I woke up, quickly checked my e-mail, jumped into the shower, grabbed a banana, half a bagel and my coffee, and ran out the door. I was going to be working in the field that day with the fifth-rated representative in my district, Tom Cook. I was expecting a typical field day: We would meet at Ryan's Diner on Post Road and talk about what doctors we were going to see and how the territory was performing. I found myself less than enthusiastic; in fact, I was a bit bored with the idea of working with Tom. I had already ridden with him in the field four times that year, and he was making sufficient progress on his sales performance. What I did not realize was that this day would be anything but typical.

The development conversation

During our meeting at Ryan's, our conversation shifted from the agenda for the day and focused on Tom's interest in posting for a new position in specialty sales. I had not realized that Tom was interested in the infectious disease team; in fact, I didn't think Tom was ready. However, when he asked me for my thoughts, I found myself struggling to find reasons why he should not post. He had been in his current assignment for nearly three years, he was reliable and he'd had an above-average year of sales performance.

"Tom, you have good selling skills and are a good team player," I said. "I am just not sure you have the clinical expertise required to sell in the infectious disease marketplace."

Upon hearing this, Tom became defensive. He replied, "What makes you say I do not have the clinical expertise?"

I shared examples that I felt supported my statement. However, I then realized something very disturbing. When I pulled out Tom's development plan, I noticed that it contained very little direction on how to enhance his clinical knowledge. Instead, it encouraged him to focus on augmenting his selling skills by using more third-party reprints, and it lacked specific, action-oriented advice on how this should be done.

Year-round development

At this point, we agreed to come back to the discussion at the end of the day so we could start making sales calls. As we headed for Dr. Spencer's office, I realized my mind was still back at Ryan's. Had I done a disservice to Tom? What should I do next? We made a few more calls, and finally I said, "Let's find a place to sit down for a few minutes."

As we sat at the booth, I began to do what I should have been doing on all our previous field rides. I pulled out Tom's development plan and discussed his progress to date. I clarified his short-term and long-term goals and asked him to list his current assessment of his strengths and areas needing development. We evaluated his use of the resources involved in the plan to support his development, and together we agreed that he would need to sharpen his clinical expertise before applying for a position in specialty sales – with my full support. It turned out to be one of the best conversations we'd had in a long time.

I drove home at the end of the day listening to my voice mail. Abruptly, I pulled out the earpiece in the middle of a message when a thought struck me: When was the last time I'd had this type of conversation with my other team members? I realized I did not have a good sense of where they were in comparison with their development goals, and the year was quickly coming to a close.

My day with Tom helped me realize that development conversations should not happen only once or twice a year. They should happen every time I am with a member of my team. Questioning my folks on how they were doing was merely eliciting a description of their product ranking, physician prescribing and activity management. I was not going deep enough often enough, and I was only managing their performance – not their careers.

With a renewed sense of purpose, my field rides for the next several weeks contained much more robust discussions that included some of the following questions:

• How are you doing with your personal goals so far this year?
• Have your career goals changed?
• What books or tapes have motivated you or helped you fine-tune your professional skills recently?
• What can I do to help you further develop in your current role to prepare you for future opportunities?