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

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AS OF 9/8/2008 2:51AM EST

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

July 1, 2008 —

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.

Now that you know your team and some of the things they want to do, you can work with them to make sure they get the experience they want and need. The most common way for a technical person to learn new skills is to attend a training seminar. There are hundreds of companies that offer courses in technical areas. While many technical people learn quickly on their own, attending a class can be even more valuable as it gives the employee both an opportunity to learn and to see that the company values them by investing money in their growth. If there is a skill that multiple people want to develop, you might also consider bringing a trainer into your facility.

In addition to formal training, people can gain valuable skills by giving them new responsibilities. Cross-training your team members by letting them do some of the tasks normally assigned to other people could be a way to build the strength of your team. Most people do not mind having someone to help them out on occasion, and it can also help when it comes to planning vacations.

In a smaller organization, it may be possible to have stretch assignments for people to work beyond your team on responsibilities or groups that go beyond their normal responsibilities. Many organizations have groups or committees that cross functions. Volunteering for those is another way for your team members to get valuable new experience that can benefit their ability to understand how the organization operates.

From the Personal Perspective
While many of these things can be done as a manager, there are some things that should be done as an individual. You also need to know your limitations and desires that go beyond your current position. Do you want to move up the management ladder with the goal of being an IT director or CIO someday? Are the hours in your current position burning you out? Knowing your personal desires and limitations are key to judging whether your current position has reached the end of its life and now is the time to start looking for something new.

Finding a mentor can help you through this process because a mentor can help you go through the same analysis that you do with your team, but in the broader context of your long-term career. A mentor does not have to be someone with decades more experience, but he or she should be someone whose work you respect and is someone you can trust with more difficult subjects. With these things in mind, you can start thinking about professional development and your plan for being successful.

Mike Bohlmann is an IT manager at the University of Illinois and believes in building a good team through leadership and professional development of one’s self and one’s team. He can be reached at mikeb@wecanhelpit.com.

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