How Can I Develop My Top Talent? A Frequently Asked Question

One Friday each month, I dedicate the post to discussing some recent questions I have heard from developing leaders. Sharing those questions and my thoughts on them allows 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 into, please email me at Effective Retail Leader. Let’s take a look at this week’s question.

I have some really great players on my team; I want to help them become even better. How can I help develop the top talent on my team?

I like this question. I like it for two reasons: first, it shows enthusiasm for developing others around you, and second, 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 excuse of it being 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 task. That is not a good plan for building the skills of your top players.

Many considerations should go into designing and assigning developmental projects for your up-and-coming performers.

Stretch Assignments

Effective stretch assignments are tailored to the individual. What skills does your top performer need exposure to or experience with? Stretch assignments do not always need to be lengthy or complicated. That is the best starting point I have found in building these types of assignments. An assistant store manager who has never been a store manager will need exposure to make all 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. These include decision making, planning, and delegating assignments. Giving top performers exposure to less tangible activities is a good place to begin. That could come from interim assignments, or specifically scheduling time while you are doing these activities so they can watch and participate with you in completing them.

Seeing Other Locations

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 perfect way to expose them to some of the decisions you are making and experiences you are exposed to when visiting other stores. This can be a sensitive subject sometimes with other leaders in the district. Still, if you have selected the right person, their peers should already see them as the next district leader and engage with them for development already. Plus, some of the best development can come between visits to discuss what they saw from their perspective and how they would address the situation if they were in your shoes.

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 be found in your area.

Next Level Growth

Perhaps the most crucial thing in higher-level development is providing opportunities to make and own the complete 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. They need exposure to the part “below the water.” 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? Finally, what do they put in place to ensure the problem does not return? Ultimately, those are the real-world problems a future retail leader will face. The more exposure you can give them to those situations, the better your development plan will be.

Your best players know they are strong leaders; they will also know when you genuinely stretch them with an assignment versus giving them something to keep them busy. Invest in finding the right opportunities. Giving them these types of assignments may be helpful for your own development as well. Standing back and watching 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.

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