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:
- What are your long-term career goals? (This helps you gauge where they see themselves down the road.)
- What do you envision as your next step after this role? (This helps you understand their immediate aspirations.)
- Which opportunities excite you the most? (This reveals their passions and motivations.)
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:
- What progress have you made on [previously discussed goal]? (e.g., “Last time, you mentioned wanting to improve your public speaking. How’s that going?”)
- What challenges are you facing in your development?
- Where do you need support to overcome these challenges?
- Which underutilized skills or strengths would you like to develop further?
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. :
- Motivators: What drives the employee? Is it recognition, challenging work, or something else?
- Skills: What are their current strengths and areas for improvement?
- Aspirations: What are their short-term and long-term goals?
- Needs: What resources or opportunities would help them grow?
Sample questions to facilitate discovery may include:
- “Can you tell me about a recent project you really enjoyed? What made it engaging for you?”
- “What skills do you think are most crucial for success in your dream role?”
- “If you could shadow anyone in the company for a day, who would it be and why?”
- “What’s one thing we could change about your current role to make it more aligned with your career goals?”
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:
- Focus on progress and current challenges:
- “Based on what we discussed, what’s one concrete step you can take this week towards [goal]?”
- “What’s one skill you’d like to focus on developing over the next month?”
- Set timelines:
- “By when do you want to complete [action item]?”
- “Let’s set a check-in date for two weeks from now to review your progress.” (this can be a 5-10 minute check in, BTW!)
- Determine the support needed:
- “What resources do you need to accomplish this goal?”
- “How can I support you in this endeavor?”
- Plan for accountability:
- “How would you like to track your progress on this goal?”
- “Who else could you share this goal with for additional support or accountability?”
4. Sample Action Plan
Goal: Improve public speaking skills
Action: Volunteer to present at the next team meeting
Timeline: Next team meeting (2 weeks from now)
Support: 30-minute coaching session with manager to review presentation
Accountability: 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.
