When I first became a line manager while working for Mars Petcare, I was introduced to the idea of co-writing my teams PDPs (Personal Development Plans) in such a way that it would align the work they do every day with their long-term aspirations.
This concept makes total sense right?
If you align work you do daily to your long-term aspirations then the time and energy you spend in your job becomes immeasurably more meaningful, you improve your engagement and are more willing to deal with difficult or stressful situations because you can plainly see why it is worth it.
Although the “Why” behind this was instantly clear to me, the “How” was never all that well explained…
I recently finished a book by Kim Scott called “Radical Candor” and absolutely LOVED IT!
Here is a link to the Radical Candor website where there is some great content and further links to videos and articles which you might find useful: https://www.radicalcandor.com/the-book/
There is even a Radical Candor Podcast though I have never listened to it myself.
The book has so many really helpful tips for current and aspiring line managers as well as team members but my favourite part was all about how to co-write a kick ass PDP with your direct reports.
I have transcribed the method below but urge anyone reading this post to pick up the book because there will definitely be other parts of it that you need to read. The contents of the book will help you to become the line manager you always wanted for yourself.
This method is done across 3 meetings (I booked 90 minute meetings for these as I wanted to really take the time to do this properly) that must be at least one week apart and ideally no more than 2 weeks apart.
Below are the 3 steps broadly as described in the book. If you are an experienced line manager some of these conversations may be somewhat familiar and easy enough to guide your direct report through.. for you newbies, don’t worry if it feels a little forced / clunky, it’s a great way to practice your listening skills!
Step 1: Find their values
Book the first meeting in with your direct report, explain to them the concept of life-aligned PDPs and that the purpose of the first meeting is to find out what their personal values are.
This can be quite an in-depth and personal conversation so make sure you don’t pressure them to answering anything they don’t want to.
Broadly, you are looking to have a two-way conversation where you, the line manager, remain endlessly curious about what drove the key decisions your direct repot made throughout their lives.
The decisions they made are clues to what is important to them, so the key is to understand WHY they made the decisions that they did.
The Line Managers Role:
Your role as the line manager is to help guide the conversation, ask clarifying questions and listen intently and purposefully to what is being said.
The Method:
Sit down with your direct report and ask them the following question: Starting with Kindergarten, tell me about your life.
As your direct report talks about their lives, ask clarifying questions to gain further insight in to the reasons behind the choices that they made.
Make notes on everything you think is important and look for how animated your direct report becomes when they talk about their experiences. Stories that hold particularly strong emotions are likely to be important times when parts of their personality and values were shaped.
At the end of the session, sum up the things that are important to your direct report in a concise way, consisting of a list of values about how they learn, what type of things they enjoy in life and at work and what guides their decisions.
Go through the list of values you have created with your direct report to double check that what you have written strikes a chord with them.
Step 2: Uncover Their Dream Life
So one to two weeks after the first meeting, book in the second one.
This second meeting is to find out what their life aspirations are.
The results of this and the previous meeting are used to set up the final meeting which is where you will align their current job responsibilities to their values and set out a clear 18 month plan to get them closer to being able to achieve their life goals.
The Line Managers Role:
Your role as the line manager is to help guide the conversation, ask clarifying questions and listen intently and purposefully to what is being said.
This meeting will be a little more abstract than the previous one so it may need some out of the box thinking to guide your direct report to think about what their dream life would look like.
The Method:
Once again sit with your direct report, explain the “WHY” behind this session and clarify what the goal is (aim to list 3 to 5 dreams for their future).
Kick off the conversation by asking the following questions:
-What you want to achieve at the apex of your career
-What does your best life look like (the whole thing)?
Once you get the dreams noted down:
-Make a spreadsheet with 3 to 5 columns and label each with those dreams
-List required skills for those dreams as rows
-Rate the importance of that skill to that dream
-Label how good they are at that skill right now
Note:
If your DR doesn’t know what they want in the long term (as the question of life dreams / aspirations is loaded with expectations) you can focus on what they believe their next step in their career is and go from there OR if they are very early on in their career, focus on building career capital (thanks Stephen Bartlett for teaching me this term – see “Happy Sexy Millionaire” for more on this).
Career capital encompasses key transferrable skills, reputation, people you know etc which can help you no matter what career you eventually choose. At the start of your career it can be hard to know what you want to do for the long term so feel free to focus on the near term.
Then….
-Look at how you can start to build these skills in to their PDP
-Verify these dreams vs the values that were picked up in meeting 1
-Talk about them if they don’t match becuase it will help further infrom the values and the dream
Step 3: Create an 18 month plan
This is the final step in creating that kick-ass PDP for your direct report.
The purpose of this session is to specify what gaps need to be closed to get your direct report closer to achieving their life goals.
The Line Managers Role:
Here is where you can get really creative and help your direct report come up with a specific list of skills they need to learn in order to get them closer to achieving their life goals.
You can then help them find opportunities within their current role to develop those skills! This is how you align your direct reports life goals to their values and to the work they currently do.
The Method:
Get your direct report to ask themselves the following questions:
-What do I need to learn to move in the direction of my dreams?
-How should I prioritise the things I need to learn?
-Who can I learn from?
-How can I change my role to learn it?
Discuss the answers to these questions between you and then…
-Co-create a list of how their role can change to learn the required skills to reach each dream
Be specific and note down…
-Who can they learn from?
-What classes could they take / books they could read?
And finally….
-Note against each item, actions for both you and them to close their development gaps over the next 18 months
Good luck and let me know how you get on!
One final note:
If this is useful for you then please let me know by commenting on my Linkedin post and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch and ask.
I am learning new things all the time and am very new to this method myself so it would give us an opportunity to learn together.
Alex Devereux 