As a leader, you’ll have a responsibility for working hard to develop people.

 

Not just as a one-off, but continually.  How?  Perhaps, through:

• quality 1:1s
• sharing your skills and knowledge
• securing training for them
• offering mentoring or coaching
• giving them access to shadowing and secondment
• setting objectives
• reviewing goals and priorities

 

It’s a long list, which isn’t exhaustive, and a similar responsibility applies to the coaches amongst us.

 

But what if people don’t seem interested in development?

 

You know the scenario . . . you work really hard, you give your all to a development opportunity for a colleague, and then feel like you get no, or little, response from them.

 

Well first, I’d like to urge caution.  Just because they don’t get back to you doesn’t mean they’re not interested.  It may simply not be their preference to feed back to you.  A senior colleague who’d been working me, very quietly (too quietly I thought), on a leadership programme, revealed several months later that they felt they wouldn’t have passed a subsequent promotion process had they not been given access to the development I offered. And another surprised me more recently when they cited some work I’d done with them as a precision tool in their development kitbag. Surprises like this are nice.

 

I also know that others might interact with people in a way that could be different to how I do it. Again, my needy extraversion coming into play . . . I just have to feed back!

 

But, allowing for your understanding and consideration that people might be interested in what you offer, but just aren’t letting you know that, does it ever become OK to stop trying with someone who seems to be giving you little response?

 

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that yes, it might be.

 

And this is why.

 

In a world of work where we’re being challenged to do more with less, where we’re having to frequently re-prioritise to make sure our focus is sharp, and where there are now limited resources for development, surely we have to make our efforts around development count?

 

And that’s not just on my part, but I expect it from the person who tells me they want some development.

 

If I’m going to give my all to supporting them – whether as their leader, or their coach – then I expect them to give their all to themselves. Taking responsibility for development starts with each and every one of us, and remains with us. I’d love to be there 24/7 to support, coax, nudge and remind – but I can’t be.

 

So the choice is theirs.

 

I’ll happily start someone off on a career or personal development path

I’ll be there in the background for advice and a chance to touch base

I’ll advise if I need to, coach when I should, and draw on the experience and knowledge I have and share that with them

But taking the next step on that journey has got to be up to them.