Effective managers provide intentional, ongoing support to ensure staff succeed in their roles and beyond. What others call staff development or professional development, we call investing in people.
Investing in people is a mindset shift. It starts with seeing each staff member’s inherent value and strengths. From there, you align on a vision for their growth and your work together. You invest time and effort to scaffold opportunities, improve retention, and create greater impact for the person, the team, and the organization.
Learn how to develop staff skills in the workplace and invest in people.
Find practical templates and frameworks for quality 2×2 feedback, career competency models, and performance management, including a performance evaluation template and tips for mitigating bias in staff assessments, and more.
Working on a team requires great communication—giving clear directions, aligning on expectations, and offering (and receiving) feedback that helps people grow. In this article, we share a simple framework for giving more and better feedback: CSAW.
The 2×2 system helps managers and staff members regularly reflect, share feedback, and discuss how the work is going.
When we respond well to feedback, we strengthen relationships and trust, increase the likelihood that we’ll keep getting it, and contribute to a culture of growth, candor, and rigor within our teams. Here’s our best advice for receiving feedback, focused on the parts that you have control over.
Get better at giving feedback—and help your staff get better, too—with these five tips.
Without rigor and care, performance evaluations can create confusion, lead to inequitable outcomes, and lower staff morale. Here are four tips for mitigating bias when evaluating performance.
Working on a team requires great communication—giving clear directions, aligning on expectations, and offering (and receiving) feedback that helps people grow. In this article, we share a simple framework for giving more and better feedback: CSAW.
The 2×2 system helps managers and staff members regularly reflect, share feedback, and discuss how the work is going.
When we respond well to feedback, we strengthen relationships and trust, increase the likelihood that we’ll keep getting it, and contribute to a culture of growth, candor, and rigor within our teams. Here’s our best advice for receiving feedback, focused on the parts that you have control over.
Receiving feedback about power, difference, and inequity can be challenging. Learn how you can make it easier for staff to share feedback with you, and resolve issues sooner.
A case study that illustrates the steps outlined in Part 2 of our series on receiving feedback: Listen, Engage, Learn.
Investing in people improves staff retention and gets better results. Help your staff develop a new skill in 3 steps.
This sample agenda helps you plan “stay conversations” with the staff you want to retain.
Praise isn’t just a nice-to-have! Here are some tips for using our CSAW framework to give high-quality positive feedback.
Ever needed a person or team to meet a higher bar but didn’t know how to say it. Here’s some language you can use when you need a project or process to move from good to great.
This toolkit includes a step-by-step guide for building a “competency model” with equity in mind, and two examples to help get you started.
Giving effective feedback requires practice. This small group activity can help managers practice different types of feedback in preparation for performance evaluations.
The more self-awareness and authentic consideration of others we cultivate, the better equipped we are to build and get better results, especially during moments of conflict, tension, and frustration. One key way to do this is through perspective-taking.
Tap into the collective power of your managers with effective managers’ meetings! Here are 5 tips for running them effectively.
Hesitant about giving feedback to staff or coworkers? We address common misconceptions so you can build a feedback culture and strengthen relationships in the process.
Use this template to kick-off performance eval season. Communicate the purpose of evaluations, specific deadlines, and how managers and staff should prepare.
Done well, performance evaluations are a chance to step back, summarize feedback, and reflect on a staff member’s work and trajectory at your organization. Here’s our eight-step guide for performance evaluations.
Review progress to goals, systematize feedback, and build alignment through regular performance evaluations. Use this template to plan and prepare.
Getting input from others can help you get a full picture of your staff member’s performance. Here are tips for how to gather and use input in performance evaluations.
Seeking other perspectives is a great way to get a full picture of your staff members’ contributions and impact. This sample email makes reaching out to people easy—and your intentions clear.
Things were not okay in 2020 and the jury’s still out on 2021. Many of you are weighing myriad complexities and will need to use your best judgment as you consider performance on a case-by-case basis. While we can’t offer a comprehensive guide, here are some tips for your 2020 evaluations.
Struggling with the exact language to use when giving feedback for your 2020 performance evaluations? Check out our samples.
Have questions about performance evaluations? We’ve got answers.
Here’s a sample of what a completed performance evaluation might look like for a high performer, which includes developmental feedback to make a great employee even better.
We know it can help to see samples of this sort of thing, so here’s a sample evaluation of a struggling employee.
Retention is a key part of staff development that managers often overlook. Here are five things you can do to boost retention.
Read this article for advice on what to do when a staff member responds to feedback with defensiveness.
Use our Executive Director evaluation template to conduct a balanced, rigorous evaluation of your leader’s performance, including what they have accomplished (results) and how (values and approach).
Trabajar en un equipo requiere una gran comunicación: dar instrucciones claras, alinear las expectativas y ofrecer (y recibir) comentarios que ayuden a las personas a crecer. En este artículo, compartimos un marco simple para dar más y mejor retroalimentación: CSAW (Conectar, Compartir, Preguntar, Concluir).
¿Nervioso de dar retroalimentación? Esta hoja de trabajo le ayudará a pensar en lo que quiere decir y en cómo decirlo con CSAW (Conectar, Compartir, Preguntar, Concluir).
El sistema 2×2 ayuda a los gerentes y a los miembros del personal a reflexionar con regularidad, a compartir comentarios y a discutir cómo va el trabajo.
Al menos una vez al año, los directores y los miembros del personal deben reunirse uno a uno para reflexionar sobre la relación entre el gerente y el personal, reajustar las expectativas y discutir el rendimiento general. Esta plantilla está pensada para que tanto los gerentes evalúen al personal como los miembros del personal se autoevalúen y compartan retroalimentaciones con su director.
Make staff development and retention central to your work. Learn to cultivate staff strengths, inspire accountability, and address performance problems.
Learn how to give quality feedback that strengthens relationships and leads to better results. We give you tools and time to practice.