How To Train & Develop Your Team By Creating An Individual Development Plan (IDP)

Summary

Chandler Bolt discusses the importance of creating Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for team growth in fast-paced companies. He emphasizes the necessity for employees to grow at the same rate as the company to remain relevant in their roles. The video provides a step-by-step guide on how to develop an IDP, including identifying strengths and developmental areas, setting short-term and long-term career goals, and planning supportive activities and training. Bolt encourages leaders to facilitate this process and hold their teams accountable for their growth and development.

Takeaways

• 📈 Growth is a necessity in a fast-growing company, not just a suggestion.
• 🌱 The concept of 'Bloom where you're planted' emphasizes focusing on current role development.
• 📋 An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a structured approach to guide personal and professional growth.
• 🤝 Leaders should take accountability for facilitating and guiding the IDP process for their team members.
• 🔍 IDPs should include a review of current strengths and developmental areas, informed by past evaluations.
• 🎯 Setting clear, prioritized goals for both current job development and personal career aspirations is crucial.
• 📆 Time-bound action items and a timeline are essential for tracking progress within the IDP.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Combining developmental activities with supportive training ensures practical application and theoretical learning.
• 🖋 Both the employee and manager should sign the IDP to signify a mutual commitment to the development plan.
• 🤔 Reflective self-assessment and proactive engagement in the IDP process are key for individuals to take ownership of their growth.

Q & A

What is an Individual Development Plan (IDP)?

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a structured approach to help individuals identify their current strengths, developmental areas, and set goals for their professional growth within a specific time frame.

Why is it important to grow at the same rate as a fast-growing company?

In a fast-growing company, it's crucial to grow at the same rate or risk becoming less qualified for your current role. Growth is expected and is the standard; without it, you may find yourself out of the company.

What role do leaders play in the IDP process?

Leaders facilitate and help their team members identify how they want to develop and grow. They take accountability for the growth and development process and guide their team through the IDP creation.

How does the IDP template help in personal development?

The IDP template helps by providing a structured format to assess current job performance, set personal career goals, and outline developmental objectives with supporting activities and training.

What is the significance of linking the IDP to a job scorecard or last evaluation?

Linking the IDP to a job scorecard or last evaluation provides a benchmark for current performance and helps identify areas for improvement, ensuring that the IDP is aligned with the individual's job performance.

Why is it important to have both activities and training in the IDP?

Activities provide practical opportunities for individuals to apply and practice new skills, while training offers theoretical knowledge and tools to enhance those skills. Both are essential for comprehensive development.

How does the IDP process help in managing up?

The IDP process helps in managing up by allowing individuals to reflect on their growth, prepare for discussions with their leaders, and be intentional about their development, which in turn helps leaders support their growth more effectively.

What is the 'bloom where you're planted' concept mentioned in the script?

The 'bloom where you're planted' concept encourages individuals to focus on excelling in their current roles and positions before looking for the next opportunity, emphasizing the importance of growth within one's present context.

How can personal career goals be integrated into the IDP?

Personal career goals are integrated into the IDP by discussing short-term and long-term aspirations, and then aligning developmental objectives and activities to help achieve those goals.

What is the significance of having both the individual and the manager sign the IDP?

Signing the IDP by both the individual and the manager signifies a mutual commitment to the development plan, ensuring that both parties are accountable and invested in the growth process.

How can the IDP process be made more effective?

The IDP process can be made more effective by starting with open conversations, providing initial guidance, ensuring individuals take time for self-reflection, and holding regular check-ins to track progress and adjust the plan as needed.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Developing Talent with Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

Chandler Bolt discusses the importance of creating Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for team members in a fast-growing company. He emphasizes the necessity for employees to grow at a rate that matches the company's expansion to remain relevant in their roles. The video introduces the concept of being intentional about talent development, suggesting that leaders should take accountability for guiding their team's growth. The IDP is presented as a tool to facilitate this process, with a template provided for viewers to use. The video promises to walk through the IDP template and offer tips on how to effectively implement it within a team.

05:01

🚀 Crafting Effective Individual Development Plans

The speaker outlines the process of creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP), starting with a conversation about an employee's current strengths and developmental areas. The IDP template is introduced, which includes sections for personal details, personality types, job scorecards, and evaluations. The focus is on setting both current job development goals and personal career aspirations, both short-term and long-term. The speaker encourages leaders to engage in active discussions with their team members to identify and prioritize these areas. The IDP also includes action items, time frames, and supporting activities or training to help employees grow in their roles.

10:02

🤝 Maximizing the IDP Process: Accountability and Reflection

Chandler emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and preparation in the IDP process. He suggests that employees should take the initiative to think deeply about their development areas and be prepared for discussions with their leaders. The video highlights the leader's role in challenging and holding team members accountable for their growth. The speaker also encourages connecting professional development goals with personal life improvements to increase motivation. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to engage with the content by commenting, liking, and subscribing, and to share their thoughts and takeaways from the video.

Keywords

💡Individual Development Plan (IDP)

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a personalized plan designed to help employees identify and achieve their professional development goals. In the video, Chandler Bolt emphasizes the importance of IDPs in a fast-growing company environment, where employees are expected to grow at the same rate as the company to maintain their current roles. The IDP serves as a structured approach to facilitate this growth, ensuring that both the employee and the company are aligned on the development objectives.

💡Leadership Offsite

A Leadership Offsite refers to a meeting or event that takes place away from the regular work environment, typically used for strategic planning and team building. In the context of the video, the leadership offsite is where the discussion around intentional talent development arose, highlighting the need for a more proactive approach to employee growth and the subsequent development of the IDP.

💡Talent Development

Talent Development refers to the process of nurturing and enhancing the skills and capabilities of employees within an organization. The video discusses the importance of being intentional about talent development, especially in a fast-paced, growing company. It suggests that leaders should take accountability for the growth of their team members, using tools like the IDP to guide and track this development.

💡Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. The video script mentions the necessity for employees to grow by a certain percentage each year just to remain in their current roles, reflecting the idea that continuous learning and improvement are expected and encouraged in a growth-oriented company culture.

💡Intentionality

Intentionality in the video refers to the deliberate and conscious effort to achieve a specific goal or outcome. In the context of talent development, it means that leaders should not wait for employees to express their development needs but should actively engage in the process, guiding and supporting them to identify and work towards their growth objectives.

💡Accountability

Accountability in the video is discussed as a key responsibility of leaders to ensure the growth and development of their team members. It involves taking ownership of the process, setting clear expectations, and following up to ensure that the IDP is being effectively implemented and that the desired outcomes are being achieved.

💡Personality Types

Personality Types such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Colby, and DISC assessments are mentioned in the video as tools that can be used to understand individual strengths and preferences. These assessments can inform the IDP by providing insights into how an individual may best approach their development and what kind of activities or training might be most effective for them.

💡Job Scorecard

A Job Scorecard is a performance evaluation tool that provides feedback on an employee's performance against predefined job criteria. In the video, it is suggested that linking the IDP to the job scorecard can help identify areas for improvement and set clear development objectives based on past performance evaluations.

💡Developmental Objectives

Developmental Objectives are specific, measurable goals set within the IDP that outline what the employee aims to achieve in terms of their professional growth. The video explains that these objectives should be accompanied by supporting activities and training to provide a comprehensive development plan.

💡Supportive Training

Supportive Training in the video refers to the educational resources, courses, workshops, or other learning opportunities that are designed to help employees develop specific skills or knowledge areas identified in their IDP. This training is intended to complement the practical activities that employees engage in as part of their development plan.

Highlights

Chandler Bolt discusses creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for team growth.

Emphasizes the necessity of intentional talent development in fast-growing companies.

Concept of 'grow or out' in a fast-paced work environment.

Leaders need to take accountability for their team's growth and development.

Introduction to the Individual Development Plan template.

Importance of linking IDP to personality types and job evaluations.

The concept of 'bloom where you're planted' in current job development.

Discussion on identifying current strengths and developmental areas.

Prioritizing developmental areas in order of importance.

Action items and time frames for current job development.

Exploration of short-term and long-term career goals.

Developmental objectives and supporting activities for career growth.

The significance of both activities and training for growth.

Advice on how to lead the IDP process effectively.

Encouragement for self-reflection and preparation before IDP discussions.

The role of the leader in facilitating and challenging team members through the IDP process.

The importance of connecting professional growth to personal life for motivation.

Call to action for viewers to engage with the content and share their thoughts.

Transcripts

hey chandler bolt here and in this video

i want to talk about how to train

and develop your team by creating an

individual

development plan also known as an idp

now i was at a leadership off site

recently and the topic came up is like

how do we be intentional or more

intentional about developing

the talent on our team so you know we're

in a fast-growing company a

self-publishing school we've been on the

inc 5000 list

as one of the 5 000 fastest growing

private companies in america

uh the last three years in a row and one

of my favorite concepts that relates to

this i talk about this all the time with

the team

is that when you're at a fast growth

company you have to you know say your

company's growing by 40

a year you have to grow by 40 per year

just to re-qualify for your current

role think about that let that set in

you've got to you've got to grow by 40

or whatever that percentage is for your

company just to re-qualify

for your existing role so growth is is

not just

a hopeful thing it's an expected thing

and

growth is the standard because if you

are not growing you will end up out it's

up or out right like

you're either growing in the company in

your role or

into uh higher level roles or you're

leaving the company

so i think you need to be really

intentional about growing and developing

the people on your team

but this came out at the leadership

offsite we're talking about okay well

how do we do this though like it's one

thing to know

you need to do it you know we have a

training budget that doesn't often get

used or doesn't get used as much as we

want it to so like how do we be more

intentional

about encouraging our team to take time

to develop themselves

and about utilizing the training budget

that we have to train and develop our

team and

at the end of the day it came down to

this he said oh i think the real main

issue

is that we're waiting on them to tell us

how they want to develop

and we need to actively take

accountability for that process

right so we're going to facilitate and

help them land on how they want to and

need to develop and grow

but we need to take accountability as

leaders

to that growth and development and

intentionality around that

that's how we came to and developed the

individual development plan so

someone on my team used this at a

different company we've rolled this out

at our company it's worked

extremely well and i'm going to highly

recommend that you use this

to be intentional about every single

person's development

on your team and in your company all

right so in this video i'm going to walk

through

what is it so i'm going to screen share

and show you kind of the individual

development plan

and walk through that you can just use

this template if you'd like and then i'm

going to share with you some tips and

tricks on how to go through this process

and lead your team through this process

really well all right so here we are

inside the individual development plan

template um this is a template that you

can use and i'm going to recommend that

you

create this for yourself or clone this

or anything like that

but so check this out so this is the

template and then you're going to clone

this for each

person on your team you see this big

note clone this first make a copy before

editing

so here's what this looks like you've

got the name of the person their

position their manager

the date this is basic stuff so far but

then we love personality types of

self-publishing schools so

maybe you use this maybe you don't but

we have the mpti or myers-briggs we've

got colby

we've got disc and the strengths finders

and then also and this is super

important

you're linking up to their job scorecard

their last evaluation

so if if someone's been there a year at

self-publishing school they should have

had an evaluation and if they don't have

an evaluation

then we can set one up or just give them

evaluation type feedback

and then we get the time at the company

all right now you've got the overview of

the idp here are the goals

and this starts this first section is

their current job development all right

now this is super important and i've got

a link to a video here this is a concept

that i'm very passionate about

it's bloom where you're planted so i put

this video right here

um because i want people to remember

this concept is that

you know it's very easy in any company

in any position to look to what's next

right we're always looking towards like

oh man i'm looking to my next thing

and not blooming where we're planted so

that's what i want to remind people is

like it's important that you bloom where

you're planted

and part of that is looking at your

current strengths and looking at your

developmental areas right

now these strengths probably could be

pulled from the eval

or and also these development areas can

be pulled from there

or you can have this via discussion uh

with your manager all right or with your

direct report so this is the first step

is let's have a discussion

around this let's brainstorm and come up

with these things

and then you know maybe they've done

this already or maybe you kind of teased

this out in conversation but we're

brainstorming we'll probably have up to

five to seven of each

and then we want to drill down and put

these in order of importance

per thing all right so we'll kind of

order these in order of importance then

we're getting to action items and time

frame all right

so this is the basic current job

development now let's move to the next

section

which is this is the personal career

development so now we start to look at

hey

and they write this out or they can tell

this to you verbally

is hey what are your short-term career

goals so within two years

and then let's talk long-term career

goals so two to ten years from now

where do you see yourself going and you

might really have to tease this out

because

some kind sometimes people are shy about

this they don't really want to share

their real thoughts like

but say like hey for real for real like

where are you going where do you want to

grow

what does that look like like let's

really paint a picture of that

and then this is kind of the final piece

we get down into developmental

objectives supporting activities

supportive training other activities etc

and then

they sign it and the manager signs it

right so that this is

a creed or commitment to each other and

then for me personally i have

you know other things that help with

this just uh resources and docs that we

use

specific to this so maybe it's how to

choose which book to read next if

there's a book that they want to go

through our internal trainings

you know just a bunch of internal

trainings that i use and that's how we

use this process okay

so there you have it that is the

individual development plan process

i want to cover a couple more tips to

make sure that you maximize this process

and that you can lead this process well

so i mentioned this earlier but often

this starts with a verbal conversation

so you can have them watch this video

maybe before you even have that

conversation that's going to cover a lot

of the basics and a lot of logistics

but maybe you want to start and say hey

let's just talk some of this out maybe

they're an

external processor say hey let's talk

some of this stuff out

let's talk about your current strengths

let's talk about your developmental

areas so you're kind of seeding the

conversation

you're helping them focus and all those

things and so we've had an initial

conversation that's how a lot of the

leaders at self-publishing school like

to do it and then number two

is they're responsible for filling out

the full thing you know some people like

to start there

sometimes that works as well if you have

someone who you know they're a great

leader or

they're highly self-aware or you've had

a lot of feedback and discussion around

this for me

i'll just say hey start by filling this

out and then and then let's talk

so now they're doing the mission

critical kind of information and stuff

up front they filled it out

and then this is where it really becomes

powerful and your role as a leader

really starts

so you're starting to look at these

things what do they come up with at

their

as their current strengths and their

current developmental areas

and this is where you can give feedback

maybe they totally miss the mark and

you've got to say hey

we really need to improve this and

here's a couple things that i see

what do you think about that or maybe

it's it's pretty good but they've got

seven things and you say hey

let's bring this down let's tighten this

up and a lot of times i have people that

will say here are my seven things

what do you think are the most important

right and so that's really helpful

because now we say hey

let's look at these three things and

let's prioritize these three things in

order of importance

both on the strength side of things and

on the developmental area side of things

right so so your job as leader is to

help them tighten up their focus

on current strengths developmental areas

and then really that works down into

here which is

what are the objectives the activities

and the training

all right now this is you know we've

only been through this process

one full time with everyone on the team

at self-publishing school so i'm sure

we'll continue to

update and prove and and kind of build

out this process and everyone

kind of goes up about this a little bit

differently but what i'd really

encourage you to do and this is super

important

so let's say we've got your strengths

we've got your developmental areas

now what you need to do is say hey what

are the activities over the next

30 to 90 days or maybe 90 days to six

months what are the activities where you

can grow in this area so maybe it's

i want to grow as a leader so what are

activities maybe i'm going to have you

lead four meetings

i'm going to have you lead this specific

project like what are the action items

or

or the time frame or you can roll down

in here and put activities

and so what are the stretch assignments

maybe this is job shadowing like list

details and things that you want them to

do and then also

what is the supporting training so

that's really the two-prong approach is

that for each

developmental objective or area that

someone wants to grow you've got

activities and you've got training

and the activities is how they practice

it the activities are how they learn

but then the supporting training is how

they sharpen the saw or how they get

better

so i want to make sure that i've got

both and you want to make sure that they

have both and a lot of times the

activities are the easy part and the

training is the hard part

so then the task is all right i need you

to go out and find a really good

training

that's going to help you grow in xyz

right or what's a book that you can read

what's an online course that you can

take

what's an event that you can go to that

you can grow in that area

so there you have it that's how you go

through the idp or

individual development plan process

yourself

or with your team okay so i hope you

found this helpful and i hope that

you're able to lead this well with your

team but then also

go through this and you know we talk

about managing up go through this

yourself

with your with your leader in mind and

how can i make this process easy

how can i take time how can i make the

time to self-reflect and think on these

things because this isn't just something

that you're going to think about

overnight

like this might be weeks you might be

working on this with your manager over

the course of weeks and i'll tell you as

a leader who's going through this

process with others

what is extremely helpful is when they

take time to think

to stop to reflect they take the time to

actually do it

they do it ahead of time they come

prepared and then we can really have a

discussion about how i can help you grow

how we can help you grow we can be

intentional around that development and

at the end of the day i can't or we

can't

and we can't talking about leaders on

the team we can't care about your

development more than you do

right so you got to care about this you

got to take this seriously

you got to go through this process and

if you're a leader you got to hold your

team and challenge your team and hold

them accountable

to taking this process seriously right

it's super important

take the time to think about it go

through it and at the end of the day

this is going to be an action plan that

will help you develop

and help you grow in your career yes but

also

personally professionally 360 degrees of

your life

will get better if you come up with a

good plan here this kind of a

a pro tip is if you can somehow connect

this to your personal life as well and

say oh if i grow in this area

it's also going to help in my

relationships maybe with my kids with

people that i care about

well then you're going to be even more

motivated to grow in that area all right

so take the time to do this i hope that

you found this helpful scroll below this

video right now comment let me know

what were your thoughts was there

anything confusing here is there

anything that you see that needs to be

improved

what were your biggest takeaways take

two minutes right now especially if

you're on the self-publishing school

team

take two minutes right now scroll below

this video comment on this video

let me know what you think let me know

your takeaways i read and respond to

every single comment so no matter

whether you're on the team or whether

you're not

i'd love to hear your comments and

takeaways on this video

or how do you run this in your company

or with your team i'd love to learn some

tips and tricks on how i can make this

better okay

so scroll below this video right now

seriously take two minutes uh comment on

the video as always click the like

button

and then click the subscribe button so

subscribe to this channel

into the seven figure principles podcast

and i'll see you in the next video

[Music]

thanks

[Music]

you