‘Learning Zone’ Support
The opportunity to witness the growth of another person is one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership. For me, this aspect alone outweighs all the challenges and frustrations that can come along with a leadership role.
With that said, employee growth and development is also one of those areas in which managers sometimes take too much credit. As a manager, you can't make someone realize personal growth. Even if you could, you would be doing so from your perspective and lived experience…which may not be right for them. Only the individual can truly own their own personal growth. As a leader, our job is simply to create a culture where that can be facilitated as effectively as possible. For me, that means a culture of trust, autonomy and psychological safety.
I previously covered the learning zone as a way of facilitating this stretch development. I'm a fan of this model as it acknowledges the correlation between development and stress. The idea of the learning zone is that we stretch ourselves enough to facilitate growth (healthy stress) but not so much that we become overwhelmed and burnt-out (unhealthy stress).
Today, I'm bringing some more actionable steps for supporting your team as they navigate that balance…
Build Relationships
Knowing your people helps you get a better idea of what healthy stress might look like for the individual. When you've taken the time to get to know someone, you can more easily pick-up on subtle cues that suggest they're more stressed than normal.
Developing a relationship with them also builds works in the other direction. Strong relationships build trust which will make them more likely to come to you if they begin to feel overwhelmed or have found themselves pushed to unhealthy levels of stress.
Any easy trick for this is to start your weekly one-on-ones with a check-in. Something along the lines of "How are you doing?" or "How's your week going?". The exact phrase you use is less important than the consistency. By checking-in consistently the same way each week, you'll be able to more easily identify when their response changes from the norm.
Open dialogue
Too often, leaders stifle open dialogue with either trying to fix something or making suggestions where they are not necessary.
If your team is really going to realize the full benefit of stretch development, it's best to give them the space to learn and explore according to their preferences. You can and should still support them and stay informed of where they're at, you just don’t' want to intervene unnecessarily.
You can do this by showing curiosity and favoring open-ended questions. If they're working on a specific project aimed at stretching their development, ask about what's working and what's not working. What are they feeling challenged with? Are they looking for support, and if so, what does that support look like?
Celebrate progress
Working through the learning zone can be challenging at times. It's called "stretch development" because it stretches us outside of our comfort zone. It is, by design, uncomfortable.
To help balance-out that discomfort and promote motivation, it can be helpful to celebrate progress from time to time. We often fixate so much on how far we have to go that we don't stop to appreciate how far we've come. As leaders, we can step-in to help highlight that progress. Especially if the individual is having a hard time recognizing it themselves. This is where authentic positive feedback or even praise can be really beneficial.
This Week's Action Items:
Start your one-on-ones with a consistent check-in to help identify shifts in demeanor.
Use open-ended questions to understand where your employees are at without intervening prematurely.
In your next one-on-one, take time to recognize the progress someone has made on a stretch development goals.
