Trust & Inspire: Unleashing the Potential of Your Direct Reports (Part 3)

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In each episode, we will unravel key insights, break down the most relevant books and articles, and provide actionable tips to optimize your approach in developing and retaining top talent. Stay tuned for a deep dive into the art, science, and strategy of unlocking your team's full potential. Let's enter the Manager Lab. Music.

Don't treat people according to their behavior. Treat them according to their potential. That was Stephen M. R. Covey in his white paper, How to Build Trust and Unleash the Potential of Your Direct Reports. This is the third and final installation of this series, sort of highlighting Franklin Covey's view, Franklin Covey's white paper on this particular topic. And we've already looked at three tips. We're going to look at the fourth and the fifth one in this particular cast.

And again, like I said in the first one, I love when information validates other information. All of the things in this white paper are things that we've probably heard before. And so it just creates a deeper kind of neural rut in your brain that says, you know, this is repeating information. So therefore, this is probably, as a manager, what I should be focusing on. All right, so let's wrap up this particular series by talking about tip number four and five.

Number four is give the person assignments to grow their skills and their visibility. So ideally, all of our direct reports have at least one skill building task that's related to their goals. Investing in your employees' upskilling demonstrates trust in them and sends a message that you see their potential and you believe in them. So as you think about how to organize work for your direct reports, consider these three tips from the article.

Number one, give them an assignment where they can fail, quote, safely. When you set up a task in an environment that you control, there's little risk of damaging their standing and undermining your advocacy if they fail. For example, if your direct report wants to move into management one day, have them lead part of a team meeting. Or if your direct report wants to become an analytics expert, have them take on a side project analyzing the team's accounts.

I actually did this recently with one of our HR people interested in data analytics, gave them a project that would allow them to practice and look at some aspect of our data. If they don't do so well at first, at least they will have learned a good lesson. And if they succeed, then you look like a champ and you can broadcast it all throughout your organization. Second tip here, involve them in a high profile project.

So if they aren't ready to lead a high stakes project, you can still involve them by helping you in a way that's relatively safe, but still raises their visibility. For example, if you need to devise a launch plan for an important product, let's say, ask the person to interview stakeholders across departments so you can factor those perspectives into your plan.

Again, you're allowing them to have a little piece of it, giving them exposure while not nearly taking a chance on wrecking the entire thing. And then finally, if they're really, really strong, you can start to recommend them for high-profile projects.

Once you and your direct report feel confident in their skill set, you can then place your stamp of approval on that person's work with the full recommendation, either by having them lead an important project for your team or suggesting that they play a part in maybe a cross-functional initiative, a cross-operating company initiative towards an important company goal. Now, this is, you know, you may have heard the term sponsoring.

Sponsoring someone is where you're really recommending them to do a job and you're kind of putting some of your political capital into their reputation and into their success. One activity here that the article recommends is think of one or two tasks you can assign each direct report that will stretch them towards their career goal.

All right, So that's number four, give the person assignments to grow. And maybe increase their visibility. Okay, last one, number five, check in with your direct report regularly on progress and course correct as needed. So, set aside regular time during your one-on-ones, perhaps once a month, I kind of like that cadence, to assess your direct report's progress towards their larger goals.

Now, obviously, you're probably going to talk about things that are related to their performance goals more frequently, but things that are related to their professional development goals, what's making them a better manager, better leader, or just a better individual contributor, that's when you need to set aside specific time to talk about their career progression. So consider asking questions like this. What actions has each of us taken since the last time and to what effect?

How have your efforts to build your reputation been working? How has my advocacy been working? So again, you can hear the. Responsibility on the direct report. You can also see the accountability on your part as a manager. Question three, what could we be doing more of going forward, whether it's taking new actions or better coordinating our actions to help you reach your goal? Next question, who else could be involved in this effort and how might they be involved?

What have we each been doing that runs counter to your goal? So is there anything that we're doing that's not supporting moving forward on this goal and how can we do less of those things going forward? And is your goal still what you want to accomplish? Don't forget that. Sometimes goals change, and that's a really good question, you know, because if the goal isn't what they want to accomplish, then how should it change?

So by asking thoughtful, open-ended questions and then offering advice perhaps when needed and when necessary, it's a great way to improve advocacy for your direct reports. This builds trust and leads them to more advancement opportunities. Even with effective advocacy, advancement can take time. So be patient. Sometimes your company's changing needs and budgets may work against your plans, leaving your direct report deserving of a promotion when there really isn't one available.

And so as you discuss this with your direct report, really look for ways to boost morale by highlighting progress and focusing on their continued growth when that next step on their path may be a little bit further than originally thought. One of the activities here that they recommend is how often will you meet with your direct reports about their progress and what questions will you ask? In summary, advocating for your employees cultivates an environment of trust.

It unlocks potential in your direct reports that creates lasting results for both the individual, for you as a manager, and the organization. And in that way, it becomes truly a habit for win, win, win. Hope you enjoyed this article. And until next time we meet in the Manager Lab. Do good work.