By Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni authors of "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want."
Career development may be the most misunderstood concept in management today.
Listen to exit interviews (and water cooler conversations) and you’ll hear clues to one of the greatest challenges facing organizations and their leaders today.
“I stopped learning new things...”
“The organization didn’t know how to leverage my talents and skills...”
“I no longer had opportunities to grow my capacity...”
“I just wasn’t staying current or prepared for the future...”
“I really need a leader who’ll just help me identify and evaluate options for moving my career forward...”
“It just felt like there was no way for me to develop my capabilities...”
“Given the current environment, I really need to focus on becoming and remaining highly marketable...”
Employees everywhere are yearning to grow, learn, and stretch themselves.
Study after study confirms that development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving retention, engagement, productivity, and results. These same studies also confirm that developing employees is among the leadership skills ranked lowest by employees and managers alike.
How is it possible that something that can make such a difference - on an individual and business level - isn’t happening as well or as frequently as it should? It’s not a lack of budget, skill, or even willingness. The career development problem boils down to confusion.
Leaders are deeply confused about what career development is.... and isn’t.
When we ask managers what career development means to them, what we get are lengthy descriptions of forms, checklists, and deadlines. We hear explanations about how little time is available to engage in these processes. We are educated in the flattening organization that offers no room for growth or promotion. And we hear about the heavy burden associated with being responsible for other people’s careers.
Career development does not demand forms, processes, or even new roles. It demands conversation. Genuine and meaningful development occurs through the human act of conversation. It’s that simple... and that difficult.
When we redefine career development in this way, the administrivia is left in the dust... along with a lot of the problems that the old definition brought with it.
Time is no longer an issue: No one will disagree that time is among the scarcest resource available today. But, managers are already having conversations... probably all day long. What if they could redirect some of that time and some of those conversations to focus on careers?
A new career contract is introduced: When career development is redefined in terms of conversation, all that managers can (and should) feel accountable for is guiding, encouraging, collaborating on, and supporting the effort. When a manager really internalizes this reality, it produces a powerful energetic shift. The weight of responsibility lifts, allowing managers to approach the task with greater energy and creativity than when it was another of their many ‘duties.’ This transfer also ensures that employees have some skin in the game. Personal ownership enhances their engagement, interest, commitment, and results.
Expectations and moves are replaced with enriching experiences: Promotions and moving up the corporate ladder are simply not part of today’s delayered, leaner approach to business in many organizations. So how then does development occur? Through conversation, employees and managers can jointly craft experiences that leverage talents and build the skills that employees want and need. It might be leading a team, analyzing data, or getting to know new customers. And, this is smart business because while the employee is developing, important work gets done simultaneously.
Shifting how we define career development is the first step toward helping managers shift their thinking. A new definition helps leaders go from dazed and confused to engaging in conversations that deliver. And from there, all things are possible.
Source: Beverly Kaye: Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want
Beverly Kaye is founder and co-CEO of Career Systems International, specializing in engagement, retention, and development. She is a well-known keynote speaker, writer, and developer of innovative learning tools. [email protected].
Julie Winkle Giulioni is cofounder and principal of DesignArounds, a bicoastal consulting and instructional design firm. She works with organizations globally to develop and implement learning that works. [email protected].