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On
this page, we present some new ways of thinking about
performance and development
in a way that enhances
employee effectiveness while helping to satisfy their
personal career needs.
Motivated
Development Planning
Multidimensional
Assessment — The Essential Development Tool
Integrating
Performance and Development Management
Motivated Development
Planning
This
information can be read here, printed, or downloaded
in pdf format, if
you wish to have a hard copy.
Traditional
development has, almost invariably, been associated with correcting
weaknesses exposed in a competency assessment. There are several
significant problems associated with this approach which is
why traditional development has not been a productive activity
in many organizations:
- Knowledge
does not always equal competence. Taking a course or reading
a book about "how to do" something does not provide competence.
Competence can only be accomplished through practice.
- Weaknesses
or deficiencies usually exist because the individual was
never motivated toward the use or development of the particular
competency.
- Without
motivation, development of a specific competency is an uncomfortable
and dissatisfying chore that seldom achieves success.
- People
are usually strongly motivated to practice their strengths
and will, therefore, more often achieve success in development.
An
alternative to traditional development is "Motivated
Development Planning." The process involves
an employee meeting wth the manager to determine the critical
needs of the department. The employee then creates a project
around the critical needs that also uses one or more of the
employee's strengths.
The
two models can be contrasted as follows:
Traditional
Development |
Strength-Based
Motivational Development |
Gap analysis
|
Strength-based
|
Focus on weaknesses
|
Natural
|
Seldom completed
|
More satisfying
|
Little or no improvement
|
Enhances contribution
|
Little or no development
|
Often exceeds expectations
|
Low ROI
|
High ROI
|
To
round out the development and ensure that the employee is developing
those competencies required to do the job effectively, three
kinds of goals should be reviewed:
1. |
Strength-Based
Goals (65-75%)
• Highly motivating to employees
• Develop skills to new level of competence
|
2. |
Weakness-Based
Goals (15-25%)
• Should be paired with a motivational strength |
3. |
Untested
Abilities (0-10%)
•
Arises
because there's a need
• Don't
know yet if it's a strength or a weakness |
Benefits
of Motivated Development Planning
1. |
Employee
development becomes a highly motivated process. |
2. |
Managers
have their priorities addressed. |
3. |
Managers
are relieved of the burden of generating ideas for employee
development. |
4. |
Employees
win because they are doing things they're motivated to do. |
TOP
Multidimensional
Assessment—The Essential Development Tool
This information
can be read here, printed, or downloaded
in pdf format, if
you wish to have a hard copy.
Employee development is
a practice of growing importance in today’s
economic environment. Globalization, increasing competition, the
rapid change and spread of technology, decreasing numbers of technical
graduates from US colleges and universities, and decreasing tenure
among employees all lead to an urgent need in every organization
to recruit, develop and retain high quality, contributive people.
The traditional method for developing people in US corporations
has been the competency model:
- Figure out what the competencies are to achieve excellence in each
position in the organization.
- Assess the competency of individuals in each position.
- Create development plans to improve individuals’ competencies.
The competency model is a necessary but insufficient tool for
effective development because it is based on the assumption
that everyone is
in the right position. It assumes that a baker working in a butcher
shop can become a better butcher; and ignores finding out whether
the baker is in the right shop to begin with!
Unfortunately, job-person mismatch is very widely spread
in all kinds of organizations, public and private.
The reason for this
mismatch
is simple. Most people get into their jobs and careers
by the “hitch-hiking” method.
They come out of school — high school, college, or even graduate
school, stick their thumbs out and take the first job that comes
along that looks like it’s going to get them
where they think they want to go. Then, they wonder
why they experience so much
dissatisfaction in their worklives.
The competency model has a second difficulty. It invariably
leads people to work on their weaknesses — another guarantee of dissatisfaction
at work. For many people, the most enjoyable work allows them to
use their strengths. They’re most likely strengths because
that’s what the individuals enjoy doing and that’s what
they most naturally developed over time. It’s important to
develop weaknesses when they’re absolutely necessary
to a specific job, but they should not be the central
focus of development.
Clearly, the competency model method of creating individual development
plans needs to be supplemented by assessment that provides information
about more than just skill levels. There are four critical areas
of assessment that need to be probed:
- Style…How you do what you do.
- Motivation…Why you do what you do.
- Skills…What you use to do what you do.
- Internal Barriers…What blocks you from doing what you do as
well as possible.
With this multidimensional information, an individual can make
a clear choice of the kinds of work that would be best for them,
the
strengths that they have and enjoy using, and how they can make
the greatest possible contribution to the organization. This information
will lead them to writing much more powerful and effective development
plans than simply knowing something about their competencies.
See, also, Motivated
Development Planning, above.
TOP
Integrating Performance
and Development Management
In
this section, we offer our thoughts about two important
areas for human resource professionals:
- What is
development management and why should an organization provide training
in it to their employees? TELL ME
- Why and
how do you integrate performance management and development management
systems, programs, and processes in an organization? TELL
ME
This information
can be read here, printed, or downloaded
in pdf format, if you wish
to have a hard copy.
What
Is Development Management?
Development
Management is the process in which employees take responsibility
for developing their ability to make an expanded contribution to
the organization...
...a contribution linking individual work satisfaction and performance
to the goals and challenges of the enterprise.
Development
Management encompasses both performance management (the here
and now) as well as career management (the long term view).
Why
Provide Development Management Training In Your Organization?
As
a human resource professional, you are often asked to justify training
interventions that compete for scarce resources of money, time
and people. Here's why development management
training is a valuable investment. More than 25 years of experience
training corporate employees around the world have shown us that:
- Employees
who are skilled at managing their development are highly motivated
to perform well in their jobs. We make it clear that career and
performance development start on the job and are about being prepared
to tackle the company's present and future challenges.
- When you
acknowledge to employees that they are important enough to you
to provide training and other resources to help them manage their
careers and their performance, they are more likely to remain productive
and loyal.
- The availability
of development management training reduces both turnover and absenteeism.
- Organizations
that consistently rank high in “Best Companies To Work For” surveys
are far more likely to provide performance and career development
training. These kinds of rankings attract and keep the best people.
- A good
performance and development management initiative reduces both
internal and external “job shopping and hopping” and keeps employees
focused on the job at hand.
- When employees
have the opportunity to access first-rate "worklife assessment",
they are far less likely to consider that promotion is the only
career
move.
- Well-trained
employees, knowledgeable in effective development management don't
need their managers to hold their hands through the process. This
frees managers to handle the tasks most important to them and to
the enterprise. If managers learn to be effective coaches, the
partnership between employee and manager can take on a whole new
dimension with very little effort or time expended by the manager.
Everyone wins.
- If employees
are involved in a formal development management process, the organization
can capture vital human resource information related to hiring,
employment decisions, compensation program analyses, retirement
planning, and more. This information provides valuable feedback
to the ongoing development and implementation of organizational
strategy.
- Development
management training is the best possible “front-end” or prerequisite
to the whole organizational development and performance management
process. When employees are clear about the real goals of their
development, the kind of development they elect is better focused
than just learning the next competency that shows up in everyone's
training inbox.
TOP
Integrating
Performance and Development Management
Employee
Development
While most organizations have performance management systems,
very few use the system process as an opportunity to promote and
support the ongoing development of their employees. Most appraisal
forms, for example, provide a few lines on which the manager or
employee is supposed to write some words about a “development
plan.” If any attention at all is given to this development
plan, it is usually concerned only with the current job, and only
with competencies. Attention to development is often superficial.
There is no question that development on the current job is important in
every organization. Equally important for the long-term viability of organizations
is the ongoing development of employees. This continuing development should
be a process in which:
Employees
take responsibility for developing their ability to make
an expanded contribution to the organization…
...a contribution linking individual satisfaction and performance to the
goals and challenges of the enterprise.
Rather than career paths, employees should be on development
paths. Development
can and should be encouraged, whether they stay in their current jobs
or move around in the organization. Development towards excellence in
the current job can be termed performance development.
Longer term development is commonly called career development.
Different terms need not imply different systems of implementation. A
single plan that provides a continuum of development from the current
position into the future will be a more powerful tool both for the individual
and the organization.
This brief presentation describes an approach to the integration of performance
and development management processes in a way that such a plan can be
developed. The implementation of this kind of system will provide an
environment in
which employees can develop themselves to meet the challenges of the
future and ensure the ongoing growth and dynamic viability of the organization.
System Description
The diagram and description below provide a structure and process for
integrating performance and development management.
Click
on a module for a description.
PRODUCTS
AND SERVICES
The
Career Development Team and its publishing arm, Bierman House,
provide comprehensive programs, materials, and services to support
organizations in the development and delivery of any part of these
integrated systems:
- Research
and development of all system elements.
- Writing,
design, and publishing of system documents for internal communications,
training, and implementation of processes and procedures.
- Development
of customized workshops for training both employees and managers
in the effective use of integrated systems including career and
performance management.
- Design
and development of support systems such as career centers. counseling
capability, development resource guides, etc.
- Development
and delivery of PC and Web software for on line implementation
and integration of system elements — performance appraisal, competency
development libraries, 360º assessment, career assessment, career
management and development planning, position descriptions, learning.
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