Why Professional Development is a Startup Superpower — A former boss of mine always said, "More sweat on the training field, less blood on the battlefield." This long-term mindset is essential for startups. As your company grows, so must the skills of your team. The time to build those skills isn't when a crisis hits — it's now. By planning ahead, you can identify what skills your company will need in six months or a year and start preparing your team accordingly. This proactive approach gives your startup a competitive edge while boosting employee satisfaction and retention.

Create A Professional Development Plan For Each of Your Employees — To make it easy for you to get started, I've attached a pro forma version of a professional development plan I've used for myself and numerous people I've managed. Click on the template. I'll walk you through the various elements you and your employee should first discuss and then fill in:

Training Process — This confirms the time period the employee will work with their manager and how often they will review progress made against this plan (as well as where additional effort is needed). Most professional development plans are on a year-long basis but can be for shorter periods if accelerated training is required.

Overall Training Objective — The employee and their manager must be thoughtful about identifying the "big idea" regarding where they want to focus the employee's training efforts. Realistically, the employee will only be able to tackle one or two of these overall training objectives in a year. Some examples of these include:

• Develop Executive Presence — Enhance communication, persuasion, and influence skills.
• Improve Strategic Decision-Making — Apply structured decision-making frameworks in key business decisions.
• Strengthen Team Leadership — Implement leadership coaching and improve team engagement.
• Master AI-Powered Marketing Analytics — Leverage AI concepts and tools to improve campaign effectiveness.

Since I'm familiar with marketing, I will use the last example of an overall training objective ("Master AI-Powered Marketing Analytics") for this article. I could have used any of the other examples (and many others) as a starting point, depending on what the employee and their manager want to focus on.

Performance Expectations— This takes the employee's overall training objective and breaks it into more manageable areas to focus on. For example, if the overall training objective is to master AI-powered marketing analytics, your performance objectives could include the following:

• Learn statistical and machine learning concepts relevant to marketing analytics (e.g., predictive modeling and customer segmentation).
• Conduct a pilot project using AI analytics to optimize audience targeting and content personalization.
• Develop a reporting framework to measure AI-driven campaign performance and make iterative improvements.

Training Steps — This is where the development plan gets even more granular in terms of the specific training steps and actions the employee will take (with the help of their manager) to master the overall training objective and performance expectations. Continuing with the example from above, this might include the following details:

• Enroll in a course or workshop on AI marketing platforms (e.g., Google Analytics 4, HubSpot AI, ChatGPT for marketing, Adobe Sensei, etc.).
• Complete practical exercises using AI-driven insights to optimize real-time marketing campaigns.
• Obtain certification in at least one AI marketing tool to validate proficiency.

There has never been a better time to access different ways to complete training on various skills and topics. Affordable​​ e-learning, virtual training, and AI-driven platforms have surged, reducing dependency on in-person workshops.

Mentors in your company and the industry are another valuable resource. Hundreds of online courses are available — one of my favorites is www.sectionschool.com. Your employee can also join professional networks, and assuming the company is willing to invest in this as a resource for the employee, there are individual coaching and team coaching opportunities.

What The Manager Will Do—The company must prioritize employee training, and managers must commit in writing to working closely with their employees on their development plans. Having worked with many outstanding employees over the years, I have witnessed employees often master new skills and take on new responsibilities based on their professional development plans. However, the employees' progress and development will suffer unless their manager is willing to take the time and effort to support them.

Projects and Initiatives Offering Training Opportunities — Learning a new skill is not enough — the employee needs to implement it in the business to master it. Once the employee and manager have agreed on their overall training objective, performance expectations, training steps, and what the manager will do to support them, they should spend time identifying ways the employee could apply these skills to grow the business.

For example, continuing with the example from above, the employee could develop a plan to analyze which aspects of the company's marketing programs could be improved via AI and start a test to prove the value of this before full implementation.

Plan the Work, Work the Plan — In the rush to do everything a startup needs to do, it takes a lot of discipline and focus to create a professional development plan for employees and their managers and to implement it closely with them.

Investing in employee growth doesn't require significant capital—just time, effort, and commitment. Developing professional development plans for your employees will require considerable work from your team. I suggest initially having several employees utilize a professional development plan with their managers. After a few months, get their feedback, and then, based on their results, consider leveraging it for the rest of your company.

The payoff? A more capable, motivated team that stays longer and contributes more to your startup's success. Incorporating this development opportunity for your employees will enhance your company's overall success while increasing their satisfaction and professional growth. It will also give your company a competitive advantage that will grow over time.

Thomvest works with founders and business leaders who have created industry-leading companies in fintech, proptech, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. If you are an early-stage founder in one of these areas or if there is something we can do to help your startup succeed, don't hesitate to contact me at kip@thomvest.com.