Charting Your Development Journey
Hopefully by now the confetti of the new year has settled, and you are back into a routine and focusing on your key priorities for the new year. As a culture we are good at defining KPIs, financial metrics, and organizational goals. What we are not as good at is creating goals that support our leadership development.
In our leadership programs, we challenge leaders to think about their context which could include a new position, being part of a new team, or just having a higher level of presence and influence. Based on evaluating that context, we encourage leaders to reflect on what leadership skills they want to develop. At StarQuest, we use the Leadership Circle™ competency model as a reference tool to help leaders identify whether they want to focus skills more on people/relationship skills or results/task skills. This decision is often informed by doing a 360 assessment to gain insights into the areas that are most important.
We also encourage leaders to meet with their managers to discuss what they want to grow and develop and to ask what their manager considers to be important. Once a competency area is defined, the development planning begins.
A very effective framework we use is colloquially known as the “One Big Thing” (OBT) structure. I first became acquainted with the OBT structure in Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s book, Immunity to Change. Our clients found the structure and language to be very effective. What is one development skill that you are committed to improving, and what behaviors do you want to stop doing and what do you want to start doing. The framework is simple, and yet very effective in helping leaders have development conversations.
For those of you who want to put more structure and discipline around your development efforts and/or those of your team members, please download our professional development plan. We outline the OBT process and connect it to what matters most to you.
If you have any questions, please email your questions to [email protected]. If you are interested in our leadership development and coaching solutions, email us at [email protected].