Accelerating Your Team’s Careers

"I don't have the time nor budget for another program."

We work with many of the top human resources and learning and development teams across Latin America. As an organization that trains leaders, we hear this complaint a lot. And while, obviously, we believe that training has a critical role in developing and retaining top talent, we also know it's not the only way to develop your team. 

In the Master in Business and Technology (MBT) at Collective, we have the honor of working with some of the most innovative business people in Latin America during pivotal moments in their careers. We see our students grow their salaries by 60 percent and 90 percent assume new responsibilities during the 18-month program.

We think about career growth for our students and alumni along four pillars:

• Knowledge

• Responsibility

• Management

• Happiness

As we coach people through career growth, we optimize across all four pillars, deciding where to dedicate effort based on where each person is starting. So as you grow your teams, you may find the same framework useful and the examples for each.

First, knowledge. This is perhaps the most obvious pillar supported by a master's. When we talk about knowledge, we refer to both the depth and breadth of your expertise. For example, a CFO may have deep knowledge in finance but come to the MBT to expand their knowledge in marketing and innovation to be a better strategic adviser to their team. When coaching your team, you might recommend that they read a book, find a mentor, or take a course to expand their knowledge. However, it's also important to coach them to demonstrate to others when the team member has a unique or impressive depth of knowledge. They can write a blog, mentor others, or speak at a conference, among a few examples. Networking can help you and your team identify thought leaders both in your company and outside. 

Second, we believe responsibility is key to growing as a professional. We think of responsibility as the ability to make decisions that have an impact. While growing your knowledge, you also need to grow your responsibility in parallel. Often, this requires proactive efforts from the employee and their manager. Either one can identify a new project that the employee can lead, something with more significant importance to the company, perhaps with a larger budget, or projects that extend past your immediate team into other functions. These projects could involve making significant budgetary decisions, larger sales, or a critical partnership. New responsibilities can also be external: Representing the company in important government committees or leading an industry group, among others. But overall, growing responsibility requires being very strategic about where you spend your time and being careful not to mistake activity for progress. 

The third pillar, management, is often what people think of as the most obvious form of career growth. It's the ability to lead a team, and it is essential for growth in most organizations. Often, though, it helps to demonstrate and practice your ability as a leader before you are given formal leadership experiences. Sometimes, it's possible to lead a project team or manage an intern or an external agency as a first management experience. It also can be fantastic to demonstrate management through leadership of an affinity group within your company or in your industry or community organizations. In our experience, great managers learn to delegate responsibilities, not tasks, but this skill is honed through various management experiences. 

We often mistakenly believe that all employees want to move up quickly, but this is not the case for all. If we identify people with good performance and see leadership potential, we must accompany them in the process of growing in their careers at the most convenient pace for them. In other cases, people don’t want to become managers, only more senior individual contributors, and understanding that and enabling that career path can also help them grow their careers.

Finally, it is critical to remember the last pillar: happiness. One of the significant results of the pandemic and the entry of new generations to the workforce has been a new focus on personal satisfaction derived from professional pursuits. Often, we see that it's important to have the appropriate level of challenge at work to stay motivated, but not so much that it blocks your ability to have a rewarding personal life. We have also seen managers must have honest conversations with their team members about what they are looking for at different stages of their personal and professional lives.

In addition, employee happiness levels have a lot to do with their loyalty to the organization. We have detected that determining factors, such as flexible work models and wellness programs, allow them to balance their personal and work activities. 

By optimizing these four pillars, employees and managers can drive balanced growth in their careers and their team.