Career meeting discussions to lead employee development

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Brad Copes, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

An effective employee development system to stay in the know on an employee’s shifting needs and goals, without a massive time commitment and needing to build meeting agendas, preparation, and templates from scratch.

I remember as a young manager and leader my colleagues and I use to joke about the subject line of an email or a text message that started with “So I’ve been doing some thinking”. Generally, those messages finished with some sort of “I’m not happy” and “I’m not going to be continuing in my role here”.

When we got these messages, we were forced into dealing with the situation reactively. It always felt like we were thrown in a “sales” position of trying to convince a person they had options. It didn’t feel like leading or coaching. It always seemed the thinking was done; they had already made up their mind.

It took me awhile to realize it, but what I really needed was to figure out how I didn’t get those messages in the first place. A tool I was taught was a formal career meeting. You formalize career meeting discussions, reviews, so that you are consistently and constantly aware of everything an employee is thinking about when it comes to their “FIT” and their “capabilities” in your company.

When have you been surprised by a shift in an employee’s perspective about their “FIT” or “Capabilities”?

Everyone is always thinking. What am I loving? What is frustrating me? What is next for me? What do I want to be different? These questions are constantly bouncing around in our heads. An employee is having this conversation regularly, maybe it’s internally, or even externally with important people in their life. Your role as a leader is to make sure you are present for this conversation. A leader is someone who helps guide someone to discover what someone wants out of their work.

Discover Questions:

What is important to you?
What do you want?
Tell me about where you think this comes from?
What is making this come up for you?
What would this truly help you accomplish?
What is so important to you about that?
What else might be important? More important?

What was the impact of being forced to reactively deal with the situation?

When you are late to the discover party and an employee is miles down the road on you the risk is you fall into reactively dealing with the situation. My experience is when getting caught off guard by an employee on this type of stuff we focus on managing the situation for necessary business objectives, rather than coaching the person to what is best for them. We miss a great conversation that can create potential alignment.

Align Questions:

How do you see what you are looking for aligning with what is important to the company?
How do you see what you are looking for aligning with our mission, vision, and values?
How can this have a positive impact on our customers, co-workers, company?
How can you contribute the best to the team?

When you are not thrust into reactive problem solving, you are more likely to respond with different hats. Hats that can truly benefit an employee who is thinking about career stuff:

Possibilities HAT
When: You sense an employee feels resigned and that they don’t have options. They seem “stuck” on conventional paths or “stuck” seeing any path forward. You sense an employee could benefit from thinking bigger.

Options:
If you ignored the past for a moment what might be possible?
If there were no rules to follow, what could you do?
If you were in a totally different industry what options might there be?
If you put aside your present-day obligations for a second, what would become possible?
If you looked at it this way for a second, what options would be available to you?

When: You sense an employee is stubbornly attached to one route forward. They seem “stuck” thinking there is only one path forward. You sense an employee could benefit from looking at things from a different perspective.

Options:
Will the way you want to move forward get you the results you want?
How else might you get to the same results?
How else might you achieve better results?
Have you considered any other ideas about how to make this happen for you?
Can I offer you a way to re-frame this challenge? (offer a different perspective – with no attachment – to investigate together)

Challenge HAT
When: You sense an employee doesn’t see a relevant GAP. They seem “stuck” with over-confidence or a potential blind spot. You sense an employee could benefit from looking at things from a different perspective.

Options:

What challenges do you see with where you want to go?
What GAP do you see you need to close?
Can I offer an observation that we might want to discuss? (Offer your observation – with not attachment – of the potential GAP you are observing)

How could you have been a better leader if given the opportunity to be proactive with the situation?

When you are utilizing a formal career meeting process as a component of your employee development system, you are a proactive planner. You are being a leader that is demonstrating to your employees that they matter. That you are thinking about them. You care about having a plan with them.

PLAN

Outcome:
Employee and supervisor have co-created the details (what, who, when, where, how) of a plan to execute what they aligned on the employee accomplishing.

What specifically do you want to achieve? What is the goal?
What specific things will help you achieve your development objectives?
When do you need to have these things completed by?
How will you measure completeness?
Who can best support you on this?
What do you need to make this happen?
How can we specifically support you on this?

If you are looking to up your game with the way you deliver employee development, we have free content on the topic. We have a preparation document, career meeting outline, and tons of questions for the toolbelt to help you lead employee development discussions. Feel free to connect with us at Bedrock Advising.