FAQ - May - How do I Create Effective Stretch Assignments for my Top Talent?

One Friday each month I dedicate the post to looking at some questions I have heard recently from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts for them is a way for me to spread the information to as many leaders and future leaders as possible. If you have a question about leadership or just a situation you would like some additional insight on, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.

I have you really great players on my team, I want to help them become even better. How do I Create Effective Stretch Assignments for my Top Talent?

I really like this question. I like it for two reasons, first, it shows enthusiasm for developing others around you and second because you want to give real thought to their specific development needs. Often, developmental assignments come from whatever happens to come up, or tasks that someone else does not want to do. We use the guise of a ‘developmental opportunity’ to assign it to one of our top performers so we can move on to the next thing while they deal with the other issue. That is not a good plan for building the skills of your top players.There are many considerations that should go into designing and assigning developmental projects for your up and coming performers.Effective stretch assignments are tailored to the individual. What skills does your top performer need exposure and experience with? That is the best starting point I have found in building these types of assignments. An Assistant Store Manager that has never been a Store Manager will need exposure to making all of the decisions. The technical aspects of the job are likely already covered. I have found that most of the time newly promoted Store Managers underestimated the responsibilities they could not easily see their previous Store Manager doing - decision making, planning, delegating assignments. Giving top performers exposure to those types of less tangible activities is a good place to start. That could come from interim assignments, or specifically scheduling time while you are doing these activities.If you are a District Manager working to develop your replacement, how often do you invite your top talent to travel with you? That can be a very good way to expose them to some of the decisions you are making and experiences you are seeing when visiting other stores. This can be a touchy subject sometimes with other leaders in the district, but if you have selected the right person, their peers should already see them as the next district leader and engaging with them for development already. Plus, some of the best development can come in the store between visits to discuss what they saw from their perspective and how they would address the situation if they were in your shoes.Stretch assignments do not always need to be lengthy or complicated. If there are specific experience gaps you are working to fill, can you leverage other locations to show them what that looks like? Those other locations may be outside of your immediate area. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other leaders in different areas of the company to find opportunities to provide experiences to people. This can be a good way to give the top talent more exposure to other leaders, different ways of thinking, and experiences that may not find in your area.Perhaps most important in developing stretch assignments is providing opportunities to make and own the full decision process. Developing leaders need to experience situations from start to finish. Building a plan and then having them execute the plan doesn’t stretch them. They should already be good at that - it is the part ‘below the water’ that they need exposure too. Can they identify the root cause of an issue? Can they build a plan that will solve that issue? Can they execute the resolution steps through other people, while not directly supervising their activities? How do they define the successful completion of the plan? And, what do they put in place to ensure the problem does not return? Ultimately those are the real world problems that a future retail leader will face. The more exposure you can give them to those situations, the better your stretch assignments will be.Your best players know they are strong leaders, they will also know when you are truly stretching them with an assignment versus giving them something to keep them busy. Invest in finding the right opportunities. In many ways, giving them these types of assignments may be good for your own development as well. Being able to stand back and watch a ‘student’ do some of the things you do each day can become an eye-opening experience for your own opportunities. Good development is always an investment and a two-way street.Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive FREE leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills all at no cost. JOIN NOW!No spam ever - just leadership goodness.