I LOVE college football. (WE ARE! PENN STATE!)

And because I also love logistics, I often find myself watching behind-the-scenes videos of how football teams practice, their nutrition, how they take care of all their equipment, etc. The NFL versions are even more interesting because they spend an INCREDIBLE amount of money and resources on their players.

One really interesting aspect is that every single player, from the moment they get to their team, is given a highly individualized plan of how many calories they need to eat, different nutrient ratios, a food plan, and a specific workout plan designed to either help them lose weight, gain weight, gain muscle, or something else.

Not only that, but that plan is constantly reviewed on a weekly or biweekly basis to see if updates need to be made.

Contrast that to the nonprofit space where most employees are given some training to do their job (if they’re lucky), but not much else. In larger organizations there’s usually a formal Learning and Development department.

But in smaller orgs?

Professional development is an afterthought. Not because it isn’t valuable, but it’s something that most grants don’t usually include in their funding and it takes away time from people who are already doing 8 different jobs.

But, in a world where people can find work making more money elsewhere and a looming transition problem as up to 75% of Nonprofit Leaders are expected to retire by 2036, this isn’t a nice-to-have anymore, it’s a mission critical priority and when done well, can be a HUGE benefit to draw in newer employees.

The best news? It doesn’t have to require money.

And in an industry with well known resourcing issues, this can’t be left to chance. It needs to be built with intention.

Why development needs to be intentional

When I was working as a clinician at a residential treatment center, my supervisor, Maureen, knew I had dreams of taking on more leadership roles and so one of the assignments she gave me was to re-start and lead weekly multi-disciplinary team meetings.

These were cross functional meetings across all the different job types in our program designed to coordinate care for all of our clients. It was something she had long wanted to do, but never had any time to take it on. Because my co-workers had other strengths and career goals, she knew I would be the best person to take it on.

I was excited to do it, and after a short start up period, it became an ongoing, permanent staple of our program. Thanks to her ongoing supervision and coaching, it’s where I learned the skills to lead effective cross-functional meetings – making sure the right people were in the room, how to make sure people knew what to expect and what they were expected to present if it was their turn to provide information, and how to ensure the information and takeaways were useful for everyone, not just a box-checking exercise.

Development doesn’t happen by accident. It needs to be intentional. Too many leaders hope that employees pick stuff up by osmosis, and some learning can happen that way, but you then can’t control what they learn.

Basic Employee Development Template

There are tons of really good and useful employee development templates out there. If you go to my podcast website, there’s a downloadable template for you there.

They all follow the same basic structure:

Start with identifying the goals for your employee

This includes explicitly identifying:

• The skills, knowledge, and performance level you want/need them to be at
• Their own career goals

You can keep that on any document format in the world that you want, just have the conversation with them.

From there, identify which areas need development

Have that honest conversation from the beginning of how both you and they assess themselves on those scales and create a collaborative plan on how you’ll build them up. That’s the most time intensive part and the next section will go through ideas of how you can develop their skills, from least expensive to most expensive.

Lastly, keep checking in and monitoring progress. Adjust as necessary.

If you’re a small organization, there may not be a specific position or role they can always grow into – it’s a reality that everyone needs to acknowledge.

But growth doesn’t always mean new roles, sometimes it can be new skills and opportunities. And sometimes, it does mean a new position elsewhere. If that bothers you, consider the alternative of your employee never skilling up at all. Or the reputation you’ll gain among prospective employees.

Activities to develop employees

I’ve tried to organize a list of activities you can do to develop your employees, organized by cost level. You can also read a previous newsletter linked here, where I published different leadership development options separated by pros/cons/considerations/cost. One thing to keep in mind, everything here costs time, even if it doesn’t cost explicit cash. Time is the great equalizing currency, but you’ll have to decide for yourself what these are all worth.

Low cost or free (where most people should start)

These aren’t “cheap” options, these are often the best options.

• Providing new assignments or challenges – taking on new projects, leading team meetings, taking on more logistics/supply tasks (much like my example from above)
• Coaching – you coaching them, not finding an outside coach
• Mentoring – if possible from within the org, but there are outside opportunities as well
• Feedback
• Book studies

Moderate cost (great for developing specific professional skills)

At some point, you may want them to develop specialized skills. This is where you can focus on that.

• Professional networks/associations – especially around specific tasks like development or HR or finance
• Conferences – industry or professional
• Group coaching
• Training workshops
• Mentoring – there are some paid mentoring networks

High cost (great for advanced skillset development)

These usually aren’t cost effective for basic development, they’re great to get people to the next level.

• Individual coaching – From an external provider
• Formal training or certification programs
• University level leadership training/certificates

Special mention

Leadership certificates – in leadership development, cost is a whole range of cost. There are numerous free or low cost certificate nonprofit leadership programs. There are some low cost ones with a good reputation. And of course, there are expensive ones attached to fancy brand names. You’ll need to spend more time researching or looking at my previous article.

How do I pick the right activities for my employees?

So many people suffer from analysis paralysis – how do I know what’s the best option?

I’ll argue that you don’t necessarily need to worry about a wrong decision here. What you can do is just start with the free or low cost options first and then build on other options as you go along.

Coaching and mentoring and new assignments can get you better results in the vast majority of situations. If you notice there are other skills you aren’t able to teach or don’t have time, then start looking at other options that cost a little more money. Or even find other people who have that skill within your team or your organization for a little cross-functional training.

No professional sports team just waits for their players to “pick things up”. They plan for it on purpose, every week. But it’s not about how much money you can spend, it’s about ensuring you actively set aside time to focus on this in the first place. Even thirty minutes every other week can make a world of difference for one of your employees.

If you want a thinking partner or have a question, reply back or reach out.

PS – if you’re looking for professional development for your leaders on a budget – my imPACT Leadership Academy was designed for sustainable, effective development on a budget. Learn more on my site here: https://www.myleadershippotential.com/impact