Instead of sending talent to costly offsite programs, companies might consider a development "stay-cation." I've found there are a number of inexpensive, pragmatic and relevant development actions you can implement internally.
After assessing the talents and career goals of your people, consider these ideas:
- Delegate Intentionally: Intentionally match a direct report’s developmental needs with a relevant and practical “stretch assignment” to maximize learning and advance department objectives. This can include a special project that exposes an employee to a new aspect of the business so she/he can understand the interdependencies amongst departments.
- Action Learning: Consider creating a task force of select employees to tackle an operational or strategic business issue. By acting as a team, participants cultivate in-depth learning about a salient business issue, establish or strengthen peer relationships and learn how to shape and influence others’ thinking.
- Leadership Prioritizing and Resource Planning Activity: To enrich thinking like a leader, assign direct reports the task of prioritizing department objectives, as well as allocating resources. This exercise can provide data on your team’s current thinking and planning capabilities as well as clarify coaching needs.
- Community Leadership: An often overlooked and underappreciated opportunity is community leadership. These opportunities provide an additional avenue to test and enhance leadership skills in ways that might not be feasible within the company.
These examples highlight how leaders can contribute to the learning and development of their employees while doing real work.