Invest in Your People
Source: ConvergenceCoaching, LLC Inspired Ideas
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Jack Lee. Lee lists many of the tasks that keep CPAs so busy, even after the busy season. He challenges leaders to make people development a high priority on their “to do” lists.
Now is the time to invest in your people by providing feedback, mentoring and career counseling, training programs in both technical and soft-skills, and communication of your plans for their future. But somehow, people development often ends up in last place.
Why is this? Here are my top three reasons:
- You don't know what to say to your people or how to say it
- You feel hypocritical because you're not consistently leading by example
- You're too busy and just don't have time
Not knowing what to say. This can be overcome with training and practice. Start by developing a positive mindset that embraces “straight talk” as a gift that comes from a place of care and concern with the intention of inspiring success. Learn how to use a format like “expectation, observation, inquiry” or “keep, stop, start” to organize your thoughts and message.
Not leading by example. People development conversations are even more difficult when you're not leading by example with your own performance. But avoiding the conversation will not make your performance better or close the trust gap that has been created. Deliver the feedback anyway, acknowledging that you have been lacking in this area, too. Then commit to improving together.
Too busy and not enough time. Take a serious look at which activities are taking priority over people development, because whatever you're consistently working on reflects what is most important to you.
For the complete blog entry, read “What Business Are You Really In?”
From Convergence Coaching, LLC Inspired Ideas, http://blog.convergencecoaching.com, April 25, 2012.