The commitment to actively support the growth and success of team members by providing feedback, opportunities, and guidance tailored to their needs and potential. It involves recognising strengths and development areas, co-creating meaningful learning plans, and delegating challenging work that fosters capability and confidence.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” – Jack Welch
Why developing others matters
Developing others is mission critical because a leader’s impact multiplies through the growth of their team, not through individual effort alone. Leaders who invest consistently in development strengthen capability, engagement, and retention while building a more adaptable and high-performing organisation. By creating learning opportunities, offering constructive feedback, and coaching rather than directing, they help people think more strategically, solve problems independently, and take greater ownership of outcomes. In complex and fast-changing environments, development becomes a strategic lever that builds organisational resilience, spreads expertise, and ensures capability is not concentrated in a few individuals.
Without actively developing others, teams tend to plateau, dependency on the leader increases, and talent remains underutilised. This creates fragility, slows decision-making, and puts the organisation’s future capability at risk. When leaders consistently prioritise development, they cultivate confidence, accountability, and collaboration across the team. It builds trust because people experience genuine investment in their growth rather than token gestures, and it strengthens leadership impact by creating a culture where learning, curiosity, and shared responsibility are the norm rather than the exception.
The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” – Harvey S. Firestone
What Good and Bad Look Like
| What bad looks like | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Avoids investing time in team growth, seeing development as someone else’s responsibility or a distraction from short-term goals. | Proactively allocates time for learning and development, prioritising it alongside performance objectives and long-term organisational impact. |
| Provides generic, untailored feedback or delays it until formal reviews, leaving employees unclear about their strengths or areas for improvement. | Delivers timely, specific, and balanced feedback that guides employees toward continuous improvement and development. |
| Assigns work without guidance, context, or consideration of individual strengths, leading to confusion, errors, or disengagement. | Delegates challenging tasks with clear expectations and context, aligning them with individuals’ skills and growth potential. |
| Focuses only on formal training programs, ignoring real-world learning, mentoring, and on-the-job development. | Integrates a mix of on-the-job challenges, coaching, mentoring, and formal learning to create a holistic development plan. |
| Encourages risk avoidance, keeping employees in their comfort zones and stalling growth. | Encourages calculated risks and challenges that stretch capability, allowing employees to learn through experience while providing support. |
| Treats team members as interchangeable, ignoring their unique strengths, aspirations, and development needs. | Tailors development to individual strengths, goals, and backgrounds, fostering personalised growth and inclusion. |
| Fails to model growth or learning, creating a culture where development is undervalued or ignored. | Demonstrates commitment to self-improvement and learning, setting a role model for the team’s growth mindset. |
| Neglects reflection or follow-up, preventing employees from consolidating learning or building repeatable strategies. | Encourages reflection, captures lessons learned, and reinforces strategies that improve performance and capability over time. |
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader
Barriers to developing others
Don’t see the value: Some leaders don’t believe that people can genuinely develop, which undermines their motivation to invest in others’ growth.
Not a professional priority: Leaders may not see developing others as part of their role, believing it’s someone else’s responsibility or that they aren’t paid to do it.
Too busy: The pressure to achieve immediate results often leaves leaders feeling they don’t have time for the long-term process of developing others.
Unsure how: Many leaders simply don’t know how to develop others effectively, mistaking development for sending people to training courses.
Results orientated: Being highly results-driven, some leaders prioritize short-term tactical achievements over long-term development, neglecting the growth of their team.
Too safe: Some leaders avoid assigning challenging tasks to their team members, missing opportunities for development because they play it safe.
Incorrect view: Leaders may think development happens primarily through formal training, failing to recognize the value of coaching, mentoring, and real-world experiences.
Low or no personal connection: Without understanding their team members’ career aspirations, leaders may not provide the necessary guidance, coaching, or opportunities for growth.
Like externals to enter: Some leaders prefer to hire talent from outside rather than invest in developing existing employees, bypassing the development process entirely.
Not engaged with broader resources: Leaders may not support or cooperate with their organization’s development programs, further limiting their team’s growth potential.
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to them their own.” –Benjamin Disraeli
How to develop your capacity to develop others
Block the time: Effective development requires a time investment. Allocate about eight hours per year per direct report to focus on their growth through appraisals, career discussions, and development plans.
Start with knowing the team: Conduct thorough appraisals to understand your team members’ current strengths and weaknesses. Use this insight to identify the competencies they need for future roles, ensuring you have a solid foundation for their development.
Provide great feedback: Continuous feedback is crucial for growth. Offer real-time, balanced feedback and when appropriate, involve others in the process,
Co-create a development Plan: Co-develop a plan that mixes up hands-on experience, learning from others, and formal education. Aim for 70% of development through challenging tasks (on the job), 20% from mentoring, coaching or studying others (near the job), and 10% from formal learning (off the job).
Tailor the development: Recognize that one-size-fits-all development doesn’t work. Tailor your approach to meet the unique needs of each person, especially those from diverse or disadvantaged backgrounds, by providing additional and appropriate support and resources.
Delegate: Delegate tasks strategically to promote growth. Identify challenging assignments that align with your team members’ development needs and rotate tasks to expose them to different experiences.
Stretch the team: Development thrives on stress and challenge. Assign tasks that push your team members out of their comfort zones, requiring them to learn new skills or face potential failure.
Encourage reflection: Help your team members learn from their experiences by encouraging them to reflect on patterns in their successes and failures. Reflection helps them develop repeatable strategies for future challenges.
Foster a growth mindset: Encourage a culture where continuous learning and development are valued. Promote the idea that skills and abilities can be developed through effort and perseverance. This mindset helps your team view challenges as opportunities to grow rather than threats to their competence, fostering a more resilient and adaptable workforce.•
Broaden Perspectives: Expand your team’s horizons by exposing them to experiences beyond their current role or function. Encourage cross-functional projects and networking opportunities to expand their perspectives and help them discover new career possibilities.
“Developing others is a powerful way to grow your own leadership capabilities and expand your impact.” – John Maxwell
Reflection questions on developing others
Could you set aside additional dedicated time each year to focus on the development of your direct reports? How much time would be appropriate to dedicate?
How accurately do you assess your team members’ strengths and weaknesses? Are you taking the time to understand the competencies they need for future tasks / roles?
Are you providing consistent and actionable feedback to your team and the individuals? Could you improve the way you give feedback: timely, balanced, and conducive to growth?
Have you co-created a structured development plan for each team member? How well does the plan incorporate challenging tasks, learning from others, and formal education?
How tailored is your approach to developing the individuals on your team? Are you considering the unique backgrounds and needs of each person, especially those who may require additional support?
Are you delegating tasks that promote growth and development? How often do you assign challenging work that pushes your team members out of their comfort zones?
Are you encouraging your team to take on real, challenging work that requires new skills? How comfortable are you with allowing them to face difficult situations that could lead to growth or failure?
Do you encourage your team to reflect on their experiences? How are you helping them identify patterns in their successes and failures, and how could this reflection improve their development?
Are you able to persuade your team members to embrace challenging assignments? Are you effectively selling the benefits of stepping out of their comfort zones for their long-term growth?
Are you actively helping your team broaden their perspectives? What opportunities are you providing for them to gain experiences beyond their current roles, and how could this exposure help them in their development?
“Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” – Michelle Obama
Micro Practices in developing others
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Schedule regular development conversations: Block time with each team member to discuss career goals, learning opportunities, and progress. Keep these sessions structured yet flexible, allowing for honest dialogue, clarification of strengths and weaknesses, and collaborative planning for development steps.
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Co-create stretch assignments: When delegating tasks, involve employees in identifying which projects will stretch their capabilities. Align assignments with their growth areas while providing the right level of support, so they feel challenged but empowered to succeed independently.
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Provide immediate, actionable feedback: Offer feedback close to the event to ensure clarity and relevance. Highlight what worked well, what could be improved, and why, giving employees concrete steps to enhance their performance and strengthen skills.
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Rotate roles or responsibilities: Expose team members to new functions, tasks, or perspectives by rotating assignments or projects. This broadens their experience, develops versatility, and encourages cross-functional collaboration and learning.
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Encourage reflection and learning from mistakes: After significant tasks or projects, guide team members to review outcomes, analyse what succeeded and what didn’t, and identify lessons for the future. Support them in creating repeatable strategies that build confidence and capability.
“To lead people, walk behind them.” – Lao Tzu