3 career development questions to stop asking employees
3 Career Development Questions to Stop Asking Employees
This period of transition between the constraints imposed by the global pandemic and the return to business as usual (or as usual as it will ever be) has been a time of renaissance for many organizations. It's been a chance to reimagine fundamental value propositions. To be creative. To innovate new ways to use technology in order to better serve customers. To rethink how work is accomplished.
This period of transition and the tightening labor market have also inspired many organizations to reimagine the employee experience — everything from the location and timing of work to a range of innovative benefits tailored to the current talent pool.
Thus, now is an excellent time to consider changes to one of the most fundamental and intimate aspects of the employee/employer relationship: career development. Career development has been frozen in time for many organizations – a time long past when:
- Employment from cradle to grave was a common occurrence. Employees may be hired by the same organization and receive their gold retirement watch decades later.
- "Up or out" was a frequent refrain, compelling those who were perfectly content (and productive) in their current roles to take on less interesting roles or leave the organization entirely.
- Organizations demonstrated a commitment to systematizing development with an emphasis on forms, processes, and complete compliance.
Let us do the same with career development as we rationalize, update, and enhance other aspects of the business and employee experience.
Fortunately, modernizing career development may be easier than one might believe. Certainly, changes at the organizational level would have a significant impact on how career development is conducted. However, leaders wield enormous influence as well. The way leaders discuss it sets the tone, establishes employee expectations, and determines whether career development remains a relic of the past or becomes a part of a limitless future.
And in many cases, it comes down to the questions asked by leaders. By altering the questions, an employee's perception of and relationship with development can be altered.
Here are the three most pernicious questions leaders frequently ask — archaic inquiries that reinforce archaic expectations. Consider the difficulties inherent in each, as well as alternative questions intended to initiate a more contemporary, productive, expansive, and satisfying career conversation.
1. Do you see a path for career advancement here?
This question presents two difficulties. To begin, career paths may be too rigid to adapt to the changing demands of today's workforce and marketplace. Customer expectations are rapidly evolving. Unexpected opportunities arise as a result of innovation. Jobs in the future will be very different from those in the present. As a result, pursuing career paths blindly may result in dead ends rather than opportunities.
Second, advancement is a drop in the bucket of opportunities available to employees seeking development. This restrictive definition breeds dissatisfaction, as most organizations have a finite number of promotions and moves. By de-emphasizing the illusive and amorphous concept of advancement, you can focus on what is more plentiful and well within leaders' and employees' spheres of influence: meaningful challenges and development experiences.
Therefore, begin by asking: Are you capable of obtaining the challenges and experiences necessary for your continued development and growth? This paves the way for exploring challenging assignments, opportunities for increased visibility, and strategic networking, among other things. It enables leaders and employees to collaborate on identifying dynamic alternatives to the static and dated paths of the past.
2. Do you have access to the necessary training to advance your career?
This is another way in which leaders set both reasonable and unreasonable expectations for their employees – expectations that result in dissatisfaction. Every day, development occurs in an infinite number of formal (and, more frequently, informal) ways.
While training is critical, it is a relatively minor component of the ecosystem of development activities. This type of question focuses on areas over which leaders may have limited control rather than on those directly within their spheres of influence.
Rather than that, ask yourself: Do you have regular opportunities to learn and grow - through others or through experiences - that allow you to develop in ways that are meaningful to you?
Utilize all available opportunities for informal development — organic activities within the workflow, peers, and coaching, to name a few. Establish the expectation that learning will not be administered by the organization but will be sought out by the employee.
3. Do you have a documented development plan outlining the concrete steps you need to take in the coming year to achieve your career objective?
Annual plans are rapidly becoming obsolete, given the speed of business and the rate of change within business. Organizations and individuals alike must improve their agility and nimbleness. This entails shorter time frames, incremental goals, sprint development, and ongoing dialogue that capitalizes on ever-changing opportunities in the moment.
Rather than that, ask yourself this: Do you regularly engage in discussions with others (leaders, peers, etc.) about ways to learn, stretch yourself, develop new skills, and/or grow in your current role?
Assemble an understanding among employees that career development is a team sport, not a one-on-one relationship with you, the leader. Encourage them to engage in dialogue and learn from one another. And, while your organization may require a formal plan to be filed away, ensure that you and the employee communicate regularly about how their interests are evolving, how skill gaps are manifesting, and the learning that is most necessary and appetizing right now.
According to Peter McWilliams, "our thoughts create our reality — the direction we tend to take is determined by our focus." Additionally, I'd argue that the questions leaders ask can alter one's thinking. Consider the potential that these simple alternative questions have to reshape employees' career development realities.
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