Linda Brenner - Driving Career Results: How to Manage Self-Directed Employee Development

How to Manage Self-Directed
Employee Development

Linda Brenner

Publisher: Paul Boger
Editor-in-Chief: Amy Neidlinger
Acquisitions Editor: Charlotte Maiorana
Cover Designer: Alan Clements
Managing Editor: Kristy Hart
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Indexer: Erika Millen
Compositor: Nonie Ratcliff
Manufacturing Buyer: Dan Uhrig

2016 by Linda Brenner
Old Tappan, New Jersey 07675

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing December 2015

ISBN-10: 0-13-438164-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-438164-0

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954137

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To the many people who inspired and influenced this work, including Kerri, Sharon, Holly, Lauran, Rebecca, Cecilia, Lauren, Mandy, Jaime, Scott, and Andy.

And to those whove made it possible for me to love what I do, including Gregg, Josh, Max, Lynne, and my Mom and Dad.

Linda Brenner started Designs on Talent (www.designsontalent.com) in 2004 with the vision of helping business leaders improve talent results. She then founded Skillsify, Inc. (www.skillsify.com) in 2012 as a way to scale and improve hiring and retention results. The firms clients include great brands such as Coca-Cola, IHG, Amazon, Expedia, AT&T, Chick-fil-A, LOreal, Ogilvy, and Turner Broadcasting. Linda is also the coauthor of Talent Valuation: Accelerate Market Capitalization through Your Most Important Asset (Pearson, 2015, available on Amazon.com).

Lindas innovative, results-oriented approach is coupled with a bias for action and a focus on measurable results. This same orientation is reflected throughout her team of talent acquisition, talent management, and finance experts.

Prior to founding Designs on Talent, Linda spent her professional career leading talent acquisition and talent management teams for Gap, Pepsi/Pizza Hut, and Home Depot. Linda had a variety of roles at The Home Depot before leading the companys retail talent acquisition function. In addition to centralizing TA for the first time in the companys history, under Lindas leadership, Home Depot became the largest government contractor in the United States and forged first-of-their-kind partnerships with AARP, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Labor.

Linda holds a Master of Arts degree in Labor and Employment Relations and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Judaic Studies, both from University of Cincinnati. She and her family live in Atlanta.

You can reach Linda at: .

Not long ago, most employees could sit back and wait for their manager to develop them. The burden was on the shoulders of the leaders to identify the employees needs, create a plan for how to address those needs, and then provide the employee with ongoing feedback and coaching.

Those days are long gone. Managers these days are rarely expected to, or held accountable for, developing their people. In reality, it never worked well. Managers often didnt have the tools, expertise, or information to do a good job developing their employees. Over time, it seems that organizations have simply given up. And its easy to see why. In the last 20 years, its become nearly impossible to expect such work from managers. After all, their span of control has grown to the point in which its unwieldy to do much more than share basic communication with their employees. In addition, changes in the workplace have reduced the opportunity for managers to observe their employees and provide timely, in-the-moment feedback. The advent of the virtual workplace, global teams, and nontraditional workers, such as contract employees, have added even more challenges to the old model. Lastly, managers still often lack the resources and knowledge to develop their employees in a targeted, meaningful, and successful way.

Even the expectation that managers will write annual performance reviews is waning. According to a 2015 PwC survey, an estimated 5% of organizations in 2015 are projected to join companies such as Accenture, Adobe, Microsoft, and Netflix in dropping their traditional, manager-led performance review approach.

If managers arent expected to complete annual performance reviews, what hope is there that theyll create development plans for their people?

Very little.

Employeesand job seekersmust be in charge of their own learning and development and, ultimately, their career path. In truth, not just employees but any type of worker, including contractors, consultants, seasonals, temporary, part-time, virtual, interns, and such. Bottom line: We all own our own development.

As mentioned, managers often lack the information, resources, and know-how to drive their employees development. So if we take them out of the equation, what are employees left with? How can they drive their own learning, development, and improvement?

The purpose of this book is to put information into the hands of employeesand job seekersso that they can be in the drivers seat of their own career development. In that sense, consider this book a roadmap to help you drive between points along your career path.