Individual Development Plan

Creating Individual Developmental Plans

Growing your managers requires a customized developmental plan for each manager. Thomson outlines five essential steps for creating individual developmental plans:

• Introduce the idea of a developmental plan.
• Identify the developmental priorities.
• Create the action plan.
• Conduct monthly progress meetings.
• Have your key managers engage in this process with their people.

To help implement the plan:

• Make sure you have buy-in from the manager. You can’t force development on someone who doesn’t see the need for it.
• Pull, don’t push. Development works best by leading people into the process, not by dragging them kicking and screaming.
• Start out slowly. Select a couple of your best managers and start working on a plan with them. Once they are fully on board, extend the process to others in the organization.
• Model the behavior. The best way to demonstrate your commitment to development is to start with your own development.

Keep your plan visible. Sharing your action plan with an objective third party and keeping it visible (so you can refer to it frequently) will greatly increase your chances of accomplishing your developmental goals