The process of the development interview mainly consists of five steps - "Opening, Strengths, Weaknesses, Goals, and Improvements".
Opening
The first is a simple opening statement, introducing the background of the interview, relieving tension and allowing everyone to relax. Then get to the point, first affirm the strengths of employees, criticize moderately, understand employees' future goals and realistic gaps, and jointly formulate improvement plans. In the opening remarks,You can introduce the background and purpose of the interview, emphasize that the company attaches importance to employee development, help employees find strengths and weaknesses, and find ways to improve together。All while maintaining an atmosphere of honesty and relaxation.
If it's the first interview, you can convey to the employee the company's attitude of valuing talent development, as well as the previous organization's talent inventory, evaluation or performance appraisal work, and then explain that the purpose of the day is to help the employee identify their strengths, potentials and weaknesses.
In order to help employees achieve their personal development goals, managers and employees will work together to find ways to improve and allow employees to better leverage their strengths in future development. An atmosphere of honesty and relaxation will be maintained throughout the process. This is just a suggested opening line that you can express in your own way.
The important thing is to get the principles right and make the atmosphere warmer. If you're conducting a 360-degree feedback interview, don't tell the employee directly about the results of the inventory, but focus on informing the employee about his strengths and weaknesses, as well as what others think he has and what weaknesses he has in common. The main purpose is to help employees develop, not to take stock of results. If it is a performance interview for a performance appraisal, then the employee can be told the specific results.
Pros:
The second step is to build trust and affirm the strengths of the employee. After the opening, we start by talking about the strengths of the employees, rather than directly criticizing. This builds trust, and if you criticize it directly at the beginning, it can frustrate the employee and prevent the interview from proceeding. We can say, for example, what is your greatest strength to achieve your goals?And what other people have to say, what is the unanimous evaluation of you in the 360-degree feedback report?Explain that you are good at something.
The reason why managers need to prepare in advance is to fully exploit the strengths of employees. We can enumerate the strengths of what people have said about him, and at the same time dig out the strengths that others have not said, so that employees feel recognized and motivated. Then ask the employee, in addition to these advantages, what do you think are the advantages?Give the employee a chance to show himself and make him feel valued and expected.
This way the employee will look forward to the development interview because he can fully demonstrate his strengths and the leader will be able to understand his strengths. This in-depth interview can make the employee feel recognized, increasing his sense of accomplishment and motivation.
The principle of building employee strengths is to start from our development goals, and then refine their strengths, including the common strengths in the 360-degree evaluation and the strengths of subordinates, and express them as comprehensively as possible. When affirming an employee's specific behavior and intrinsic motivation, we can use evaluative behavior and descriptive behavior.
Evaluative behavior is the direct expression of the evaluation of the employee, while descriptive behavior is the specific description of the employee's behavior. Whether it is a description or an evaluation, it should replace empty evaluations with concrete feelings, affirming the employee's efforts and behaviors, not just his talent and intelligence. Because talent and intelligence don't change, and we want our employees to continue to work hard and grow.
We can use it when we praise our employees for their strengthsThe 3A method of praise describes the employee's actions, refines the employee's motivation, and finally expresses recognition and gratitude to the employee
For example:
If an employee completes an emergency plan, we can first describe his actions, such as giving up vacation time and working overtime for three days, proactively contacting colleagues to communicate with them to modify the plan, and finally completing the plan beyond the customer's expectations. Then refine his motivations, such as public before private, customer focus, and efficient delivery, to show that he wants to create more value for customers and the company. Finally, he expressed his recognition and gratitude, so that he felt the company's affirmation and encouragement.
Inadequate
When proposing the points of improvement of employees, we need to draw out this part of the shortcomings, but also be careful to avoid too direct evaluation. We can first ask the employee about the level of recognition, and if they do, we can directly put forward the points to be promotedIf they don't agree, we can give them a chance to explain, listen to their feedback and struggles, and then bring up points for improvement. This avoids resistance from employees and gives them a better understanding of their shortcomings and the opportunity to improve.
When proposing areas for improvement, we need to give employees a chance to recognize their own shortcomings and think about the impact on the company, departments and individuals. We can guide employees to answer questions about how they are impacting, including what is limiting their growth. This allows employees to think from their own perspective and identify key deficiencies, rather than critically and directly characterizing the employee's capabilities.
We need to describe the specific behavior of the employee, such as making a mistake, and then state the possible consequences of this behavior, such as leaving a bad impression on the customer, affecting the winning result and customer relationship, etc. Then ask for personal opinions from employees and let them think about what the problem is and what they can do for themselves, rather than telling them what to do. Focus on prevention, so that employees can think about how to prevent similar problems from happening again. This gives employees ample opportunity to analyze and explore on their own, so as to better recognize their own shortcomings and propose improvement measures.
Goals
After giving employees suggestions for improvement, we need to look to the future and set development goals in a consensual manner. First of all, we can ask about the employee's overall development goals, including personal career development goals and ideal goals within the company. Employees should be encouraged to set challenging goals, not set too low, which can motivate them. Then, we can ask employees about milestones, i.e., goals that can be achieved in a short period of time, which should be specific, challenging, far from reality, grasping, and step-by-step.
When employees come up with goals, we want to show recognition, not directly discourage them. We need to share these goals, let employees set their own goals and we recognize them, so that we can look to the future, set goals and promote the self-development of our employees.
For example:
For the goals proposed by employees, such as strengthening learning Xi and improving communication skills, we can discuss with employees how to develop specific Xi learning plans and ways to improve communication skills. While it may be too idealistic to suggest that employees read 50 books a year, we can encourage employees to set more realistic milestones, such as reading a few books per month or dedicating a certain amount Xi of time each week to learning something new. Such goals are more specific and easier to achieve.
In summary, optimizing the goal presentation requires us to discuss with our employees, work together to set concrete, achievable goals, and provide support and assistance so that employees can better achieve their personal development goals.
When setting goals, we can share some coaching tips and words, such as common ones"5R Coach"Method. This method consists of the following steps:
Relationship building: Build a relationship of trust by asking employees about their progress and highlights over the past month, as well as how the last communication helped them.
Goal setting: Ask employees about their goals for the next month and this year, as well as their plans for the future.
Realistic awareness: Understand the difficulties and gaps faced by employees to achieve their goals.
Resource Solution: Help employees find the resources, strengths, and effective solutions they need to achieve their goals.
Execution Plan: Assist employees in developing specific action plans to identify needs for company and personal support.
These words can help employees achieve their goals step by step, including personal, company, and strategic goals. In addition, we can recommend books and training courses, such as the book "Reimagining Performance" and the upcoming Strategic Performance course, to help employees better set and achieve goals.
In the development interview, we can discuss the employee's plans and improvement measures, find out what they are doing to achieve their goals, and whether there are more effective methods and paths. At the same time, we can also create a good atmosphere of learning and Xi sharing, encourage employees to think and put forward specific plans, and ensure that the plans have a clear time and place. The most important thing is to let employees think and come up with solutions for themselves, and we can give the necessary support and advice to help.
When making a plan, we should followSMART principlesto ensure that goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to performance and personal development goals, and have achievement and completion dates. Our goals must be related to performance and personal development goals, while unrelated goals are outside the scope of our discussion. For example, if our goal is to improve our knowledge, then we should have a specific action plan, such as reading a management book every month and sharing it with colleagues in the form of a book report, which is more specific and practical.
When developing an action plan, it is crucial to choose an effective method. However, the most important thing is to take the first step. No matter how well planned and how precisely scheduled, a plan can't be started without taking the first step. We should takeFruit picking principleStart by choosing the easiest things to do to build confidence and boost morale.
In the process of achieving the goal, we have to follow:The principle of small stepsand move forward one step at a time. The principle of small steps helps us to break down our goals into small goals and achieve them gradually, and each small success will become the basis for the next change. Most importantly, we encourage employees to think and develop a concrete action plan that asks them what the first step they intend to take next.
Improvements
At the end of the development interview, we give the employee an overall evaluation to express their recognition and encouragement. Comments are not just about scores, but about encouragement, and they should point out what employees are actually good about and what needs to be improved, and propose solutions that work together. In the evaluation, we should repeat some of the words that employees have said, affirm their efforts and progress, point out the actual good points, and make suggestions for improvement.
During the development interview, we should express comments in a concise and clear manner as much as possible to ensure that employees can understand and approve of them. In the discussion, we should distill the core idea into a few key points, which will help employees remember and organize the interview, and also make it easier for them to fill out their personal development records or make a personal development plan after the interview. In addition, we need to ask employees to list their strengths and weaknesses when filling out the record form, which can have more strengths and fewer disadvantages, which helps to sort out the points of improvement and improvement.
The personal development plan is in line with the SMART principle, i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, relevant to the company and personal development, and has a specific completion date. Such a record sheet can help employees organize points of promotion and improvement, and it is also a step-by-step process of development interviews. The development interview is not a single conversation that can be effective, but requires many exchanges and guidance, through multiple conversations, gradually guide employees to self-awareness and self-improvement, forming a virtuous circle of development.
During the interview process, we should pay attention to the emotional and psychological state of the employees, create a relaxed and encouraging atmosphere, and let the employees feel that we value them and the company values them. At the same time, as managers and superiors, we need to actively listen to our employees and pay attention to their expressions and emotional changes in order to better understand their inner thoughts and stimulate their potential.
Finally, the development interview is a two-way process, where employees need to have a clear understanding and plan for their own development, while managers need to listen, guide and support their development. Through continuous communication and guidance, we can help employees continue to grow, improve work performance, and form a benign interactive relationship. Therefore, mastering the skills of developing interviews is not achieved overnight, it requires continuous learning and practice, Xi and practice, and the effect will gradually appear after many conversations, and the development of employees will gradually improve.