When you’re busy and an employee approaches you with a problem, it can be tempting to blurt out a fix so you can get back to your own work sooner. But you could be missing a valuable opportunity for micro-development.
Instead of saying “let me help you with that,” ask “what are the barriers getting in your way?” and help them to think about what changes they can make to avoid those barriers in the future.
Rather than immediately offering advice, ask: “What do you think we should do next?” That way, they can practice brainstorming solutions with you there as an experienced sounding board.
When someone requests help, our impulse is to provide solutions and draw analogies to our own experiences. But rushing to fix things or bring the conversation back to ourselves prevents us from listening — and a failure to listen may be part of the reason that only half of employees believe their boss cares about their well-being, according to a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center.
How Managers Can Identify Room For Improvement
Many managers can identify the skills their employees need to improve, but struggle to coach them through how to get better. More than one in four employees report that they rarely or never get feedback, according to the Pew Research Center, and when employees do get feedback it isn’t necessarily helpful.
Enter micro-development. For example, instead of criticizing a direct report who stays silent during the team meeting, express curiosity about the reason why:
“I noticed that you didn’t share your thoughts at our team meeting. What is holding you back from sharing your valuable feedback?”
If you ask follow-up questions, you might discover that your employee sees themself as someone who’s kind, and that giving feedback makes them feel unkind. Or they worry that if they push back, others will see them as too aggressive.
You may have your own assumptions about why a team member is struggling. But you can’t get to the root of the problem — and work with them to develop new skills and orientations — without asking. Salesforce research shows that employees who feel heard are 4.6 times more likely to say they feel empowered to perform their best.
Many check-ins with employees focus on deliverables rather than the assumptions and behaviors that impede success. Integrating development into routine conversations can address immediate to-dos while helping employees grow. According to Gallup, employees who receive daily feedback are 3.6 times more likely to agree that they are motivated to do outstanding work.
Why Teams Should Co-Create New Initiatives
When I stepped into my current role as CEO, I launched an objectives and key results system to measure and track outcomes in our organization. Micro-development conversations revealed that many people feared the new metrics wouldn’t capture the hard work they were doing.
In response to concerns about loss of control and nuance being missed, we let teams co-create their own OKRs. Identifying the worries behind their resistance to the new system allowed us to address them head-on. And it gave employees an opportunity to grow by participating in discussions about how to measure and evaluate their work. One Harvard Business Review meta-analysis of 105 studies found that when leaders empower their employees and let them lead on important tasks, it boosts workers’ creativity and increases trust.
When you roll out a new initiative, take advantage of group settings as micro-development opportunities. Group meetings help leaders understand what’s going on across a team and help employees grow as leaders by participating in brainstorming. This connects them to a sense of purpose and pride in their work, making them feel trusted, valued, and engaged.
Micro-development is about approaching everyday interactions with curiosity, recognizing that small moments can be transformational for individual employees, and, when scaled, for the organization. The next time you think you’re too busy to invest in development, remember that you have easy entry points and that simple questions can surface meaningful opportunities for growth.