Submitted by ctomasi on
in
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I'd like some insight on getting the most value out of the most senior of my directs. He's been with the company close to 15 years. With events in the past year, we've grown and had some turn over such that over 50% of my 9 person IT team is less than a year experienced.
The challenge is to have the senior guy do training, document processes/practices, handle escalated issues, and still make progress on projects as the architect without getting in to "thashing". That's not too much, is it?
We've made some progress in the last year, but still have a lot of growth potential in the recent hires. I'm looking for help to keep the senior direct happy and still gain value.
Re: The Senior Guy
Chuck, I've been waiting for someone with more experience than I have to weigh in. In the interim, I can offer a "layman's" perspective...
[quote="ctomasi"]The challenge is to have the senior guy do training, document processes/practices, handle escalated issues, and still make progress on projects as the architect without getting in to "thashing". That's not too much, is it?[/quote]
Just as with managing, training is not something very many people can do effectively without having been ... well, trained. Unless your senior direct a) enjoys training others and b) already has or is willing to acquire at least the basic skills of a trainer, you run the risk of creating a bad experience for both the trainer and the trainee. (Where the value of 'bad' varies over a very wide range.)
Having just listened again to the Coaching series of casts, it seems to me you might want to put the responsibility for the junior directs' training in their own hands, with your senior direct cited as [u]one[/u] of [u][i]several[/i][/u] resources available to them.
Going a step further, would there be any training value for the junior people in having them take responsibility for documenting processes and practices? In order to do the job well, they would have to ask lots of questions, listen carefully, and make sure they understand what was being said. Plus they get to do the grunt work of crafting bullet lists or flow charts instead of overpaying the senior direct to do it.
[quote="ctomasi"]I'm looking for help to keep the senior direct happy and still gain value.[/quote]
It's this goal that gave me the courage to post in the absence of any valid managerial experience. I've been tasked with roles I didn't like doing and was overqualified (or unqualified) to do simply because I was the guy who'd been there the longest. It wasn't a period of high job-satisfaction for me.
Good luck with the growth - it's a high class problem.
Steven
The Senior Guy
Let me chime in and state what might be obvious...high technical knowledge is only an important component in developing training. If the direct isn't good at or doesn't want to do training, let them help with the development. Have someone else who is less technically knowledgeable but better prepared do the actual delivery.
Brian
The Senior Guy
My senior guy is good at training. He likes doing it as well. I like the idea of the junior members using him as a resource and not the Sr. person organizing and documenting everything. Thanks.
The Senior Guy
Chuck - I believe everyone wants to "leave a mark" or make a difference at work.
One of the GREAT legacies for senior people is to pass on knowledge and their experience, especially those little-know, usually not written down gems that really help productivity.
-Hugh
The Senior Guy
Sounds a bit like you are trying to ensure your businesses knowledge is effectively transferred between staff.
Look up the ASHEN model of knowledge management.
Depending on the person and what type of relationship you have with them, I would talk to them about how they can share their knowledge with other team members. Ie you show how much you value the knowledge and skills and work out ways to share that.
Storytelling sessions can be a good way to do this. ie, if they are willing to share stories about situations that they have encountered and how they dealt with it.. heck even failures and lessons learnt.
You need to transfer condifiable knowledge by writing it down, skills by training, rules of thumb or heuristics by buddying, and experience by mentoring.
Regards
Douglas.