The Power of the Career Development Discussion

Career development discussion: a discussion between someone and his or her supervisor, for the purpose of helping him or her develop to his or her optimal capability over time.

Career development discussions are not new, though they have recently become a rising star among best practices across all employment sectors for retaining talented people. The biggest challenge is that most managers do not know where to start in having an effective career development discussion.

Why Career Development Discussions?

Simply put, career development discussions increase employee engagement. Consider how employees feel about their supervisor holding regular career development discussions with them, as evidenced by these five responses from employees:

In other words, career development discussions say more about a supervisor’s and employer’s commitment to the employee than just about anything else. They are seen as an investment of quality time in the employee’s future.

Consider the following employee engagement stats gathered from Gallup, Deloitte, SHRM, Buckingham and others showing the impact of employee engagement in the workplace. These make a compelling case to support regular career development discussions with employees.

How to Have an Effective Career Development Discussion

In order to have an effective career development discussion, you’ll need to have a little bit of structure. As a rule of thumb, the employee OWNS his or her own career development plan while the manager’s role is to be both a thinking partner and an accountability partner.

Stage 1: Planning for the Discussion

• Manager’s role: schedule the discussion; consider where the employee is in his or her career (developing, strong performer, or outstanding performer); and develop the initial questions to guide the discussion according to what is appropriate for the employee.

• Employee’s role: assess your own performance and determine where you are (developing, strong performer, or outstanding performer); identify an initial set of objectives; and develop a few questions you’d like to ask your manager.

Stage 2: Initiating the Discussion

• Manager’s role: ask the questions you developed earlier to help your employee explore where he or she is and where he or she might want to go.

• Employee’s role: bring an open mind and a hunger to learn; be prepared to ask questions in order to fully understand your manager’s guidance; make a commitment to implement specific strategies and actions; and take ownership of your own career development.

Bottom Line

Career development discussions are a best practice used by leaders and managers to develop their people. They are also an employee best practice when the employee takes ownership of his or her own career development.

This article was excerpted from Conducting Effective Career Development Discussions, the newest offering in Boyer Management Group’s Leading Through People curriculum.