The Carrot Psychology Works for Leadership Development

Do you really want your leaders to encourage the development of their team members? Is your organization serious about supporting and investing in your employees to get them and your business to the next level?

Then you must reward your leaders and managers for the time and effort they spend helping others grow.

Include in every manager’s performance review a section on how they are working with their direct reports to support professional learning and development activities that align with their business goals. Ask for specifics about:

• Who they are coaching
  
  
• How often they are coaching them
  
  
• What learning goals they have set together
  
  
• What business initiatives the goals help move forward
  
  
• The performance results

Keep track of these reports and get feedback from the people being coached so that you can evaluate their success. And then, as part of these periodic reviews, there should be corresponding rewards as part of the performance review process. Incentives, the proverbial carrots, can and should be used to reinforce the behavior you desire. Your managers will soon see the benefits of sponsoring employee development…not only in the improved performance of their team but also in their compensation plan.