to give an employee everything they need in terms of professional development, which means there is additional work for each worker. But that does not mean that a manager does not play an important role in the professional growth of his team members.

From the Manager’s Perspective
One of the employee motivation models I like to use is Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory (which aims to understand job satisfaction and employee motivation). Employee motivation can be influenced by the efforts that a company makes to ensure the employee has challenging work, a chance for development and a chance for greater responsibility. So how do you go about working on your people’s professional development to maintain and increase motivation? It starts by talking to them.

The early part of the discussion should cover their current capabilities and job tasks. Sometimes people do things that are beyond their job description, and it is worthwhile knowing what exactly the work your team is doing. You want to look not just at a laundry list of their skill sets but also at their skill level in them. An expert Linux administrator is very different from a novice one.

After getting a good feel for a person’s skills, you should then start talking about what they want to do with their career in the context of the current organization. Does your Oracle DBA want to work toward a new certification? Does one of your team members want to get out of the data center into a different part of the company?

Even in a case like the latter, it is important to believe that the strength of your team depends on the strength of individual members. It is OK if someone wants to get a position outside your group if you know about it. If you know about it, you can work with them for a smooth transition while maintaining a reasonable performance level. New company initiatives can present new opportunities both inside and outside your team.

Related Search Term(s): Professional development

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