6 Strategies for Navigating the Career Development Maze
Is it just me, or does the concept of “Career Development” stymie many people? If you’re nodding along, you’re not alone. Employees often struggle to manage their careers, and managers grapple with how best to support them. (If you fall outside either or both of these camps, let me be the first this week to say, “Yay, you!”) When I’m working with managers, these questions frequently arise: These are all valid concerns. Let’s dive into some strategies and ideas to help you navigate the waters. 1. The Career Development Trifecta: A Three-Way Partnership Think of career development as a three-way partnership involving the employee, you (the manager), and the organization. This approach is most effective when it’s: Employee-driven – It’s ultimately up to the employee to identify and articulate where they want their career to go. Your job isn’t to figure this out for them. If they’re unsure, that’s okay! Your role is to partner with them and help them gain clarity. Manager-facilitated – As a manager, think of yourself as an air-traffic controller. Your job is to: Remember, you don’t need to have all the answers. Your primary task is to ask questions and guide them toward resources and opportunities. Company-supported – Most organizations have a vested interest in employee development. They often provide resources such as: Get familiar with what your company offers so you can direct your team members to these resources. 2. Redefine Career Development At its core, career development is about helping people grow. That’s it! This simple definition should take some pressure off. Your role is to: 3. Growth Isn’t Always Vertical Remember, “up” is not the only way to grow. Many employees are interested in learning and developing without necessarily seeking a promotion. Here are some alternative growth paths: 4. Look for Different Mediums to Help People Grow While providing information through articles, videos, blogs, trade publications, networking, and job shadowing is valuable, the real growth happens when employees apply newly acquired knowledge. To maximize learning: 5. Be Transparent Honesty is crucial in career development discussions, especially when addressing aspirations that may not align with current opportunities. When faced with such situations: 6. Ask for Help Remember, you don’t have to navigate career development alone. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure about how to support an employee: Remember, career development is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. By consistently engaging with your team members about their growth and aspirations, you’re not just developing careers – you’re building trust, boosting motivation, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
26 Questions to Transform your 1-1 Meetings
Do your 1:1s feel like a checkbox exercise? Are you walking away from these conversations, wondering if they really made a difference? (Or canceling them because they feel like a waste of time?) You’re not alone—and it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s All in the Questions Asking more questions can transform a routine check-in into a powerful tool for engagement, growth, and mutual understanding. Here’s the catch: you don’t need to have all the answers ready. Your role is to listen, understand, and partner with your team members to create their ideal work environment. While there is no single “right” question, here are 26 to help you get started and build your Question Library: 🤝 Building Authentic Connections 🔥 Understanding Motivators 📈 Fostering Development 🚀 Supporting Career Growth 💡 Pro Tip: Handling Tough Conversations When faced with requests you can’t fulfill, don’t dodge the conversation. When an employee requests something that is unlikely to happen, try: “I hear how important this is to you. While we can’t make this specific change right now, I’m committed to finding other ways to support you. What else could make a meaningful difference?” Great 1:1s aren’t about having all the answers—they’re about: Remember: The goal isn’t perfection. It’s progress, understanding, and creating an environment where both you and your team can do your best work.
4 Tips to Make Career Discussions More Effective
Last week, I offered different ways to think about career development. This week, I’m sharing a framework and scripts to (hopefully) make your life easier and help you support your team. Let’s jump in. It’s often a misconception that career development requires extensive time and effort. In reality, you can have meaningful, impactful discussions about career growth in as little as 5-10 minutes (yes, really!) The key is consistency and focus. If you can regularly have these conversations with your employees, you’ll be able to foster growth and engagement without the big, scary “career discussions.” Here’s a few ways to make those conversations efficient and effective: 1. Check-in Now is a good time to begin if you haven’t had a career conversation recently (or ever). Start with the big picture and then narrow the focus to shorter-term goals that serve the long-term goal. For instance: These questions help establish a foundation for future discussions and give you insight into the employee’s ambitions. You don’t have to have all the answers… you’re really just gathering information and starting to formulate ideas about how you can help the employee. If this is the first career conversation, it’s best to allocate 30-60 minutes for it. Once you’ve had this one, the rest will be much shorter. Remember, you’re building a foundation here! If you’ve started discussions with employees about their career growth, your check-in questions will be different. Why? Because these questions will help you track their progress, identify roadblocks, and give you insight into where you can support them. For instance: 2. Discovery The discovery phase is about digging deeper. The more questions you ask, the more that will come to light for you and the employee. : Sample questions to facilitate discovery may include: Remember, the goal is to gather information and help the employee gain clarity about their desires and potential paths forward. 3. Action Planning Now, you can help employees create a roadmap based on previous discussions. Partner with them to create one to three action steps they can take in service of their goals. Because a decision without action is just an intention! For instance: 4. Sample Action Plan Goal: Improve public speaking skillsAction: Volunteer to present at the next team meetingTimeline: Next team meeting (2 weeks from now)Support: 30-minute coaching session with manager to review presentationAccountability: Share the presentation outline with a peer for feedback By following this framework, you can turn brief, regular conversations into powerful tools for career development. The key is consistency. Integrating career conversations into the regular cadence of your employee discussions makes career growth easier and more efficient for you and the employee.
You’re Networking All Wrong
Not sure if it’s the time of year, the economy, or something else all together, but I am getting a lot of requests from people to “keep them in mind” if I hear about open roles. If you’ve read my notes for any length of time, you know I love networking. I think networking is a critical life skill. I love connecting people who can mutually benefit from knowing each other. And, when I was last looking for a job (2005) people were so generous with their time and introductions, I always want to pay it forward. I routinely receive emails to the effect of: Hey Sarah – How’s it going? It’s been a while since we last spoke, and I’d love to reconnect. I’m looking for a job and I was hoping you could keep your eyes and ears open for me for any [type of job] you hear about. I’d also appreciate introductions to people that you think would be good for me to connect with.” Thanks, Name There are three challenges with this: Here’s where we pull a lesson from Jerry McGuire: Make it easy for people to help you and support your search efforts! If you’re looking for a job and asking people to support you, minimally, offer them the following information: Alternatively, you can download a blank Networking Profile form here. Use this in conjunction with, or in lieu of your resume (depending on the networking situation.) What’s the difference between the two? Your resume is past tense. It speaks to the experience that’s behind you. Helpful. To a point. The Networking Profile is future-focused. It tells people what you’re looking for in a new role, supported with a few bullets of relevant experience, and lists companies you’re targeting. Most importantly… It gives people a call to action! Because you have listed 40 companies of interest* you can then say to someone: “These are the companies I’m targeting for my networking. I’d welcome an introduction if you have colleagues in any of these organizations.” *Yes, you can and should list that many companies or more. Minimally, go for 20. You don’t need to want to work at all of them. You are networking. The goal is to meet as many people as possible and gather data about companies and industries as you do. Before you end any networking conversation, ask how you can help the person you’ve been speaking with. It’s literally as easy as: “I really appreciate your time today. Is there anything I could do to support you?” Finally, if during the course of your networking, you find there’s an opportunity to introduce people in your network, please use the “double opt-in.” This means you have permission from both people to go ahead with the introductions before you fire off an email. Doing so respects that not everyone has time for networking in the immediate present, and there are some instances where people will decline the invitation. My experience is that the majority of time, people say “yes” to an intro, but give them the option to do so vs. making an assumption that it’s ok to send someone their way. Finally (no, really, this is definitely my last point), when you make the intro, provide some context for both parties. I usually say how I know each person and articulate why I am making the introduction. Most of the time I will also hyperlink their LinkedIn profiles to their names in the email to make it easier for them to find each other online. And with that, my good people, I am hopping off the soapbox.
One Simple Change to Radically Improve Your Work
We live in a relationship economy. Work gets done with and through other people. Full stop. “Doubling down” and working harder, “figuring it out” on your own, and burning the wick at both ends is an express lane to burn out. We are social beings. We are not meant to exist in isolation. When we engage our networks, internally and externally, we open ourselves up to innumerable possibilities and benefits. So you can see why I’ve included Connection as one of the anchors of the Leadership Fluency Framework. It’s silly to think we can “go it alone” and be successful. Here are just four ways real-world examples of how tapping into your network can support you: Increased Productivity →I used to work for a large multinational organization. My friend Sue worked for a burgeoning tech company. We routinely shared (non-proprietary) information so that we didn’t have to create programs from scratch. For example: “Hey, got any information on performance management I can share with my leadership team?” “I need to help managers understand the basics of compensation. Have you done anything like this before?” While the cultures were vastly (VASTLY!) different, this gave us each a starting point for our respective projects. Support → I’m running a women’s mastermind group. Recently a topic of discussion was “Sharing bad news with the CEO.” Participants were able to offer experience and insights to each other that helped them prepare for challenging discussions. This was also tied to increased productivity and diversity of thought, since these leaders weren’t sitting in a vacuum alone trying to figure out their best approach. They crowd-sourced information to identify the best path forward. Diversity of Thought → Since 2016, I have been partnering with NEHRA to create, deliver, and tweak the Executive HR Women’s Leadership Program. (The application window is now open for the September cohort!) Every year, we review what worked and what needs to shift based on evolutions in the HR space. To do this, NEHRA pulls in different Chief People Officers or subject matter experts to offer insight and deliver new content. In doing so, we have input from a wide range of companies and industries and are able to create a robust offering to women who aspire to the C-Suite, with information that is widely applicable. The diversity of thought is much greater than if the organization were to create something on its own. Covering Your A$$ (in a good way) → I rely heavily on Katelyn to get this note out every week. (Really, if I was doing it solo, there would be no weekly note!) Last week there was a confluence of situations that resulted in me being overtired, overwhelmed, and confused about dates, specifically for a recent note. I was equally grateful and relieved when she texted early on a Saturday morning to ask if I had made the changes I said I wanted to make to the test email. Without her, you would not have heard about 28 Ways to Support Your Wellbeing. 🙂 Need more ideas? Head on over to my blog – I have several articles on networking that can support you – here, here, here, and here. Bottom line, look for opportunities to engage with your network and watch what happens next!
How a Russian Playwright Can Improve Your Communication
In the past, we have talked about communication and that sometimes fewer words is more effective. Let’s continue with that theme, shall we? If you’re like me and have the attention span of a gnat and don’t want to read the last post, here’s the summary: When we throw too many words at our audience, we risk boring, confusing, or annoying them and diminishing our personal presence in the process. (Have I mentioned lately how much I adore alliteration? Did you see what I did there?) 🙂 If you need a brain hack to remind yourself to stick to the salient facts, look no further than Chekhov’s Gun to keep you on track. Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright (and physician.) Chekhov’s Gun is a narrative principle he created which states that if you’re writing a story, you only include elements that contribute to the story and eliminate anything that is irrelevant. So if you’re writing a book (or play in his case), and somewhere in your book you introduce a gun, at some point in the story, the gun needs to become part of the narrative. There has to be a reason it was mentioned. While this theory was intended to help burgeoning playwrights, it can easily be adapted to the spoken word as well. Most people seem to want to provide context and details. There is absolutely a place for this. If you are introducing an org change or team restructure, you want people to understand how the decision was made and the who, what, where, when and how of the shift. In other cases, however, context is not needed or irrelevant. Let’s look at a basic example. Suppose you’re in a meeting and the executive team is asking when you can produce a deliverable. Option one: “Well, I know we have a report due on Friday and I’m on vacation next week. I need to look at my calendar because the kids are off tomorrow for teacher professional development day, and I also need to check with the team and see who has capacity to help and…” Option two: “Let me regroup with the team and I will confirm with everyone by the end of the day.” Or, let’s say you’re late to a meeting. Option one: “I’m so sorry… my computer was super slow this morning and then it decided to reinstall Teams and then I had to reboot and in the process, I spilled coffee all over my desk…” Option two: “My apologies for being late. I was having technical issues.” Storytelling is a wonderful communication tool. When the stories are memorable, they make it easier for the listener to retain the information (a picture paints 1,000 words!) “Memorable” is the operative word here. The minutiae of our day to day lives is typically not memorable, or additive to our narrative. The next time you find yourself starting to “explain”, think of Chekhov.
4 Questions You Need to Ask to Improve Your Communication
The power of your communication is inverse to the length of your explanation.
Often, when we keep talking we only serve to confuse (or bore) our audience and the point we were trying to make gets lost amid an onslaught of words
Why Playing Small Is Holding You Back at Work
I’ve learned that there is not much to be gained by playing small. BUT, making small changes can really add up over time.
When People Pleasing Please Everyone but You
Have you noticed how prevalent “people pleasing” is? Lately, it has been popping up in conversations everywhere – with clients, friends, and in my own internal narrative. For example, not long ago, I did some mental gymnastics when a potential client and I were not aligned on pricing. (Should I just say no? How can I just say no? How can I preserve the relationship? Blah, blah, blah.) Or, consider a friend who recently shared an anecdote in which I observed that she couched her comments when she would have been better served to be more direct. Me being me, (and with a lot of trust equity in the relationship) I couldn’t help myself. Me: “I’m wondering if in an effort to not offend people, you inadvertently end up making your own life more difficult and possibly confusing others in the process.” Friend: “Yes! That is totally true.” My friend is not alone in this. There have been many times I have tried to soften my communication when I was afraid of how someone might respond. Would I upset them? Would they disagree with me? Etc. Many clients have shared similar lines of thinking. How about you? Does this resonate? While there is nothing wrong with nuancing language, too much fluff (or over-explaining*) obscures the point you’re trying to make. It can also confuse your audience. As a result, there’s a domino effect that might look something like this: In other cases, maybe your communication was clear, and you’ve simply ignored your own needs and priorities and ceded your agency to accommodate someone else’s needs, wants, and desires. They walk away happy and you walk away frustrated, irritated, resentful, or ticked off for not speaking up for yourself. As with most things in life, I do think there’s a balance. Some scenarios call for us to yield to another and are better for it. Other times, we need to put our own needs first. If your practice is routinely to put others’ needs ahead of your own, and not self-advocate, that’s a quick path to burnout. And if you’re burned out (burnt out?) you are no good to yourself or anyone else (says she, Queen of the Obvious.) So, how can you get out of people-pleasing? The first step is to pause. Take a beat, even if it’s only a minute or two. Then, ask yourself the following questions before you say “Yes.” to someone: If you can answer “Yes.” to any of these questions, you may want to explore how and where people-pleasing is showing up for you and the impact it has on your life.
Why Great Leaders Embrace Practicing
As I was wrapping up for the day, I heard a knock on the front door. I assumed it was my neighbor returning something. Almost immediately came another knock and then another. “OK, not my elderly neighbor,” I thought. He wouldn’t knock so impatiently. Upon opening the door, I find two tow-headed six-year-olds and a tow-headed four-year-old. It was the neighbors’ kids—Halloween buckets in hand. Ryder: “Do you have any candy?” Me: “You guys know it’s not Halloween yet, right?” Wyatt: “Yeah, but we’re going trick or treating without our parents this year, so we’re practicing.” (The conversation ensued from there, with Jack, four years old, piping in with, “Yeah, we’re going without our parents this year.” To which the older boys responded, “You’re too young to go without parents.” This did not go over well with Jack, but I digress…) My predominant thought was, “What a great leadership lesson.” I’m not sure about you, but I don’t love not being good at something. Because (you’ve heard me say this before) “OMG, what will people think?” But these kids were shameless. They were proud of themselves for getting out and practicing their door-knocking skills. It didn’t occur to them to not practice something as important as trick or treating. When was the last time you saw that in a corporate environment? Whether trick or treating without parental supervision, building presentation skills, or learning to lead others, etc., there’s no shame in being new at something and spending time practicing. If you need more motivation to not be perfect at something, check out this post. By nature of its definition, “practice” implies that we’re learning. What areas in your career or personal life could benefit from unashamed practice?