A training certificate records participation. The more useful question for a manager and employee is what the employee can now do: lead a meeting, explain a delay or delegate a task.
Individual development plans (IDPs) connect career ambitions with learning, practice and evidence of progress. Alongside the employee’s actions, the plan should record the time, feedback and opportunities their manager will provide.
Choose a task and identify the support needed
Start with the employee’s aspirations and connect them to work they could realistically take on. Someone interested in supervision might need opportunities to allocate work; an aspiring account manager might want to lead client discussions.
Translate that ambition into a task. “Develop leadership skills” leaves plenty open to interpretation. “Brief a colleague on the weekly reporting process and agree checkpoints” gives both people a clear focus.
Then establish what is missing. Knowledge, practice, access to information and decision-making authority call for different responses.
An employee who needs help conducting client discussions in English could combine a business english course with rehearsal and feedback from a colleague. Someone who already has the relevant skills but rarely gets a speaking role needs their manager to create that opportunity.
Use a compact development plan template
A short shared document is enough to begin. Use these fields:
- Goal and target task: What career aspiration does this support, and what should the employee become able to do?
- Starting point: What can they already do, and where do they need support?
- Learning and practice: Which resources, observation opportunities or assignments will help?
- Employee actions: What preparation and practice will they undertake?
- Manager commitments: Who will provide feedback, arrange access, approve costs and protect learning time?
- Evidence and review date: What work will demonstrate progress, and when will both people discuss it?
Confirm the resources before finalising the timetable. Agree how practice will fit within working hours, including which existing tasks can move or be shared. Record who will make those arrangements.
Two examples of plans built around real work
These hypothetical examples show how the fields can become practical agreements.
Leading an international client update
An account coordinator wants greater client responsibility. They already prepare accurate progress notes but rely on their manager to explain delays and handle questions.
An eight-week plan could focus on leading a ten-minute update. Preparation would include observing an experienced colleague, rehearsing difficult explanations and delivering part of an internal meeting before taking a client-facing role.
The manager would reserve two rehearsal slots during working hours, arrange suitable meetings and provide feedback after each attempt.
At week eight, compare early and later updates against agreed behaviours: explaining progress clearly, clarifying questions and confirming actions. Keep the assessment focused on communication relevant to the task, rather than accent or personality. The feedback notes should identify both improvements and situations that still need rehearsal.
Delegating a recurring task
A senior administrator preparing for supervision currently assigns work verbally and takes it back when questions arise. Their six-week objective could be to delegate the weekly team report using a clear brief and agreed check-ins.
Preparation would start with observing a supervisor’s briefing, then drafting instructions covering purpose, deadline, quality expectations and decisions the colleague can make independently. Before the handover, the manager would confirm the colleague has capacity, clarify responsibilities and arrange to observe.
Review the written brief, the colleague’s account of what was clear or confusing, and how the administrator handled questions. Use the discussion to refine the instructions and agree how the administrator should respond when the colleague needs help.
Review progress and adjust the plan
Choose checkpoints that fit the task. A fortnightly activity needs a different timetable from a quarterly presentation. Agree the first review when writing the plan, with enough time for practice and feedback beforehand.
Bring actual work to the conversation: a briefing note, meeting summary, observed handover or specific feedback. Ask what the employee can now do with less support and where help is still needed.
Check the manager’s commitments too. Repeatedly cancelled rehearsals or a promised assignment that never materialised are problems to resolve before drawing conclusions about progress.
Decide whether to repeat the task, try a more demanding version, change the feedback arrangement or revise an objective that no longer fits. Finish with a named action, an owner and a date.