How can you develop staff and become a better decision maker?

1 Identify your goals

Before you can develop your staff and yourself, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and why. What are the objectives and outcomes of your organization, your team, and your role? How do they align with your personal and professional values and aspirations? Setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) can help you focus your efforts and track your progress.

2 Assess your strengths and gaps

Once you have your goals in mind, you need to evaluate your current situation and identify where you excel and where you need to improve. You can use various tools and methods to assess your strengths and gaps, such as feedback, self-reflection, performance reviews, surveys, or assessments. You can also ask your staff to share their insights and opinions on your leadership and decision making skills. Be open to constructive criticism and learn from your mistakes.

3 Plan your development

Based on your goals and your assessment, you can create a development plan that outlines the actions and resources you need to take to improve your staff and yourself. You can use the 70-20-10 model to balance your learning activities between on-the-job experience (70%), social learning from others (20%), and formal training or education (10%). You can also use the SMART framework to make your plan more specific and realistic.

4 Implement your plan

The next step is to put your plan into action and start developing your staff and yourself. You can use various techniques and approaches to implement your plan, such as coaching, mentoring, delegating, shadowing, collaborating, reading, taking courses, or attending workshops. You can also use the GROW model (goal, reality, options, and will) to guide your conversations and interactions with your staff and help them achieve their goals.

5 Monitor and evaluate your results

The final step is to monitor and evaluate your results and see how well you are developing your staff and yourself. You can use various indicators and measures to track your performance and impact, such as feedback, metrics, outcomes, or satisfaction. You can also use the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, and act) to review your progress and make adjustments as needed.

6 Keep learning and improving

Developing your staff and yourself is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that requires ongoing learning and improvement. You can keep developing your staff and yourself by staying curious, seeking new opportunities and challenges, asking questions, listening to different perspectives, and embracing change. You can also keep developing your decision making skills by using frameworks, tools, or models that help you analyze situations, generate alternatives, evaluate options, and implement solutions.