Agent Development Model

Are your agent reviews and development meetings as effective as they should be? Too often, personal development plans can be regarded as nothing more than a chore by many managers.....an exercise in putting meaningless objectives down on some form.

The A.I.M model might prove helpful:

• Aspirational - Find out what people want from their careers
• In Our Interests - ensure personal objectives align with organization's needs
• Measurable - agree on a yardstick to judge whether the objective is a success

Performance objectives can be as specific, agreed upon and as time-bounded as you like, but unless they are actually achieved, they're useless. Instead we need to have our team members emotionally and intellectually engaged in achieving their objectives. The manager plays a key role in engaging their people so that they want to achieve their agreed objectives. Managers also need to be able to explain how what they are doing fits into the overall company goals.

As Mike Berry of ORBIT says: 'there are only two reasons folks do not do something, either they do not KNOW HOW or they do not WANT TO.' Thus, if we have given them the HOW through training, coaching and mentoring and have not adequately stimulated the WANT TO they will undoubtedly fall short of their potential.

What are some things or ways that you emotionally and intellectually engage your agents and staff to want to perform?