"Contributing to the career advancement of your employees, a win-win strategy" - Déborah Romain-Delacour

Déborah Romain-Delacour holds a doctorate in social psychology and is an occupational psychologist and author specializing in the development of professional potential and talent acquisition. After 10 years in managerial positions, she now puts her field experience and highly practical approach to work for the companies she supports.

In this interview, Déborah talks about the importance managers should place on the professional development of their teams.

What's the difference between personal and professional development?
Is the boundary between the two so obvious?

Personal development is the conscious working out of oneself, with the aim of positive evolution. It aims to bring the individual's intrinsic nature into line with his or her aspirations and the environment in which he or she evolves, by making the most of his or her talents and potential.

This work helps to increase self-awareness, consolidate existing skills or develop new ones, and improve interpersonal contact.

Professional development is identical, except that it is geared towards the world of work. The latter focuses on career objectives, and enables the construction of a professional trajectory. It's simply a change of context.

In this way, personal development and professional development are based on the same techniques, designed to enhance strengths, creativity, initiative, autonomy and efficiency. They also prepare individuals to mobilize the appropriate means and tools to achieve these goals.

More concretely, these techniques can be used to unblock private or professional situations, such as :

• motivate teams or yourself,
• managing time more effectively,
• communicating more assertively, whether with children, partners or colleagues,
• supporting change,
• improving performance,
• manage stress,
• etc.

They call on what we call soft-skills. These are social, emotional and behavioral skills that can be learned, and which are increasingly essential in a constantly changing organizational world, where technical skills quickly become obsolete. Self-development gives access to greater flexibility, essential for cultivating efficiency and serenity in the workplace.

Why is it in a company's interest to support its employees' professional development?

Today, many employers have realized that it is essential to put their employees' professional development at the heart of company policy.

Why is this? Because that's exactly what employees want. Talented professionals want to work for companies that give them the opportunity to develop their skills, enrich their knowledge, learn and progress - in short, to advance their careers while enjoying personal fulfillment.

In this sense, managers must attach importance to the professional development of their teams. If they don't, this could have negative consequences on the morale and productivity of their employees, who will not feel appreciated for their true worth. In this case, it seems likely that these discouraged employees will decide to leave the company to work for a competitor.

So how do you show employees that their manager, and more generally their company, supports their professional development? Here are a few tips:

• Take a genuine interest in employees' career objectives
• Develop a learning environment that encourages training and learning.
• Safeguard the work-life balance by implementing concrete strategies (right to disconnect, fight against presenteeism, etc.).

Professional development is a lever for success and efficiency. Neglecting it would be a major strategic error.

How can we support them in this?

She can support them in two ways:

👉 Collectively: by offering managers as well as employees, training actions or collective coaching sessions related to personal development, such as:

• emotional management,
• communication,
• time management,
• self-confidence,
• decision-making techniques,
• solving complex problems,
• entrepreneurship,
• etc.

By offering managers training to become manager coaches, focusing in particular on benevolent management methods.

👉 Individually: by offering personalized support to employees who want it, such as professional coaching.

Of course, it's important not to lose sight of the fact that contributing to the career advancement of your employees is always a win-win strategy. The return on investment will not be long in coming: less absenteeism, less presenteeism, increased motivation and performance, and a better social climate.

What is the key role of managers?

A large part of professional development concerns interpersonal interactions, and in particular improving communication skills to build harmonious, positive relationships with others. These communication skills are at the heart of the manager's profession, and are the key to success in this role.

Being a good manager is difficult, but it can be learned. And there's no shortage of training courses on offer.

In my opinion, the essential points for a good manager are as follows:

• Know yourself well enough to take on the role of leader
• Building a secure and stimulating development framework for your colleagues
• Master the art of communication, of course
• Know how to organize and manage time
• Knowing how to generate confidence in your staff
• Unleash your company's talents
• Flexibility in project management
• Demonstrating professional courage
• And last but not least, cultivating benevolence at work.

It is essential to train managers in the tools of benevolent communication and coaching. On a day-to-day basis, they themselves can become true manager-coaches, ensuring the progress and fulfillment of their employees.

Do you think they are sufficiently prepared for this? Especially since the recent widespread adoption of telecommuting has forced companies to adopt remote management.

No. And yet, with the spread of telecommuting, the manager's role in the company has never been more important.

It's because people are so far away that human skills need to be developed more than ever. Remote managers have to learn how to manage their teams, using specific devices (video conferences, collaborative tools, etc.), and learning new relational techniques.

Generally speaking, human skills are essential, and can be learned from books or training courses. In concrete terms, they enable us to adopt the right social behaviors by mobilizing the tools and methods of empathy, active listening, emotional intelligence, stress management and positive communication.motional intelligence, stress management and positive communication, to better support teams, both face-to-face and remotely, on the path to individual and collective success.

For example, it is important for a manager to know how to detect stress and the risks of overwork, to respect the right to disconnect, and to make it a point of honor to ensure effective separation of work and private life for everyone, including himself. Because a "good" manager is also a man or woman who feels good about himself or herself, and who knows how to apply to himself or herself what he or she advocates for others.