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The career conversations you have with your employees reveal their work aspirations – and ways to achieve them. Sounds simple enough. But a survey from Right Management found that just 16% of employees have regular career discussions with their managers. [1] Many managers, it seems, are reluctant to have these talks in case employees bring up expectations they can’t satisfy.
But career conversations are about so much more than promotions. The survey found that simply having these chats boosted engagement for 82% of workers. And 75% said the catch-ups help convince them to stay on with an organization. [2] Let’s look at some dos and don’ts of career conversations.
Five Dos
1. Do... Get Their Life Story
Wondering where to start the conversation? Management guru and former military leader Russ Laraway suggests at the very beginning. So, “Starting with kindergarten, tell me about your life.” [3] Do that and you can uncover what’s motivated people so far – and get insights about where they want to go.
Laraway gives the example of an employee who switched from cheerleading to swimming in high school. During the conversation, he found out she loved improving her lap times and challenging for a podium spot. This gave him the insight that she valued hard work and tangible outcomes.
Top tip: Listen for the patterns in your employee’s story. Ask why they made life decisions with probing, “Tell me more…” style questions.
2. Do... Dream Big
Forget the five-year plan. Go big and ask your employee about their dream job – or life. That’s what Amazon product manager Ei-Mang Wu asks his team members.
He suggests you ask for a few dream scenarios (in case some are what employees just think you want to hear). Once you know their ideal job, you can help them pick out the talents they possess and skills they need to build on to get there. [4]
Top tip: Ask questions such as, “What do you want to learn?”, “Who can teach you?” and “How can your current role shift?” Then work together to make a list of skills to develop.
3. Do... Ask “What’s Next?”
With all this talk of dreams, a good way to ground the discussion and agree next steps is to ask,‘What’s next?’ Together you can explore the development opportunities available at your organization (such as mentoring schemes) and external resources (like courses) to help fulfill their career goals. [5]
Top tip: End a conversation with a next step for you and your employee to take – then check up on progress next time.
4. Do... Make it About Now!
They may be about someone’s future, but author of It’sGood to Talk Antoinette Oglethorpe argues that good career conversations build people’s confidence – now.
“They hold up a mirror”, letting your employee reflect on strengths, skills and achievements to feel good about. You also help them identify any weaknesses they need to address to get better in their current job. [6]
Top tip: Paraphrase – frame what they’re saying in your own language. You’ll show you’re listening, get a clearer sense of their viewpoint and help them reflect on the conversation.
5. Do... Challenge People
In a study of over 100 UK employees, the biggest obstacle to open career conversations was perceived lack of interest from managers. Many workers felt managers were just going through the motions, saying what employees wanted to hear and ticking boxes. Employees perked up, the study found, when they were “pushed out of their comfort zone” and encouraged to consider their beliefs, any skills they could develop and how their colleagues perceive them. [7]
Top tip: Asking “What’s stopping you?” can help people see the real and imagined obstacles – and reveal opportunities to overcome them.
Five Don’ts
1. Don’t... Make Talks Too Formal
If you want to know your employee’s dreams, a stuffy office environment can lead to conservative answers.
For Oglethorpe, a good career conversation should “take place outside any formal management or HR process”. Location matters, too. If you’re team member is comfortable with it, try a coffee shop or breakout area you don’t need to pre-book. [8] These chats may be informal, but you should take time to prepare. You can ask your employee to send you their resumé, check over their personal development plan, or tell them in advance of any questions you’d like them to think about.
Top tip: You don’t have to wait for Dress-Down Friday to have an informal conversation. Sharing something from your personal life can help get the discussion flowing.
2. Don’t... Wait for an Annual Review
PDPs. KPIs. IDPs. It’s easy to be put off by abbreviations and the form-filling required by performance-style reviews. Leaving them to the last minute leads to rushed objectives and a reluctance to look back on them until the same time next year. For Laraway, the hurried discussions before these reviews are “imposter conversations”. [9] They look backwards, where good career conversations should focus on the future.
Top tip: Make time in your calendar to have regular career conversations. Then share your availability with your team and encourage individuals to book time with you.
3. Don’t... Start With a Destination in Mind
Oglethorpe recommends you avoid the “sat nav” approach to career conversations, where you follow pre-determined routes and what other people did. A good discussion, she argues, is more like orienteering, where you let the employee lead on where they want to go – and how to get there. [10] And even if their dream role isn’t available right now, you can identify the skills gaps and development opportunities to work on to get them ready when the opportunity does come up.
Top tip: Ask open questions to give people freedom to find what’s important to them. So, “What’s your greatest achievement so far?” and “What would you do if you didn’t have to pay the bills?”
4. Don’t... Fret About Promotions
Anxious about salary questions? Maybe you don’t have to be. To understand why people change jobs, LinkedIn analyzed the behavior of seven million of its users. It found the top reason to be lack of opportunities for advancement. [11]. But advancement doesn’t necessarily have to mean a promotion or more money.
Tellingly, the survey revealed a trend of employees moving from large to small organizations for a greater challenge, the ability to make more of an impact and find a better cultural fit.
Top tip: Brainstorm together how you can develop an employee’s current role. Can you delegate more responsibilities to stretch your employee? Or put them forward for a cross-functional project?
5. Don’t... Do it All
As a manager, you can share invaluable experiences about how you progressed your career. But that doesn’t mean you have to hold all the answers. Maybe you know a colleague with more relevant experience who you can put your employee in touch with. That way, you can help them build a network, raise their profile and be more visible to people who can have the greatest impact on their career.
Top tip: Talk about the people most important to your career. Who were they and how did they help you? This will help your employee find the right people to help shape their own career path.
References[2] Ibid.
[4] Alison DeNisco Rayome, ‘3 conversations managers should have with employees about career development’ (2018). Previously available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/3-conversations-managers-should-have-with-employees-about-career-development/ (accessed 19 June 2019).
