Create development plans and opportunities for team member growth
What you'll be able to do
•Write an individual development plan that ties a team member's growth goals to specific projects and stretch assignments
•Identify the difference between a skill gap, a knowledge gap, and a motivation gap so you can target the right intervention
•Run a development conversation that surfaces what a person actually wants from their career instead of guessing
•Delegate work deliberately as a growth tool rather than only as a way to offload tasks
•Track progress against development goals in a way that survives quarterly turnover in priorities
Who it's for
New and mid-level managers who are responsible for the growth of direct reports, and team leads who want to move beyond assigning tasks toward actually building their people. Useful for anyone preparing to have their first structured development conversations.
What changes on the job
•Each direct report has a written development plan with concrete next steps instead of vague good intentions
•Stretch assignments get handed out on purpose rather than landing on whoever is closest
•Development conversations become a routine part of one-on-ones instead of an annual-review afterthought
Bring this course to your team
See how Thrive delivers enterprise-quality development for SMBs.
It is a self-paced lesson of about 20 minutes, part of the leadership track and included with a Thrive membership. You can complete it in one sitting or return to specific sections as you build out plans for your team.
Do I need direct reports to get value from it?
It is written for people who already lead a team, but aspiring managers and project leads who influence others' growth will find the development-conversation and delegation sections useful even without formal reports.
How does this fit with the rest of my development as a manager?
It pairs naturally with the accountability and team-building lessons in the leadership track, and you can bring specific development-plan questions into a live workshop or an AI coaching session to pressure-test your approach.