Growing Yourself to Grow Others: Part 1

At HORNE, we believe that our people are our greatest asset and the best way to grow all of our team members is by first, growing our leaders. One of the ways we develop our leaders is by hosting regular group coaching sessions, focused on the strategic needs facing our leaders. The purpose of these sessions is to provide a confidential space where transparency, collaboration, strategizing and peer learning can best take place. Our most recent session was focused around understanding and unpacking specific feedback as it relates to our roles as leaders and determining ways to improve on them.

This is going to be a two-part series so today I want to share with you the first four helpful strategies our leaders discovered in this particular session and the actions they determined to be even better in growing others.

To better listen to team members with an open mind and try to truly understand what they are saying.

• Paraphrase back what the team member is saying
• Establish consistent meeting times to eliminate distractions

To better create career experiences for team members from which they can learn, including assessing client needs and client meetings.

• Be very clear on each team member’s specific needs for growth and create clear growth goals
• Use day-to-day tasks to develop team members by organizing a list of all tasks and be intentional about delegating where a team member could benefit.
• Ask team members what they want to learn and be exposed to and encourage them to look for and create their own growth opportunities
• Create shadowing and job rotation opportunities for team members
• Practice with team members (role-play) before or after a new situation
• Connect team members to the big picture of why and explain how their role fulfills the client promises

To better provide timely feedback (appreciation, coaching and evaluation) from multiple stakeholders in a way and frequency that helps team members grow.

• Create routines that ensure a specific cadence of feedback
• Hold weekly one-on-ones where you ask, “What could we both do better?”
• Make virtual meetings the expected method of communication for team members who aren’t in the same office as you and give feedback without delay

To better encourage and empower team members to speak up and share their unique perspectives.

• In team meetings, call team members by name and ask their opinions for what success on a specific project may best look like
• Be clear on your expectations that their opinion is critical to their success and the success of the team
• Validate that you heard their ideas
• Say thank you when team members share their perspective

Stay tuned for part two of this series!

About the Author 

Ashley serves as a full potential coach, helping team members connect their strengths with their passions in order to reach their highest personal and professional goals.