In my previous post about leadership challenges, I talked about career development and the reality that not everyone wants a management role.
I highlighted some data that Harvard Business Review shared a few years ago from Career Builder on what individuals want when it comes to their career which mirrors exactly my own observations working with teams across the globe over the past twenty years.
The research data states that only around a third of people want to take the next step up to a managerial role, with less than 7% aspiring to move into a senior leadership position.
This does leave a rather large proportion of people who have different career aspirations, and many of these individuals want to develop themselves further as ‘experts’.
The question is how do you develop your ‘expert’ team members such that they are motivated, engaged and that they can increase their capabilities and contribution?
In this article, I want to explore the different stages involved in developing your expert team members. Let’s start though by reviewing the typical strengths of experts.
What are the strengths of your technical experts?
Having established through your one to one career development conversations who prefers the
‘expert’ career path, it is still worth confirming that they also meet various criteria that your company uses to determine who is ideal to develop as technical experts as well as managers.
It’s not unusual to have a team member declare that they want to be developed as an expert only to realise that their strengths lie in other areas. Once they have embraced this, I have seen them head off down a management career pathway after all.
Having said that what behaviours do you need to look out for in experts?
- Start by checking that they prefer to absorb themselves in data. That they love to work out the ‘right’ method, system or process to use.
- Do they enjoy working alone with an interesting technical problem to deal with?
- Do they value continuing to pursue their technical education and digging into technical details and problem-solving?
- Have they acquired a growing reputation within your team or department for being the expert in a certain area?
What career development activities are appropriate for ‘experts’?
The challenge when developing experts is to progress them from being focused on contributing as an independent employee towards balancing this with contributing through others, as they begin to share their knowledge and expertise more widely across departments. Possibly to ultimately represent the organisation to external industry groups.
Stage 1
The first thing to do is ensure that your ‘expert’ team members have established a reputation for a high level of competence while being a strong team player.
At times, technical experts need support to develop versatility with their communication skills to ensure they can communicate their ideas and influence those they are required to influence.
In addition, it is important that they can operate as a team player. This is key if the expert is to capitalise on opportunities in stage 2.
Focus development on raising their technical competence if required, developing their communication and influencing skills while creating opportunities to raise their profile.
Stage 2
Continue to encourage this individual to develop their knowledge and expertise in their chosen field further. This can be by attending relevant internal/external technical training. Attending industry conferences and events to learn.
Delegate responsibility in your team to them for definable projects.
Encourage and create opportunities for them to build a wider internal and external network.
Internally this may be through delegating small project roles to them that require them to represent your team and work with colleagues from different teams and departments.
Stage 3
Develop their business knowledge so that they have a broader business perspective.
Take them along to briefing meetings with you where possible, have them represent you if appropriate. Coach them on how they then use this knowledge when solving problems and making technical recommendations.
Create opportunities for them to act as a mentor to junior colleagues where they are required to share their knowledge and technical expertise.
Stage 4
By this stage, your technical expert is enjoying being recognised widely across your organisation as one of or the ‘go to’ people in their area of expertise. They are highly valued employees who are motivated and engaged by the recognition they receive.
Continue their development by encouraging them to seek and put themselves forward for secondments and strategic project opportunities that will further develop their commercial knowledge and perspective while technically challenging and stretching them. Delegate responsibility to represent you and the business at leading industry events alone or with colleagues.
Action
It is important to recognise your own strengths as a manager. If you find it easier to develop your team members down the management and leadership career path acknowledge this.
Ask for help to identify the relevant technical training for your experts and project opportunities.
Ensure the development plan your team members has continues to meet their needs and aspirations. When you do this, you will be on the way to having motivated, engaged experts in your team who feel valued and can see a career path for themselves.
Until next time,
Julia
