As a manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your reports feel comfortable discussing their professional development sessions and they are presented with opportunities that will help them grow. In this guide, we outline the process that individuals can adapt to have a successful career discussion with their managers and share seven practical tips that the managers can implement.
Don’t cancel or reschedule the career session
Unless it’s unavoidable, do not cancel.
- By doing so, you are reflecting priority of meeting to be lower for you, which will impact the trust the employee has in the team or company.
Prepare for the professional development meeting
Leverage regular 1:1s to gauge your report’s interests and aspirations
- Go over the meeting agenda and contribute if needed
- If this is not the first career discussion meeting, refer to meeting notes from previous meetings to pick up the discussion from where you left off
Build SMART goals
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goals ensure that the employee is setup for success
- Use specific wording Include measurable goals Aim for realistically attainable goals Pick relevant goals that relate to your business Make goals time-bound by including a timeframe and deadline information
Provide feedback during the meeting
Career discussion meetings are a great forum to give informal feedback to your reports
- Collect feedback from your report’s co-workers and stakeholders ahead of the meeting and combine that with your own personal feedback for them
- The feedback should be well rounded and should clearly outline their superpowers, accomplishments, and scope of improvement
Implement a follow-up mechanism
Discuss what mechanisms should be set to enforce the plan
- Monthly check-ins
- Asynchronous meeting
- Use a collaborative tool to capture the milestones and next steps discussed in the career discussion meeting and keep updating the document as progress is made
Understand Your Report’s Motivation
Knowing what keeps your report going will help you customize your discussion and opportunities to fit with your report’s vision and professional growth.
Drive the meeting agenda to arrive at the expected meeting outcome
It is important to stick to the agenda and ensure that you’re driving towards achieving the expected outcome.
- If you think the end outcome cannot be achieved, communicate that to your report as soon as possible to reset expectations.
