Coach More, Manage Less

Career development discussions improve productivity and retention

As your team’s manager, it’s essential that you coach more, and manage less. That’s the key to creating a highly productive working environment.  One of the most important ways you can do this is to have annual meetings with each team member to review his or her career goals.  Not only does this show that you are concerned about them as individuals, but it improves productivity and retention.

Here are some ways to make these discussions enjoyable and as effective as possible. 

Since career discussions are typically held annually, don’t be surprised if they last up to two hours. An important aspect of holding these discussions is getting to know your team members better, so trying to squeeze them into a short time period sends the wrong message. 

To help your team members identify their longer-term career goals, you need to ask specific questions that spark their imagination. Questions that make them think about their interests, their unique skills, and what they love about their work can help them identify developmental opportunities they may want to pursue.
 
We recommend career discussion questions that focus on three areas – overall goals and needs; current role goals and needs; and potential future roles. Here are some of the specific questions you can use:
 

 
We recommend that you send your questions to your team members a few days in advance of your conversation. Ask them to write down their thoughts and share them with you before your discussion. This will help ensure you are prepared to respond effectively to the ideas and goals they express. 

Your role during the discussion is to ask your pre-planned questions, listen intently, then help your team member determine his or her goals. Ultimately, you want to help them create a short, specific career-development plan. The plan should identify at least one, but no more than three, priorities they’d like to pursue over the next year.
 
There is no certain format that the plan has to take. It can be as simple as just a few bullet points to outline their priorities and their follow-up actions. Some team members may wish to create more elaborate plans. The ultimate purpose of the written plan is to make sure that you and your team member have a reference point to make sure progress is being made.
 
Once you have identified goals, you will need to offer specific ideas to pursue. Here are some suggestions:
 
Take part in a company task force or special team assignments— If your organization has created an internal task force or special team to tackle a specific challenge, have your team members who are interested in the issue volunteer to be part of the project.

Lead a team initiative—If your team is facing a specific challenge, don’t feel like you always have to create the solution. Instead, assign a team member or a group of team members to explore the issue and create recommendations.

Attend external training courses—There are numerous training courses locally and online that your team members can take on topics of interest or to develop a specific skill set they need to advance in their career.

Read books or attend webinars—At times, taking an entire course isn’t necessary, so instead consider having your team member read a book or attend a webinar.

Take part in an industry conference—Having the opportunity to interact and learn from other professionals in your industry can give your team members exposure to information and ideas they don’t hear every day.

Become the team expert on a particular topic—Have your team member develop an in-depth, expert-level knowledge or skill set that’s unique. The act of developing the skill or knowledge will help them grow, and it will also help the team overall. 

It is important to clarify how often you and your team members will assess progress against their plans. These post-discussions give teeth to the coaching activity, so it’s more than just a nice conversation.
 
Your one-to-one follow-up meetings don’t have to be overly formal. Just review the plan with each team member. Ask about the actions they’ve taken in the last ninety days. Ask if they’re running into any challenges or roadblocks. Ask if there is anything more you can be doing to help them reach their goals.
 
The reason for doing this follow-up is to help hold your team members accountable for their career development. It’s easy for day-to-day work to take precedence over longer-term skill and knowledge development.  When your team members are busy, they may forget about the career-development work they have committed to do. Without you as an accountability partner, they’re more likely to put it on the back burner.