What Your People Need From You That You Might Be Missing People Clearly

People are retiring, new hires are rotating through faster than ever, and the knowledge your team depends on is walking out the door. If you’ve tried better training, tighter processes, and more feedback yet something still feels “off,” there’s a good chance the missing piece is not another program. It’s awareness.

I’m Debbie Peterson, and I dig into what your people might need from you that you could be overlooking, especially in financial services where knowledge transfer and employee retention are pressing leadership challenges. We explore why developing people is less about doing more and more about seeing the person in front of you clearly enough to respond well in the moment. That includes noticing overwhelm, spotting early disengagement even when performance looks fine, and adjusting how you delegate, coach, and create space for growth.

I also reframe mentoring as something that happens in the middle of the work, not only in formal mentoring programs or scheduled career chats. The moments that shape judgment show up when a problem lands on your desk and you decide whether to fix it fast, or stay with your teammate long enough for them to think it through. We unpack two common traps leaders fall into, and how “just in time mentoring” helps people build confidence, capability, and a real path forward.

If you want your team to stay, grow, and be ready for what’s next, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a leader who cares about their people, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And The Next Clear Move

Debbie Peterson 0:00

Hey, hello, and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity, and this is another episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast, your next clear move. Because you don't have to have it all figured out. You just need to know what your next clear move is. And today, to help you move in that direction, we're talking about what your people might need from you that you could possibly be missing. So stay tuned.

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Welcome to the Getting to Clarity Podcast.

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The place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life.

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Here's your host, Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity.

Development Means Seeing Clearly

Mentoring In The Middle Of Work

When Leaders Step In Or Vanish

Pause Notice Adjust And Invite Growth

Debbie Peterson 0:44

You know, one of the things I hear from leaders right now, especially in financial services, that tends to be where I do a lot of my work, is concern. Not just frustration, but concern because people are retiring, and then there is that uh knowledge transfer that likely isn't happening because new people are coming in, and that knowledge is walking out the door, and it can't be replaced with a training program or a training manual, no matter how good it is. Uh, newer employees are coming in and they're not always staying long enough, even to leverage the training that you might be giving them. And in the middle of all that, perhaps you are trying to figure out how to develop the people that you do have while creating an environment where they want to stay and grow. If that feels familiar, you're not alone because I know that I have been there myself. And the leaders that I hear this from, the people that I'm having these conversations with, they're not checked out, they're not coasting. They care about their people, they care deeply about their people. They're giving feedback, they're investing their time, they're doing all of the things that they have been taught to do, and still something's just not adding up. So, what I've come to see is that developing people is not about necessarily doing more for them, it's about seeing them more clearly. So, here's what I mean. It may sound simple, but it is something that I have found that most leaders have never been taught to do. So, in a recent conversation with uh a group in subrogation, um, I kept hearing the same ideas come up again and again. Meet people where they are, understand what they need at different stages in their life. Um, don't throw them in the deep end and hope that they're gonna figure it out. Help them see a way forward and see a future. Now, none of those things are complicated, but it does require something different than what most leadership training focuses on. It requires awareness, your awareness as a leader. So leaders who are able to develop their people well are not following a script or a checklist, just checking off the boxes. They're paying attention. They notice when someone is overwhelmed and when they may be ready for more. They notice when someone needs direction and perhaps when they need space. They notice when someone is starting to disengage, even if performance still looks fine on the surface. They can just detect that something is going on under the surface. So they sense this and then they adjust. Maybe not in a dramatic way, but in small, thoughtful ways. It could be in how they ask a question, how they frame an assignment, something they're asking of someone, in whether they step in to help them figure it out, or they step back, having given them some guidance to help them figure it out. So here's where development gets misunderstood. So these small adjustments are what actually create growth. And they are a great way to make sure that people are consistently growing. And one of the tools that can help you do this is mentoring, but not the very narrowed-down version of mentoring. It really doesn't serve people. So here's what I mean: we tend to think about mentoring as something formal, a program, uh a long-term pairing uh that's only focused on career goals. And mentoring is so much more than a scheduled conversation on a calendar. So, you know, focusing on career goals is great, okay? But if that is the only place that development is happening, then the true power of mentoring is being missed. Why? Because the moments that shape someone's growth do not usually happen in a scheduled meeting. They happen in the middle of the work. So they show up in how you delegate something to someone, in the questions that you ask when someone brings you a problem, in whether you take something back to take care of it, or you stay with them long enough to help them think it through. That is mentorship. Whether you call that mentorship or not, okay? And this is where I tend to see two patterns. Some leaders will step in too quickly. They want to solve the problem, clean it up, make sure it gets done right, it's efficient in the moment, but over time it teaches people to rely on the leader. That means you, instead of helping them to develop their own judgment. Other leaders go in the opposite direction. They delegate and they pull back, assuming that people will figure it out. But without enough context or support, that can feel like being left on your own rather than being developed. And neither approach consistently creates growth. And the work happens in the middle of that. It happens when a leader is present enough to recognize what this person needs right now and adjust accordingly. Consider it uh just in time mentoring, so to speak. So, what happens if this gets missed? Well, when people aren't getting guidance in the middle space, that middle ground, the impact shows up because people feel stuck. They don't see a path forward, they start maybe looking elsewhere, or maybe they stay, but they start checking out. And over time, that affects more than just individual performance. It reflects whether you have people who are ready to step into what's next. So let's ponder this. Where in your leadership might you be giving people what you think they need instead of understanding where they actually what they actually need? So, are there areas that that is happening? So, what might shift if you slow down enough just to notice what is really happening with the person in front of you before you decide how to respond? You know, treating every person as a person, and we're all different because developing people is not about having the right program. Programs can be helpful, it is about being able to see them clearly enough in the moment to respond in a way that's going to help them grow. And you might not get it right every time, but that's feedback for you. And this could be different kinds of conversations, you know, the conversations that I find myself in with leaders who care about developing the people that they're counting on next, it often starts with a simple pause just to reflect, to see, okay, what is actually happening? This is what I think is happening, but is what is actually happening. And then you choose how to lead from there. And if this is something that you're continuing to think about, great. That means that you care. And if you want to explore what it looks like to develop your people in a way that actually sticks, I would be happy to be in that conversation with you. And you can learn more about my speaking and leadership development work on my website at www.debypetersonspeaks.com. And until the next time, here is wishing you that awareness, that clarity that you deserve to develop the people that you have. So take care and bye-bye for now.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast with Debbie Peterson.

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If you enjoyed this show, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcast.

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To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit Debbie PetersonSpeaks.com.