Launching Successful Careers

By: George F Franks III
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:43:59
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One of the biggest challenges for any supervisor or manager is dealing with new employees. While new employees range from chronic underachievers to future CEOs, the essential activities for the supervisor are the same. Every good supervisor needs to focus on training, objectives, feedback coaching, more training and career development.

Training

Just because an employee has a college degree, a CPA, an MBA or other academic or professional credential does not mean they are trained to do a specific job. One of the first roles of a supervisor is to insure that the people on her team are trained. Some training is common for all employees such as general administrative practices. Others are specific to a technology such as a system or a tool. Finally, there is training that is role specific. It is the responsibility of every supervisor to insure that each employee is trained in each of these areas. It is best to set expectations before training, to follow-up after training and then to review how the training is being utilized after the employee has had an opportunity to use it in the job.

Objectives

Management by Objectives (MBO) appear to be making a strong comeback after a number of years in disfavor due to other management philosophies and motivational tools. It is up to every supervisor or manager to insure that her employees have objectives. The objectives should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. The objectives need to be reviewed with the employee by the supervisor. The employee should have an opportunity to provide input and ask questions about the objectives. Finally the employee and the supervisor should each have a copy of the objective document.

Feedback and Coaching

Timely and candid feedback is one of the most important things a supervisor or manager can provide an employee. While formal feedback on performance against assigned objectives is essential, day-to-day feedback based on work activities and actions is even more vital. The supervisor must note not only what the employee is doing wrong, but also what the employee is doing right. And in the cases where the employee is doing job functions right, it is up to the supervisor to explain how to perform even more effectively. Feedback and coaching by the supervisor should be constant and done with the goal of overall performance improvement.

More Training

Observation, feedback and coaching will always identify the need for additional training. Whether to re-train areas of weak performance or to increase skills and proficiency in areas of strength (and business need), training is a process and not an end in itself. As employees are on the job longer, their training shifts from organizational and functional basic training to more in-depth functional training. Over time, broader cross-functional and managerial training are in order. The top performers are in line for specialized programs including those designed for future leaders often called “fast track” programs and the executive educations programs offered by many of the top business schools. A key point with training beyond that offered initially is that there is no such thing as “one size fits all”.

Career Development

Last but certainly not least for the supervisor or manager of the new employee is career development. While there has been much in the business press about career self-management, this reality does not relieve the supervisor or manager of her responsibility. Formal discussion periodically – at least twice per year – should be focused on the current job, the employees desired next position, the needs of the business, skills and other requirements for the next job and where the employees sees himself in several years. By supervisors having these discussions they can be prepared to provide input into training budgets, course openings, and vacancies inside and outside of their department and leadership succession plans.

Supervisors and managers often clamor for new and talented people. Among the pool of new people can be the future leaders of the business or organization. It is up to the supervisor to launch the new people on a successful path through a combination of training, objective setting, feedback and coaching, more training and career planning. While new employees can be time consuming for the supervisor, the skill, energy and commitment they bring to the workplace are vital for growth and innovation.

George F. Franks, III is the founder and CEO of Franks Consulting Group, a Bethesda, Maryland based management consulting and leadership coaching practice. He is a member of the International Coach Federation and the Institute of Management Consultants (USA).

George can be reached at: gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com
Franks Consulting Group is on the web at: http://franksconsultinggroup.com
George's web log is: http://consultingandcoaching.blogspot.com

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