Staff development is a bit like
taking up jogging: it's easy to start, but not so easy to keep it up. There always seems to be a strong
reason for putting it off. This is
to be avoided, because the momentum of abandoned causes is difficult to revive,
especially because staff themselves becomes easily disillusioned.
Maintain inner motivation and
perpetual motion in development, and adopt approaches that give development a
career-long impetus. Recruit the right sort of people to begin with, induct
them well, train them with the best of the company's resources and give them
early responsibilities. ‘Stretch' them occasionally, continually expose them to a
variety of situations/ departments. Reward results/ merit and encourage
potential. ‘Manage' bigger bosses
by getting their sponsorship of your staff developmental plans.
For a boss who does all this and still has time to coach/ mentor staff
and back them up in tough situations, the higher rungs of the ladder will soon be available, for word gets
around that so-and-so's been responsible for the maximum output under the
head ‘human' resources-the lifeblood of the organization.
