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Crafting a Grow-Forward Development Pathway
Didem Tekay
Didem Tekay describes herself as a Grow-Forward Architect, curating development paths for leaders, teams, and organizations. She has been listed in the Forbes Global Forty Over 40 Women to Watch list. She is the author of the book The Grow-Forward Manifesto, which instructs leaders and leadership teams on how to foster personal and professional growth through co-creating Grow Forward pathways with relational practice.
In my consultancy and coaching work, I observe leaders struggling to craft their own Grow-Forward pathway and put a plan in place. Many companies have performance systems that connect business outcomes with leaders’ development plans and monitor the progress of leaders’ mindset and skillset.
“I have many feedbacks and insights about myself; but I do not know what to do with all these, where should start?” Suzan, business director of a global healthcare company, shared with me in our first coaching session. She was frustrated; the company had supported her with tools such as a personal profile, 360 feedback, an engagement survey, and a leadership assessment. This was not the first development plan she was trying to craft; she had done a few plans in her previous roles, but they were mostly focused on corporate skillsets and unfortunately never worked. “They were – nice to have – plans I must confess,” she said. She was with all these reports and trying to make a meaningful, relevant output to craft a development pathway for herself. When I asked her, what was different this time, she shared with me that till now she put daily work and jobs to be done upfront and just let go her personal and professional development. She was now aware that there is a gap between who she is and who she can be. Our first coaching session started to unfold with the question: What is the right mindset to create a development plan?
Most of the times, leaders focus on creating some tasks for development but do not deeply think about the right mindset and for them development is taken for granted by an unquestioned mindset. These assumptions are often underestimated or have not even been considered by many leaders. Their unexamined mindset leads them to focus on overcoming daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual business challenges and ignore what they need to work on to craft a Grow-Forward pathway they can practice. A Grow-Forward plan serves leaders as a pathway that they can review on a regular basis to ensure that they are staying on track and making progress in the overall shape of their careers and lives.
A Grow-Forward plan is essential for a person to progress. It is about intentionally and consciously choosing a path to follow, not leaving it to chance. Crafting a Grow-Forward pathway is a learnable skill, so I encouraged Suzan to practice developing a plan. We have explored some key beliefs to craft a development plan, and with the support of a seven-step framework, Suzan crafted her meaningful and relevant plan using all insights and visioning future.
The Grow-Forward Pathway: Mindset, Key Beliefs to Craft a Plan
- Think bold!
To craft a Grow-Forward pathway, I encourage you to think boldly in terms of setting learning goals for yourself. This plan is you investing in your future, so take time to step back and really think big. Visualize the progress you want to see in your life. - Stretch yourself!
A good Grow-Forward pathway consists of stretching components. It pushes you out of your comfort zone and presents you with a challenge. If your plan is too easy to do, then it is not supporting a Grow-Forward pathway. - Find your “Unique Presence”
Your unique presence is the key lens you need to see yourself through. Knowing who you are and being willing to create a better version of yourself is a progress mindset. Understanding self is also about developing an understanding of how you are seen by others, recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses, and identifying areas for specific improvement. - Be aware of your “Learning Style”
People learn differently, and we all prefer to learn in different ways. Know your learning style! There are lots of tools and frameworks out there to help you discover this! Once you know your style, you can craft your plan with learning processes and components that will work for you. - Take accountability for being a learner
You must take personal responsibility for your Grow-Forward pathway; you are the only person who can hold yourself to account for it. You need to be proactive and future focused; the time to focus on development is before it is needed. - Address your vulnerability
The Grow-Forward process gets you to face personal challenges and acknowledge the gaps you have (and which you will often have become very skilled at hiding). Learning and progressing is a challenging process. Make time to reflect and open a space to your vulnerability. - Create your allies
Who will be the allies you will need during this Grow-Forward journey? Ask yourself and list their names. Pay attention to who you are choosing and not choosing.
Crafting a Grow-Forward Pathway in Seven Steps
Step 1: What Do You Know about Yourself? Review and List
This step is intended to connect your internal self-awareness as well as your external self-awareness. Your inner self-awareness shows how aware you are of your values, passions, aspirations, and habitual responses. Your external self-awareness shows how aware you are of how others see you and experience your impact on them.
Step 2: What Is Possible for You in the Future? Dream and Visualize
Grow-Forward asks you to think about the possibilities that could serve you in the future to become your future self. The actions you take may be large or small, but as you take them you need to always keep in mind your current and future mindset. Taking the time really to think about and imagine your future may not be easy – and because it is never urgent (only important), we tend to postpone it or put it off when something comes along to distract you. It is crucial that you force yourself to get out of your comfort zone of busyness and immediate priorities and think about yourself strategically.
Step 3: What Is Your Grow-Forward Focus? Write It Down and Make It Visible!
Steps 1 and 2 provide a range of possibilities for you and your future. The Grow-Forward pathway gives you a focus to this range of possibilities. With Step 3, it is time for you to focus on your key assets and the points of progress you want to see. Part of what gives this step focus is the discipline of making these points visible by writing them down, establishing a constant reminder of what you are seeking to become and achieve.
Step 4: What Is Your Grow-Forward Plan? Execute and Monitor It
You are ready to use your learning style to choose and deepen your actions, tasks, and activities for your key progress areas. While choosing your relevant actions you need to keep in mind that for growth, progress is not going to be the same experience for you for every skill or progress area. For some, you will need to practice more and allow more time. It is crucial for you to seek out and find opportunities to try new skills and to overcome the anxiety that comes when learning something new (especially when you are used to being excellent in your established skill set).
Step 5: Who Are Your Allies? Share and Evolve Your Progress
Once you have your plan ready, share it with colleagues, friends, and thinking partners. Get their insights. Getting others involved always improves a plan. Although it may seem only relevant to you, you will be doing the work to progress in your relationships with others. Ask for real-time feedback and try to bring your curiosity when receiving it – seek to understand rather than explain or defend.
Step 6: Where Are You in Your Grow-Forward Pathway? Sit Back and Reflect
Journaling in all its forms is a great tool for establishing careful thought and reflection. Whether people do it through a daily or weekly written diary, or through voice messages to the self, or through art, poetry, and photography, journaling provides evidence for what is going on for a person and an audit trail of their commitment to grow.
The Grow-Forward plan covers a period of up to 18 months according to the specific needs of an individual. Within the plan, there needs to be explicit times set aside for stepping back in a deliberate fashion to reflect on where you are now with your plan and where you are heading. A Grow-Forward plan evolves over time and changes in response to circumstances. It is not a static thing, done once and set in concrete.
Step 7: How Will You Appreciate Your Own Grow-Forward Progress? Appreciation and Celebration
Appreciating your own growth and the growth of others is a Grow-Forward mindset attribute. You always need to focus on getting better at every moment. There will always be some obstacles in your way – some barriers that you never thought of before.
Appreciation comes in every moment that you recognize you have made progress, within yourself, and in the impact on others. Involve others in your appreciation and celebrate your growth. Feel the power of pride.
The process for Suzan started with the right mindset and followed with developing a skill and put some key actions around it. She chose three key learning objectives and crafted her plan around them. “I never thought I can focus on what to develop. Now I’m able to address areas for improvement confidently and there is a plan I can follow. This is a relief.” The framework brought a structure and focus. The plan evolved, and she had reflected on her plan in each quarter. Suzan after working on her plan brought a collective approach, and six months later, she gathered her team to craft their development plans. One of her key focus areas for improvement was to develop others, and she reflected her experience, expanded it to her team, and demonstrated the skill.