{"id":50320,"date":"2020-02-25T20:48:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T01:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=50320"},"modified":"2025-07-21T15:49:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T19:49:46","slug":"talent-development-smart-managers-follow-this-checklist","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/talent-development-smart-managers-follow-this-checklist\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Develop Employees? Our Checklist Shows You How"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Managers Are Key for Employee Talent Development<\/h2>\n<p>Attracting, developing, and retaining talent isn\u2019t an \u201cHR job.\u201d You, the manager, have a front-and-center role in making sure you have the right people doing the right work and having the right experiences, both now and in the future.<\/p>\n<p>What do you do well and\u00a0consistently? What haven\u2019t you considered? What would be most valued by your employees \u2014 and your\u00a0organization?<\/p>\n<h3>An Employee Talent Development Checklist for Smart Managers<\/h3>\n<p>Being effective at leading your direct reports, including attracting, motivating, and developing employees, is one of <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/most-important-leadership-competencies\/\">the most important leadership competencies<\/a>. So if you want to be known as a cultivator of talent in your organization, then follow this checklist for employee talent development.<\/p>\n<h4>1. First, take responsibility for developing your employees.<\/h4>\n<p>This is about focusing on your current team and your scope of work.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make developing your employees a core part of your job.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/delegating-beyond-getting-it-off-your-desk\/\">Delegate your workload<\/a>. This shows trust in your team and helps grow the skills of your direct reports.<\/li>\n<li>Look for ways to support employees in their efforts to learn and try new things.<\/li>\n<li>Hold employees accountable for their development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also consider whether you have <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/what-it-takes-to-coach-your-people\/\">what it takes to coach your people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>2. Take responsibility for developing talent in the organization.<\/h4>\n<p>This is about looking beyond your\u00a0team or function to consider the larger talent needs and opportunities.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Develop successors who can take on your job.<\/li>\n<li>Take ownership of the organization\u2019s talent management processes.<\/li>\n<li>Work with HR leaders to make sure appropriate development is available for employees.<\/li>\n<li>Invest your time and energy in developing future leaders for the organization.<\/li>\n<li>Import talented employees from other parts of the organization.<\/li>\n<li>Export talented employees to other parts of the organization.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When your direct reports have the opportunity to experience a leadership development opportunity, are you <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/practical-ways-boss-support-development\/\">showing boss support<\/a> for their investment of time and effort?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/infographic-how-to-develop-employees-smart-managers-checklist-for-employee-talent-development-center-for-creative-leadership.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/infographic-how-to-develop-employees-smart-managers-checklist-for-employee-talent-development-center-for-creative-leadership.png\" alt=\"Infographic: Employee Talent Development Checklist for Smart Managers\" width=\"800\" height=\"418\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>3. Use on-the-job experiences to develop employees.<\/h4>\n<p>Learning from experience is the primary way that people develop the skills, behaviors, and perspectives they need to be effective at work.<\/p>\n<p>This is about identifying and providing roles,\u00a0tasks, or assignments that can add breadth and depth to an employee\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure that your employees\u2019 development plans go beyond formal programs to include <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/develop-strong-leaders-with-on-the-job-learning\/\">on-the-job learning<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Make a point of identifying stretch assignments for each of your direct reports.<\/li>\n<li>Give direct reports assignments or experiences to help them develop specific competencies.<\/li>\n<li>Create new roles or job responsibilities to provide an employee with needed experience.<\/li>\n<li>Consider the development opportunities a particular assignment could provide when making\u00a0decisions about how to staff key projects.<\/li>\n<li>Support employees who seek growth experiences outside the workplace (i.e., in community or\u00a0professional organizations).<\/li>\n<li>Reserve certain types of assignments specifically for employee development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more specific ideas, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.ccl.org\/usa\/developmental-assignments-package.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Developmental Assignments package<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callOut\"><a href=\"https:\/\/shop.ccl.org\/usa\/talent-conversations-what-they-are-why-they-re-crucial-and-how-to-do-them-right.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"floatRight\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/talent-conversations-book-center-for-creative-leadership.jpg\" alt=\"Talent Conversations: What They Are, Why They're Crucial, and How to Do Them Right\" width=\"150\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/shop.ccl.org\/usa\/talent-conversations-what-they-are-why-they-re-crucial-and-how-to-do-them-right.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Discover how to use talent conversations<\/a> to build relationships based on rapport, collaboration, and mutual commitment and help your team improve performance, focus development, and reach positive outcomes.<\/div>\n<h4>4. Support learning from experience.<\/h4>\n<p>This is about helping employees learn what they need to learn.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Help direct reports set goals for learning from stretch assignments, relationships, and formal\u00a0coursework.<\/li>\n<li>Aid them in assessing progress toward learning goals.<\/li>\n<li>Give developmental feedback. You can <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/sbi-feedback-model-a-quick-win-to-improve-talent-conversations-development\/\">immediately improve talent development using the SBI feedback modeI<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Have conversations about what they\u2019re learning from their experiences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Make sure you give <a href=\"\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/review-time-how-to-give-different-types-of-feedback\/\">the most effective type of feedback<\/a>, and help direct reports connect with others who can support their employee talent development, including coaches, experts, and peer mentors.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, your employees need to own their learning and their career path. But\u00a0your ability to cultivate talent can have a great impact on them \u2014 as well as on your own reputation and\u00a0effectiveness as a leader.<\/p>\n<h2>Ready to Take the Next Step?<\/h2>\n<p><em><strong>Learn more about how we can partner with your organization for employee <a href=\"\/leadership-challenges\/talent-development\/\">talent development<\/a> on a large scale.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaders play a large role in making sure the right people are doing the work. Managers can use this checklist for better employee talent development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":50321,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50320","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-experience-hardships","categories-engagement-motivation","categories-talent-development","audience-leaders-managers","region-global","article-type-leading-effectively-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Develop Employees: Talent Development Checklist | CCL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"People leaders play a large role in making sure teams are motivated. 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