Imagine you’re on a professional basketball team, but you aren’t very good at shooting free throws. 

So, your coach signs you up for a webinar on free throws. He expects you to come back from the webinar skilled at shooting free throws. 

But the webinar didn’t solve the problem. 

Your coach is disappointed because you don’t live up to his expectations. He decides to take another approach and asks the best free throw shooter on the team to mentor you. Your new mentor says:

“It’s easy. You just bend your knees, line the ball up with the hoop and give your wrists a flick.”

Your mentor can sink every basket, but after watching him shoot, you’re still not able to get the ball anywhere close to the net. 

Having a mentor didn’t help.

Frustrated, and assuming you’re just not motivated enough, your coach offers you an incentive. But motivation was never the problem. 

Providing an incentive didn’t solve the issue.

Finally, your coach writes you up because he thinks you should have been able to shoot free throws when he hired you in the first place. You now have until the end of the quarter to improve. 

You spend all your free time practicing and now you’re hitting the backboard most of the time. You feel proud of your progress and you’re excited about your upcoming meeting with your coach.

During the meeting, you demonstrate your progress and your coach responds by outlining all the ways you’re not meeting other performance expectations. You’ve been so focused on free throws that dribbling and passing fell off your radar.

Sound familiar?

If so, you’re not alone. 

It’s easy for leaders to make assumptions about the speed and ease with which people move from developing skills to contributing to the team.

In order to avoid wasting time and energy, we put together our top five tips for HR, leaders and anyone who’s accountable for developing people in organizations.

#1: View Training as Just One Part of the Plan

What doesn’t work: Relying on training as a quick fix. This is especially detrimental when you need your leader or employee to develop a combination of understanding, skill, and ability.

What works: Using training as part of a development plan, but not as the whole development plan. After training of any kind, people need opportunities and time to practice what they learned. They also need feedback on how they’re doing.

Why it matters: Training doesn’t automatically fix the problem. People need time to absorb the material and put it into practice. Then, they need feedback so they can gauge how they’re doing.

#2: Understand that potential is not the same as competence

What doesn’t work: Confusing potential for competence when hiring. A person with potential requires time, energy and resources to develop a skill. A person with competence will still need a little direction and support, but already has the skill you need.

What works: Planning accordingly. Determine whether you need someone who’s ready to go (i.e. has competence demonstrated by a track record) or someone who has potential (i.e. is still developing their skills) and then hire someone who will fits that description.

Why it matters: Hire intelligently and set people up for success by having realistic expectations -- talk to your potential hire about what’s expected as soon as they start to make sure they are confident in their ability to meet that expectation.

#3: Anticipate a learning curve

What doesn’t work: Expecting people to perform like computers or robots. When you type a command into your computer, your computer executes that command immediately. People aren’t wired that way.

What works: Expecting people to be people. People develop skills, knowledge and abilities in a predictable, repeatable pattern. In order for someone to move from learning a skill to practicing that skill confidently, they need ongoing support and direction.

Why it matters: Don’t expect someone to learn something and then be able to execute it properly. Every new skill comes with a learning curve that requires support and feedback to realize its full potential.

#4: Acknowledge that top performers aren’t automatically good leaders

What doesn’t work: Assuming that your top performers will also make great leaders or trainers. This happens all the time when we promote someone into a leadership or training role based on their ability to perform well in their existing roles and responsibilities.

What works: Recognizing that training and leading are their own disciplines with their own competencies and skill sets that need to be learned and practiced. It’s critical to make sure that your trainers and leaders are qualified, capable and genuinely concerned about human welfare.

Why it matters: Just because someone is a top performer, doesn’t mean they know how to be a good leader. If you want someone to move into a leadership role, provide the support and training they need to be good at it.

#5: Train mentors to teach, not just show

What doesn’t work: Assigning mentors who think that simply demonstrating a skill gives their mentees everything they need to be successful.

What works: Training and developing mentors by teaching them how to mentor successfully. Mentoring, like training and leading, is different from performing a task on your own.

Why it matters: Mentoring involves more than just demonstrating a task and expecting someone to understand all the nuances. Just like new leaders, new mentors need training so they can do well in their new position.

Conclusion: How To Develop Talent: Our Top 5 Dos and Don’ts

Developing talent, whether it be that of a new hire, or of a top performer, can take a lot of time and energy. In order to make the process as successful as possible, we suggest you:

• View training as one just part of the plant (rather than the whole plan)

• Understand that potential is not the same as competence (and hire or promote accordingly)

• Anticipate a learning curve (and don’t expect people to execute perfectly right away)

• Acknowledge that top performers aren’t automatically good leaders (they need training too)

• Train mentors to teach, not just show (teaching is a skill that’s different than doing)

By taking these things into consideration, you can set your own expectations and support your people in developing new skills and filling new roles.

Are you moving people into new roles? What about hiring new employees? Have you noticed some people need a little extra help developing their talents? Schedule a time to chat with us about how we can help.