In case you missed our last resources newsletter, I shared Jack Welch’s wisdom about the leadership transition from growing yourself to growing others, along with the five ways self-aware leaders excel at development. Here’s a recap:
The Five Best Development Practices of Self-Aware Leaders
1. Know Each Person’s Complete Development Story
Understand capabilities, motivations, career aspirations, and exactly what support each person needs to excel.
2. Create Individual Development Plans That Actually Get Used
Collaborate on meaningful growth paths that connect development activities to real work opportunities.
3. Engage Beyond Your Direct Reports
Build talent across the organization through skip-level meetings, informal connections, and cross-functional projects.
4. Turn Everyday Work Into Growth Opportunities
Design assignments that stretch people’s skills while meeting business needs—every project becomes a development chance.
5. Measure Development Success, Not Just Business Results
Track and celebrate promotions, skill advancement, and confidence building alongside traditional performance metrics.
These five practices all require one thing: knowing yourself well enough to develop others effectively. You have to understand your own development tendencies, recognize when you’re avoiding difficult growth conversations, and be honest about whether you’re truly investing in your people’s futures.
By the way, I recently spoke with a leader who believed their role was simply to provide development frameworks and tools, allowing the employees to drive their own development conversations. Based on these best practices, my initial reaction was a strong “no way”— however I also believe that employees must advocate for themselves, communicate their goals clearly, and ensure development discussions actually happen.
Nevertheless, the leaders who excel here know the difference between what they think they’re doing developmentally and what their people actually experience.
Here Are Some Additional Resources to Help You Engage in These Development Best Practices
📖 Read: This HBR article: The Key to Adaptable Companies is Relentlessly Developing People about DDO’s (Deliberately Development Organizations)
📖 Read: This HBR outlines, Five Questions Every Manager Needs To Ask Their Direct Reports to better understand how they are feeling about their positions.
👂 Listen: To What is Your Genius by Patrick Lencioni to discover the six types of Working Genius and how to discover your team’s areas of Genius, Competency and Frustration.
Join me live tomorrow on LinkedIn on an episode of CEO Growth Talks for a discussion on scaling leadership beyond the C-suite. Go Slow to Go Fast: Developing Mid-Level Leaders in the AI Era at Wed, Sep 24, 2025, 10:00 AM PST.
Warm Wishes,
Loretta
Ready to discover how your team experiences your development efforts? Our Self-Aware Leader 360-Assessment reveals exactly how well you’re developing individuals and teams from their perspective.