Rory McIlroy didn’t cheat at the Masters this month. He simply used every bit of access, time, and insight available to him as a past champion to prepare at Augusta National more deliberately than most of his competitors. He converted a structural privilege into a performance edge.
That’s exactly what great leaders do with development plans.
In the ADEPT People Management framework – Acquire, Develop, Encourage, Plan, Transition – Develop is about intentionally building skills, knowledge, and experience so your people – and you – enjoy ethical, earned, and sustainable “unfair advantages.”
From Talent To Unfair Advantage
Gallup defines a strength as a combination of talent, knowledge, and skill. Add experience and craft to that to get a more complete framework.
- Talent: Innate, naturally occurring preferences.
- Knowledge: Acquired through learning.
- Skills: Acquired through practice.
- Experience: Acquired through activities, projects, programs, roles.
- Craft-level artistic care and sensibilities absorbed through apprenticeships
You can’t manufacture talent. But like McIlroy, you can radically improve what you do with the talent you’ve got by investing in knowledge, skills, and experience.
We agree with Gallup that your focus should be on helping people get even stronger where they’re already strong, not trying to alchemize deep weaknesses into towering strengths. That’s like asking a short hitter to overpower Augusta: frustrating for everyone and unlikely to work. It’s far better to build on strengths and mitigate weaknesses in other ways – team design, process, and tools.
Development Plans as Designed “Augusta Access”
Too many development plans are thin performance repair tools: lists of problems to fix. That’s like only going to Augusta when you’re in trouble and hoping familiarity will appear by accident.
McIlroy did the opposite. He planned deliberately: skipped events, flew in and out, logged round after round, and treated Augusta as a craft to be mastered. Your job is to give your people that same intentional advantage – not on a golf course, but in the roles that matter most to your business.
Think of development plans as your way to grant structured “course access” to the things that truly drive performance.
Ten Steps To Build Unfair Advantages With Development Plans
Here’s how to turn ten classic steps into a strategic playbook.
1. Select the areas for development
Start with the most important drivers of performance in the role. Ask:
- What truly differentiates top performance here?
- Where does this person’s innate talent already point?
Like McIlroy choosing Augusta over random practice ranges, pick two or three strengths that matter disproportionately to your strategy.
2. Lay out a developmental objective for the period
Set clear, outcome-based objectives for roughly one year:
- “Become the go-to person for X.”
- “Lead Y-type project end-to-end with minimal supervision.”
If they achieve the objective, you and others should feel it as clearly as a Sunday back-nine charge.
3. Work out a developmental approach and plan
Blend knowledge, skills, and experience:
- Knowledge – specific content to master: markets, financials, technologies.
- Skills – deliberate practice: presentations, negotiations, coaching conversations.
- Experience – stretch assignments, high-visibility projects, real ownership.
This is your version of scheduling repeated practice rounds on the course that counts most.
4. Be explicit about the resources
Unfair advantages require investment:
- Money – training, conferences, coaching.
- Personnel – mentors, internal experts, cross-functional partners.
- Time – real calendar time blocked for development, not stolen from nights and weekends.
If you’re not willing to adjust workload, you’re not serious. McIlroy skipped tournaments; you may need to skip meetings.
5. Clarify the responsibilities of the person being developed
Development is something people own. Make explicit that they are responsible to:
- Show up prepared.
- Seek and use feedback.
- Reflect, practice, and track progress.
You can give them Augusta access, but they have to choose how many rounds they play.
6. Agree on your responsibilities as manager/coach
Your role is architect and caddie:
- Provide access to opportunities and rooms they wouldn’t enter otherwise.
- Offer real-time coaching, not just annual feedback.
- Protect development time and remove obstacles.
McIlroy had guidance and support; your people deserve the same thoughtful partnership.
7. Agree on timing and milestones
Convert the plan into milestones with dates:
- By Q1: complete X learning, lead Y meeting.
- By mid-year: present Z to the executive team.
This creates a rhythm akin to building towards a major – specific checkpoints, not vague good intentions.
8. Implement
Translate the plan into the operating system:
- Calendar invites.
- Project charters and role definitions.
- Stakeholder expectations.
If it’s not embedded in how you run the business, it’s a wish, not a plan.
9. Monitor and track
Use regular 1:1s to track:
- Leading indicators – reps, assignments, interactions.
- Lagging indicators – performance shifts, behavior changes, stakeholder feedback.
Treat this like tournament stats: learn from every round, not just the final scoreboard.
10. Adjust as appropriate
Conditions change. So should the plan:
- Double down where progress is strong and strategic relevance is increasing.
- Stop what isn’t working.
- Add new experiences as opportunities emerge.
Just as Augusta plays differently each year, your development plan should evolve with context.
Why This Is Your Real Competitive Moat
Capital, technology, and information are increasingly commodities. The sustainable moat is the rate at which your people compound their strengths relative to competitors.
McIlroy’s “unfair advantage” came from deliberate, repeated, focused preparation on the course that mattered most. Your equivalent is a disciplined, strength-centered approach to development plans that gives your people more – and better – reps on the situations that matter most.
Use the “D” in ADEPT not as a compliance exercise, but as a conscious strategy to create ethical, earned “unfair advantages” – for your people, for you, and for your business.
Key Takeaways
- You can’t build talent, but you can massively compound knowledge, skills, and experience.
- Great development plans focus on strengths tied to real performance drivers, not just fixing weaknesses.
- Done well, these plans are your equivalent of extra practice rounds at Augusta – structured, sustainable unfair advantages.
