Creating and Managing Development Plans

Create your Development Plan

1. Navigate to Development Plan underneath the Growth drop down, then select + New Plan

Please note: only the intended Development plan owner can create a Development plan. No one else in Leadr can create a Development plan for someone else.

2. Add your plan's title, description, start date, end date, and mentor. The start date will default to today's date, and the end date will default to 3 months out. The plan's mentor will default to your manager, but you may edit the mentor field. Add any Viewers of the plan if desired. Then, select Save & Continue.

3. Select + Add Competency in the lower left corner after progressing your screen. Here, you will add desired competencies and add descriptions. These can be any skill you would like to be fully competent in or master by the end of your plan. You can always come back and add more, but you need to add at least one competency before you can submit your plan.

4. After adding your competencies, you may add a Goal, Learning, Feedback, Action Item, Recognition, Accomplishment, or Meeting to this competency to track progress. You may add a new or existing item.

5. After submitting your plan, your mentor will be notified to review the plan.

Please note: only the intended Development plan owner can create a Development plan. No one else in Leadr can create a Development plan for someone else.

Editing an Active Plan

1. Once your Personal Development Plan is created, click on the plan you would like to edit from your Development Plans page. Here, you can edit the plan details, milestones, and add comments.
2. To edit competencies, plan details, or delete the plan, click the 3 dots to the right of the PDP title. Once the plan is reviewed by your mentor, you can also mark the plan as complete here.

3. When editing competencies, click the 3 dots to the right of a competency title to edit the title or description, or to delete the competency. You can also add new competencies, or add milestones to your competency via the Add button. Select Save Edits after you are done.

4. You can edit the details of your PDP, including PDP title, description, start/end date, mentor, and viewers.

5. Deleting the plan will permanently delete this plan.

Add PDP Milestones to an Active Plan

1. After navigating to your plan, you can add milestones (Goal, Learning, Feedback, Action Item, Recognition, Accomplishment, or Meeting) to your plan via the Edit Competencies function above. Alternatively, add these via the Add button at the bottom left corner of your PDP.

2. Goals: When adding a Goal, the Goal dates need to fall within the date range of your PDP. You may choose an existing Goal or create a new Goal. Be sure to select which competency this Goal is associated with, then save the new Goal or add the existing Goal.

3. Learning: When adding a Learning, you will need to select a Create a Single Learning or Create a Learning Playlist. If you would like to choose a template, select Create a Learning Playlist, then navigate to + Add From Template. You may assign yourself Learnings.

4. Feedback: When adding a Feedback, you can create a new Feedback request or select a template. Be sure to choose your competency, then create your own Feedback from the Details tab. Alternatively, you can select the Questions tab and choose a template to send out.

5. Action Items: When adding an action item, you can choose a new or existing item. Any action item without a due date, or items that have a due date within your PDP dates will show up in the Existing Action Item tab. Be sure to select the associated competency.

6. Recognition: You may link recognitions that you have received within the PDP timeframe.

7. Accomplishments: Add any accomplishments you've already completed or will complete to your PDP. You may choose the completion date, title, and description of this competency.

8. Meeting: Add any meetings that fall within the timeframe of your PDP. Leadr currently only shows the next 1-2 recurring meeting dates. If you would like to link a meeting farther out in the future, we suggest creating a one-time 1:1 meeting for that date so you can see it in this list, or waiting until the date gets closer.

Comments and Completion

1. Once you submit your Personal Development Plan for review, the discussion can begin between you and your mentor. Once the plan is approved, viewers can also add comments to the plan. To add a comment, any member of the plan can scroll down to Add Comment in the Discussion panel, add their discussion, then save. Participants of the plan will receive a notification that a comment has been added.

2. Once you've completed your PDP, you can mark it as complete. You can mark complete at any time after your mentor has approved your plan.

3. Share your final thoughts in the required comment box, then submit to finish up your PDP. This Development Plan will now show up in your Completed Plans.

4. You can reopen a completed plan by clicking on the 3 dots to the right of the title and selecting Reopen Plan

Please note: The manager of each participants will always have access to view and comment on the Development Plan even if not explicitly added.

Mentor View

1. Once the plan owner submit their Personal Development Plan, the mentor will get a notification. The mentor can go to Development Plans under the Growth drop down on the left side of Leadr, click into the Other Plans tab, and locate the plan for review.

2. Once the mentor reviews the plan, select Complete Plan Review

3. Type in the note for the plan review, then Submit and the plan is approved!

Please note: The manager of each participants will always have access to view and comment on the Development Plan even if not explicitly added.

Plan Status and Visibility

• Draft: A plan is in Draft status when it is initially being created and before it is submitted to the mentor for review.
• Pending Review: Once a plan is submitted to the mentor for review, the plan moves into Pending Review status.
• Active: After the mentor approves the plan, it moves into Active status and all participants can view the plan.
• Completed: The plan owner or the mentor can mark the plan as Completed when they feel the objectives of the plan have been satisfied. Once the plan is marked completed, they can enter final comments,
• Closed: A plan is in Closed status when either the plan was completed and both the plan owner and the mentor have added final comments, or if one of them manually ends the plan.

• Draft: Only the plan owner can see the plan when it is in draft status
• Pending Review: Only the plan owner and the mentor are able to view plans in Pending Review status
• Active: When the plan is active, the plan owner, mentor, any viewers, admins, and executives are able to view the plan. The manager of this user will always have access to view and comment on the Development Plan even if not explicitly added.
• Completed and Closed: All participants plus admins and executives can view completed and closed plans.

Notifications

Certain plan members will receive notifications for actions taken in a Development Plan, including:

• Plan submitted for Mentor review (mentor)
• Plan review completed (plan owner)
• Participant changes (only people added or removed)
• Plan ready for final thoughts (plan owner or mentor, whomever didn’t mark the plan completed)
• Plan closed  (plan owner or mentor, whomever didn’t mark the plan closed)
• Plan reopened (all participants except user who initiated the action)
• Accomplishment added (plan owner, only when initiated by the mentor)
• Comment added to plan (all participants except user who initiated the action)

Benefits of PDPs

Leadr’s mission is “To Develop 1,000,000 Leaders.” With Personal Development Plans (PDPs), we are taking key features from across Leadr such as Goals, Action Items, Learning, Meetings, Recognition, and Feedback and combining them into a plan for a person to grow their skills, accomplish their goals, and develop into a leader.

To be clear, this isn’t just about moving up the “corporate ladder” or advancing to the next level of your role. While those are certainly capabilities of PDPs, the feature accounts for “Rockstars” (those who want to develop in their current role) as well as “Superstars” (those who want to advance to the next level of their career).

Having a PDP makes planning for a person’s development clear and progress easily trackable. The milestone-based approach of a PDP in Leadr creates a logical breakdown of a large plan into smaller pieces which are more easily achievable and allows for multiple checkpoints along the way.

The plan is owned by the person seeking development - they create and manage it throughout the process. We can’t force people to be developed, and those who aren’t ready or in a growth phase won’t be successful if a plan is “given” to them. By giving the person ownership of their plan, they are more likely to build a plan that meets their needs and they are more likely to see it through.

PDPs encourage visibility and mentorship by those who can help users achieve their desired outcome. By co-creating the plan with a Mentor, the plan structure can be curated and advised on to help make it effective. Viewers can also be invited to the plan to add comments and drive accountability.

PDPs are beneficial to not only the person being developed, but also to the organization. Employees are able to create a documented, strategic plan for achieving their career goals and get the support they need to accomplish them. They are also able to plan for growth activities coming out of processes like reviews.

For the organization, employees who are developed and achieve their goals are significantly more likely to stay, decreasing turnover and increasing employee satisfaction and engagement. Additionally, PDPs increase engagement and provide a trackable record of achievement and skill development which can be utilized in succession planning, promotions, and in filling newly-created roles.

Terminology

• Plan Owner: This is the person who creates the plan and is being developed. Every user in Leadr can create a PDP and be a Plan Owner.
• Mentor: Each PDP in Leadr can be assigned a Mentor as the person helping the plan owner create and achieve their development plan. By default, the person’s manager is the Mentor, but any other person in the organization can be selected as the Mentor. This is useful when changing career tracks or when developing in an area in which the manager is not the best resource. The Mentor is the main point of contact and accountability for the plan owner.
• Viewer: Each PDP in Leadr can be assigned multiple viewers who are able to view the plan and comment on it. They are not able to make any changes to the plan.
• Competency: Competencies are attributes that successful performers demonstrate in their role. They are a combination of abilities, skills, and knowledge. Examples: “Speaking with Confidence to Executives” or “Strong understanding of the needs of users.” 
• Steps: For each Competency in a PDP, the Plan Owner and the Mentor can add Steps from many of the other features in Leadr. The features able to be added as Steps in PDP are:
  • Goals
  • Action Items
  • Learning
  • Feedback
  • Meetings
  • Recognition
  • Accomplishments

When adding Steps, they will add to the timeline of the plan and create milestones for staying accountable to the plan.

• Accomplishments: A new feature in Leadr specific to PDPs, Accomplishments are a way for users to track activity they’ve completed during the plan period which is not part of another step. Example: ”Spoke at the Leadr User Convention” or “Won the Company Q2 Highlight Award”

Design of Successful PDPs

Successful PDPs consist of several key components:

1. Career Vision

Understanding the longer-range vision for the person’s career, perhaps 3-5 years out, is important for determining a plan to get there. Ask the person to seriously consider what they’re looking to accomplish. The following questions will help establish some clarity:

1. In 3 years, what role would you like to have?
2. Does the idea of leading others interest you?
3. What tasks or projects do you lose track of time when working on?
4. What makes you feel accomplished at work?

2. Clear Outcomes

A single PDP should tackle shorter, more achievable outcomes toward the longer-range vision. These outcomes will become the competencies in the development plan. The following questions will help determine what to focus on:

1. What’s one skill you’d love to learn more about?
2. Do you dream about having a different role? What would that look like?
3. What’s a skill you have that you don’t get to use as much as you’d like?

3. Collaboration with Mentors

It’s important to utilize the experience of others in the organization to help the person achieve their plan. When advancing in their current job track or job family, or when gaining competence in their current role, the manager is often the best option. In other cases such as when changing career tracks or when working on a specialized skill area, another person may be the best fit. Shadowing during the plan is also an effective way to learn how others succeed in their role. Some questions to answer as you decide who the mentor of a plan should be are:

1. Who can they work with or learn from to gain the level of competency needed? 
2. Who does that job now?

4. Manageable Milestones

With a plan that’s 3-6 months in length, a single large goal or project isn’t likely to be successful. Breaking down the plan into monthly milestones at the largest is more effective to keep the person on track. Celebrate the wins along the way.

5. Regular Touchpoints

The key to successful development is how you follow through once the plan is made. To ensure you’re set up for success, be sure you have intentional progress conversations each week in your 1:1 meetings with your mentor. You can also set up separate meetings specifically for the PDP.

Either way, here are the discussion points to hit along the way:

• Discuss Learnings. Ask intentional questions about what they’re taking away from each of their activities. That will help their learnings sink in and show your investment in their growth.
• Celebrate Successes. As they make progress toward their goal, be sure to acknowledge the hard work they’re putting into their development. What’s celebrated gets repeated.
• Provide Feedback. Whether it’s tips for time management as they’re working through their PDP or additional learning opportunities you uncover along the way, be sure you offer your team members feedback throughout the process. Remember: your primary role as a manager is to coach and enable your team.
• Don’t be afraid to change the plan if you realize something else makes more sense.

Additionally, consider a few key items to maintain momentum:

1. Plan Length:

It’s good to identify your long-term career vision and where you eventually want to be in 3, 5, or 10 years, but for the purposes of an achievable PDP, it’s best to focus on 3-6 months in length at the most. Longer plans are typically more difficult to set up, more difficult to manage as things change over time, and harder to maintain effective momentum on. 

2. Plan Scope:

Each plan is unique, but typically focusing on 5 or fewer competencies results in the best outcomes. More than 5 typically results in plans becoming large and unfocused. Some plans may only have 1 competency, and that’s ok. When the scope of the plan is targeted and achievable, it is significantly more likely to be completed. Users can have multiple plans to achieve larger goals over longer periods of time.

3. Who Should Be Involved:

• The Employee: The employee should be the primary decision maker when it comes to their PDP to ensure they’re fully invested in their success and growing in the areas they're most interested in.
• The Mentor: This person is often the employee’s direct manager, but could be another person within the organization who is best suited to guide and develop the employee within the scope of the given plan. If the employee is changing career tracks for example, the current manager may not be the best fit. The Mentor should collaborate with the employee on the plan and help determine the competencies and steps that will help them achieve their desired outcomes. The mentor’s ultimate role is to help enable the employee to succeed by providing support, asking intentional questions throughout the process, and providing feedback along the way.
• Viewers: Others in the organization who can contribute to the completion of the plan or help keep the employee engaged and accountable are valuable to include in the plan. 
• Executive Team - The executive team should be given the overview of each employee’s PDP have visibility into their team’s growth. This is important for leaders to know where their employee’s time and effort is going and to have opportunities to celebrate and encourage their growth.

Summary:

1. Keep plans to 3-6 months in length maximum
2. Focus each plan on 5 or fewer competencies
3. Get the right people involved

Example Development Plan

At Leadr, we’ve been utilizing PDPs for leadership and manager development plans which we call LeadrU. The plans range from three to five months in length and include goals, action items, learning assignments, and meetings. In the case of our Management Development Program, the following activities take place for each of the five months of the plan:

1. Reading and answering questions about a leadership book (Learning)
2. Watching or listening to a video or podcast and answering questions (Learning)
3. Holding a 1:1 meeting with a member of the executive team (Meetings)
4. Shadowing a member of the Leadr team who is in a different department (Meetings)

To help make the plan more personal for each participant, the second-to-last month allows for the participant’s manager to determine the book and podcast in conjunction with the participant. The final month has the participant choosing their own book and podcast to include. 

In addition to these monthly milestones, a longer-range activity is established as a stretch project which runs the duration of the plan. The stretch project is expected to push the participant to learn new skills and develop an outcome that is valuable for the business.

Much like PDPs, the plan is reviewed and agreed upon by the person’s manager before it begins. The LeadrU Management Plan looks like this:

Interested in learning more about personal development plans? The following resources are helpful.

Books:

1. "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey - This classic book offers practical advice on personal development and effectiveness, including goal setting and creating a personal mission statement.
2. "StrengthsFinder 2.0" by Tom Rath - This book introduces the concept of identifying and leveraging your strengths for personal and professional development.
3. "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol S. Dweck - Dweck's research on the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset can be valuable for understanding personal development and learning how to set and achieve goals.
4. "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" by James Clear - This book provides practical strategies for behavior change, which can be useful for implementing personal development plans.
5. "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" by Daniel H. Pink - Pink explores the science of motivation and how it relates to personal development and goal achievement.

Websites:

1. Harvard Business Review (hbr.org) - HBR offers articles and insights from leading experts in business and management, including topics related to personal development, goal setting, and career advancement.
2. TED Talks (www.ted.com) - TED Talks feature inspiring talks by thought leaders on a variety of topics, including personal development, motivation, and achieving goals.
3. LinkedIn Learning (www.linkedin.com/learning) - LinkedIn Learning offers online courses on personal development topics, such as time management, leadership skills, and career advancement strategies.

Video Overviews