According to Merriam Dictionary, Spring is the time or season of growth or development. We start to see buds on the trees and blooms from the ground. Nature re-creates itself and in many cases expands it's footprint from the year before. As humans, Spring can present the same opportunity. I'm sharing 3 ways leaders can encourage growth and development this spring.

Carve out time for reflection. Research in neuroscience tells us that building in time for reflection is a critical step in developing a new skill. It enables us to become more self aware and in-tune with what we need in order to make progress towards our goals.  We rarely create designated and intentional time for reflection inside of our workplaces, which makes it harder to reach our full potential. As leaders we can create this space both on a group and individual level.

1. Activity - Stretch Goals Exercise

1. Prepare your team ahead of time, giving them at least a week to plan how they will contribute to this activity.

2. Let them know during your next team meeting you're all going to share one professional and one personal stretch goal with the entire team. 

3. Ask them to come prepared to discuss: The goal itself, why the goal is important to them, when they'd like to achieve it, how they plan on getting there, obstacles they see getting in the way, how they plan to hold themselves accountable to reaching it and how the team can help them get there.

4. As the manager, take notes on how the team plans to support each individual and share the accountability plan with the group after the meeting. Plan to present an update on goal progress every two weeks during subsequent team meetings.

5. CELEBRATE the wins, including progress towards the goal, not just the big achievement.

According to research out of Ohio State University, people showed greater goal commitment and performance when they told their goal to someone. This activity also builds connection, transparency and accountability. Each team member gets to learn about aspirations of the people they work alongside, building stronger team collaboration and commitment to each other.

Meet someone new. Encourage the members of your team to meet with two people from different departments inside of the organization they are not familiar with. This will create opportunity to learn about a new perspective. When we have the chance to learn about other roles and responsibilities outside of our own, it builds empathy and understanding. We gain insight into how and why different departments approach things. It also helps close more business. If people from different departments are connected with each other, problems get solved much faster.

1. Encourage the team to choose two people each month to meet with for a virtual or in person coffee chat.

2. Send an email to leadership throughout your organizations letting them know they will be seeing email or slack messages from your team members to coordinate the coffee chats. Explain the why: To create deeper connections and cross department collaboration to build a healthy and collaborative culture and increase productivity.

3. If possible, secure a small budget for coffee during these sessions. This shows the commitment to the value of this exercise.

According to HBR, employees with close connections at work are more productive, creative, and collaborative. They also report being more satisfied with their job, are less susceptible to burnout, and are less likely to leave their organization to pursue another role. In other words, not only are they better contributors, they provide more stability to a team.

Practice Giving Constructive Feedback. Giving feedback can feel uncomfortable, so it's no surprise many managers avoid it. According to Dr. Carla Jeffries research, people fail to give constructive feedback to protect themselves. It's natural not to want to hurt anyone's feelings by having an uncomfortable conversation. But, by neglecting to share constructive feedback with our team members we are doing a major disservice to them and create barriers to their growth and development. By staying silent they are unable to understand how they could improve until it's often too late. How do we practice giving more consistent feedback?

1. Build a culture where feedback is seen as a gift. Share constructive feedback you've received and explain how it's helped you learn and grow over time. Emphasize that receiving feedback helps us learn from our mistakes and creates opportunity.

2. Find out how your team likes to receive feedback so you can deliver it from a place of care and connection, not just authority.

3. Use a framework or model, like SBI to deliver feedback. Start with the specific situation, describe the behavior that needs to be addressed and then outline the impact that behavior has on them, the team or company.

4. Create time in each 1:1 where both positive and constructive feedback can be expected. The consistency will make it easier to both give and receive.

5. Encourage your team to provide feedback on your leadership capabilities, including a way to submit anonymous feedback if needed.

One of the kindest things we can do as leaders is create an environment where feedback is celebrated and not feared. To do this, we as leaders need to solict regular feedback ourselves. Here's a resource (questions to ask your team) to help you gather feedback on your leadership effectiveness. Use these questions to help you reflect and act on what you learn to become an even stronger leader.

Let's use this new season to create more inclusive and supportive team environments so that everyone feels like they have the ability to reach their full potential.