How do you guide and support your team's professional growth? Can you describe a situation where you used your coaching skills to help a team member develop?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Situation: A Senior Data Engineer on my team demonstrated strong technical
skills and a desire to take on more responsibility, but needed guidance to
transition into an Architect  role.
Task: My goal was to provide the necessary mentorship and opportunities to help
them develop the skills and experience required for the promotion.
Action:I worked closely with the engineer, identifying key areas for growth such
as solution design, stakeholder communication, and leadership. I assigned them
challenging   projects involving architecture decisions, encouraged
participation in design reviews, and provided ongoing feedback. Additionally, I
facilitated access to training resources and  supported their efforts to obtain
relevant certifications.
Result: Through consistent mentorship and tailored opportunities, the engineer
successfully transitioned into an Architect role, contributing significantly to
the team’s ability to  deliver scalable and efficient solutions.

Anonymous · Answer

Following Answer is written in short answer format. Actual conversation done
would of course be much more plosihed and structured.

Use sandwich method. Highlight positive points and then come to improvement
points.
Set the expectations clearly for their role, Provide examples wherever needed.
For junior roles it will be more specific and for senior roles it can be
slightly open ended.

Take actual examples, Be data oriented in the conversation rather than giving
opinion that lack the foundation.
Highlight between what happened vs what could have been a better path.

listen throughly with an intent of improvement and not make it about mistakes
and what they did wrong.
Listen and help the them identify what approach changes are required.

In the end highlight the points existing string points again and end the
conversation with action items

How do you guide and support your team's professional growth? Can you describe a situation where you used your coaching skills to help a team member develop?

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