I firmly believe that my primary role as a manager is to find ways to grow and develop my employees.
To date four of my direct reports have been promoted within the organization. There are a few who have left to follow other paths, but none of the departures came as a surprise. I’ve written numerous letters of recommendation and am thrilled when they find themselves following their passion, and if the skills they were able to develop under my leadership sets them up for success, then we’ve won.
Of all the metrics used to measure my success, I feel that these are the most important because they speak to the relationships I have with my staff. I make it a point to share with them where we are with regards to our goals, what we’ve accomplished, where we’re behind, and areas where we’re on track. During these conversations I inquire about ways in which they can better support our initiatives, and if there are any skills that they have that haven’t been used or any tasks they’d like to take the initiative on to move us forward, regardless of if they have the experience. If they have the passion and desire to learn something new and if it will contribute to our goals and success, I’m all in! And if there are things they want to do that don’t align with our goals or primary strategies but can contribute to the success of another team then together we seek out opportunities for them to contribute.
And now I’m pleased to say that one another one of my employees are getting ready to fly the coop! I’m so happy for her. She has been with us for the past year and in that time has grown in so many ways. She’s taken on a number of projects and completed them well. In addition, she’s seen areas where we can improve our communications and has taken the initiative to set up a better system of communication amongst our team than what was there before she arrived.
When I was hiring for her position last June, I had narrowed it down to two candidates. The first made it known that she didn’t have aspirations to grow and contribute in other ways. She had told me that her true passion lay in customer service. She had managed a team in the past, but had started to feel distant from the customers so was looking for a way to support them directly.
The second candidate had restaurant and retail experience. She was recently out of college and was looking for her first “professional” job. She was eager to learn about alumni relations and enjoyed working with customers. She was also creative- she had written a blog at her retail store and wanted to bring some of that creativity to her new role.
I didn’t know which way to go. Go with the candidate who had an extensive background in customer relations? Or with the candidate who was more green?
The position for which I was hiring included the following tasks:
- Be the first responder to alumni questions (email and phone)
- Greet alumni and other guests
- Maintain reception area and meeting rooms
- Manage meeting space
- Run reports
- Log all interactions with alumni
Other responsibilities
- Streamlining internal communications
- Enhancing onboarding materials
- Opening an Alumni Center which would have more of a retail type engagement from phone and emails
- Improving and enhancing the way in which we support our internal customers
I knew that both would be able to do it and succeed.
But there was one more outcome that I wanted for the person in the position, I wanted to hire someone who had the desire to grow within the organization.
The position had become available because the person who was vacating it had been promoted within our department. She had developed some great skills that could have been transferred anywhere, internal or external, but she stayed with us. I wanted to do it again. To have someone in the position who would grow out of the position and take another job within our office.
I hired the candidate who had retail and food service experience.
Now, we’re coming up to fourteen months, and like her predecessor, she is the leading candidate for the internal position that she’s been growing towards for the past eight months. I’m optimistic that she’ll get the offer.
