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you need to. Share the vision and purpose of the development effort. Tell them why it’s important and
what they and others stand to gain.

10. Development happening in silos? Work as a collective. Make collaborative development
conversations a regular part of your people agenda. Seek out HR partners and talent managers
beyond your unit. Get together regularly for the sole purpose of talking about people and talent
development. Discuss what each of you is doing. Share best practices and review talent pools (high
potentials, new recruits, graduates, etc.) and succession plans. Identify development opportunities
(vacancies, assignment moves, coaching, training courses, etc.) that are coming up. How can you
best offer them to people? What can you do collectively to help people gain the right skills and
experience to meet the needs of the business now and in the future? Commit to action and hold each
other accountable for following through. Let people know you’re having these conversations. Show
you’re taking development seriously.

11. Limited opportunity to promote people? Encourage lateral moves. You can’t create promotion
opportunities that don’t exist. For those ready to step up, this can be a cause of frustration. Lateral
moves are a great alternative to keep people motivated and challenged while they wait for that
promotion opportunity. Besides, advancement may be more likely if they’ve developed broader skills
and experience. Find out what skills they would benefit from developing. What new responsibilities
they could take on. What experience they’d like to gain. Help them look for a temporary or permanent
assignment that fits their need, moves them forward developmentally, and increases their visibility in
the organization. Visibility is vital when it comes to being considered for new opportunities. Support
their transition. They may not be moving up, but they could be going from knowing the most to
learning the most, which is daunting. Give others outside your team/unit the opportunity to make a
lateral move into your team/unit where you can. Global context? Look at opportunities for international
moves.

12. Want a strong succession pipeline? Focus on developing leaders. Make the development of
leaders, from first level to senior executive, a core part of your people strategy. Don’t know who the
leaders of the future are? Identify them. Focus on developing them through a range of techniques. Go
beyond traditional programs. Use conferences or leadership summits as development opportunities.
Devise a curriculum that focuses on supporting people through key leadership transition points. Raise
the profile of high potentials through board breakfasts or similar meetings. Offer internal or external
coaching and mentoring. Find specialized development assignments that focus on leadership.
Encourage action- and experience-based learning by bringing people together to work on solving real
business problems. Research shows that the best organizations for leaders are typically twice as
likely to use a variety of developmental techniques for their best and brightest.

13. Frustrated when others don’t want to progress? Value depth of expertise. Not everyone is
pushing to be promoted or to be the next CEO. Some are satisfied to focus on what they do to the
best of their ability, even if it limits their career options. While you should advise them of the
consequences, all organizations need strong performers dedicated to skill-building in their current
area only. Don’t imply that someone who likes to execute must become a strategist to be valued.
Instead, create more ways for people to excel and get status recognition. If a person wants to be a
customer service representative for life, recognize that as critical and help the person develop in
every way possible within that area.

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