Do you have your personal growth plan?
Do you know what you want to develop, in which directions to grow?
Do you know what you lack and where to find information?
Do you understand what is needed to reach the next level?

Our team leads help build growth plans for their colleagues in the team. An outside perspective, we try to match what interests the person and what the company needs. As a result, we divide tasks, who will do what.

Yesterday, while talking with a colleague team lead about growth plans, it occurred to me that the responsibility for a person’s growth lies with the person themselves. 🤯

I mean, as a team lead, I can create a plan for a person, identify growth areas and 100 technologies worth knowing. I can set checkpoints when we will check the plan, change the plan and give feedback. But I, as a lead, (almost) do not influence whether the person will grow or not. I, as a lead, am not responsible and not accountable in this story (RACI). Therefore, achieving any results is not my achievement, not my KPIs, it is the KPIs of the people who follow their plans. Or do not follow. But that’s their business. 🤷🏼

Therefore, the completed growth plans of colleagues are not my merit. It is the merit of everyone who made it.

And my completed plan is my merit.