You may have identified some or all benefits that come from developing your direct reports. The first is that providing development opportunities to your direct reports can make their jobs more interesting and challenging and contribute to a stimulating work environment. A second benefit of developing your direct reports is that you can inspire them to achieve top performance and fulfill their potential. Employees who are performing at their full potential produce the best results for your business. Inspired employees tend to take pride in their work and feel more responsible for the well-being of the company.

A third benefit for your organization is that motivated employees are generally more capable of working together to create new and innovative ideas for products and services, and to offer solutions to organizational problems. And the final benefit is that developing direct reports helps with talent management – of which the most obvious benefit is talent retention. By retaining employees with high potential, and helping them develop, your organization can make better use of their abilities. Human talent is also a competitive advantage for organizations. If your people are better than your competitor's, you have a competitive advantage. Developing your organization's talent also means developing future leaders. If people with high potential are retained, and well developed, they can be an asset for your company and will be the leaders in your organization in the future.

It is also important to realize that ignoring the professional development of your direct reports can have negative effects on your organization:

• employees feel neglected – Employees may be unhappy and feel neglected, leading to a decline in morale within the company.
• lack motivation and commitment – Employees may lack motivation and commitment. If they don't think their work is meaningful or important, they may start to pick up bad work habits.
• look for new jobs – Top performers who aren't given the opportunity to grow and don't feel they can move up in an organization may decide their talents could be put to better use elsewhere and look for new jobs with competitors. Underachievers may assume that they are doing a good job and feel they have no reason to improve.
• miss aligning goals – By not developing your employees, you miss out on aligning their development with the goals and objectives of your organization.

Developing direct reports effectively

As a manager, in order to develop your direct reports effectively, you need to encourage them to take responsibility and ownership of their own development. If employees are involved in their own development plans, they are more apt to succeed, because they won't see the plan as something forced on them from above.

Because employee development is a delicate task, it is best to use a structured approach. Employee development can be divided into three stages. The first stage is assessing the development needs of your direct reports. The second stage is providing them with the development opportunities to match their needs, as well as the company's needs. And the final stage is supporting their development on an ongoing basis.

So how do you assess the development needs of your employees? To begin with, you need to determine their current performance level. One method of doing that is to divide your team into three groups:

• overachievers – Overachievers are employees who are top performers. They consistently deliver excellent results and often exceed expectations.
• solid performers – Solid performers consistently meet expectations, but don't often exceed them. They are good performers but are not seen as stars within an organization.
• underachievers – Underachievers are employees who fail to meet expectations. Their performance is often the bare minimum that they can get away with, or it may not even meet the requirements of the job.

To differentiate your direct reports, you need to consider more than just their actual performance. You also need to consider their potential. To factor in both, you can use a performance and potential matrix. You begin by asking yourself two sets of questions – one each related to performance and potential – as they relate to your direct reports. Then you total the "yes" answers, correlate the totals to predetermined scales, and find each person's position on the matrix.

Developing your direct reports starts with looking at both their current performance as well as their potential. The benefits of developing your direct reports include making their jobs more interesting and challenging, inspiring them to achieve top performance and reach their potential. It is also a key factor in talent management. Not providing development opportunities can lead to unhappy, unmotivated employees whose efforts are not aligned with the objectives of your organization. Using the performance and potential matrix, you can divide employees into three groups: overachievers, solid performers, and underachievers. Being able to identify which group an employee belongs to will help you decide on an appropriate development plan for that employee. Overachievers require help to increase their exposure and prepare them for more challenging roles in the future. Solid performers need challenges that keep them interested and motivated. Underachievers need help to address performance issues and improve in their current positions before you can consider assigning them to new projects.