Do Leaders Really Help with Career Planning?
I am so disappointed. The disappointment? The fact many leaders do not really engage with or help employees with career planning.
That may be a bold statement and I do know some leaders do this well, but in the almost year since I started my business involving Executive Coaching and Career Coaching, I hear more stories of poor experiences than great experiences. When you add in the sixteen years in Human Resources, stories of friends and acquaintances, the sentiment is consistent.
At some point in every career, an individual will want to talk about their individual path and with the way these conversations are being handled, leaders have a problem on their hands. It is impacting employee engagement and trust. I do not expect an individual’s development or career plan to be owned by the leader, that is the responsibility of the individual, but expecting a leader to help or participate in a conversation is completely reasonable.
For purposes of clarity, I use the term leader as defined by a person with people directly or indirectly reporting to them and situational leaders who are in a position of authority or influence.
Let me give a few examples when competent, higher performing employees approach their leaders about pursuing another opportunity:
Leader is annoyed and feels betrayed the employee wants to leave the team and instead of helping with career planning, talks them into staying in their current position.
Leader recommends the employee takes a step down within the same team after employee told her they wanted to move into another function.
Leader suggests a potential mentor to get real information from the group the employee is pursuing and tells the employee she will reach out to make the connection. Never did.
Leader expresses support and offered to write an email of recommendation if they need the help.
Situational leader immediately warned relocation is likely going to be required and then sent the individual off to talk to someone who wasn’t in a position of authority to know how to get into a team within this function.
I’ve had an experience where I wanted to learn about an internal opportunity and I shared with my direct leader I was hesitant about my skip level leader knowing and holding it against me. Why was I hesitant? No matter what her words said, she was snarky and passive aggressive when someone wanted to move into a new role. My direct leader agreed and we never told the skip level leader.
These things happen more often than we think and there are experiences that are worse!
I am a simple person, so here are simple suggestions for leaders to facilitate career planning discussions with their employees.
Listen. I know what you’re thinking, this goes without saying. Well, clearly it doesn’t because leaders propose suggestions opposite of what an individual wants all the time! Practice active listening where you repeat back to the person what you heard them say. Talking about a career plan is intensely personal, so if you don’t listen well, you are sending a message through actions you don’t care.
Recognize transferrable skills. The foundational skills most professionals have can be utilized in another role. We have all seen it, but I think we forget about it and get so focused on the common career paths within a certain organization. Here is a common reaction: the organizational announcement comes out and a leader is moving from, let’s say finance, to let’s say marketing and you have a heart attack because it doesn’t make sense how this can be possible! Transferrable skills, baby! Doesn’t mean there won’t be a learning curve, but it is possible. Recognize transferrable skills with your employees, too!
Identify skill or knowledge gaps. Think about the skills that will be necessary in the new role and compare against their capabilities. There may be a skill or knowledge gap, but can that gap be closed by taking some classes, doing an acting assignment in that new group, etc? Having a leader sit down with you, think about potentially required skills and helping identify the gap, regardless of the outcome, makes one feel heard and valued.
Get help. If you have no idea how to go about helping them, tell them you want to think about it for a bit. Then, get help. From your leader, from HR, from your mentor, etc. Most importantly, however, circle back with the employee. Employees don’t expect you to know everything (I know, shocking) and they will respect you for taking time to think about it and then come back to them.
Don’t be a jerk. Your mind may immediately go to the gap this will leave on your team or in your organization and you don’t want the person to leave! It’s true that there are times when the timing couldn’t be worse, but don’t shut the conversation down by being self-serving and focusing on only your needs as a leader. There is a way to engage in the conversation and be honest about timing if an opportunity were to come along.
There is no doubt the time of any leader is valuable, but having meaningful career discussions with people in your organization is always time well spent. It helps build trust, engagement, and can improve your capability as a leader. An employee will never forget a positive experience when discussing their career with an engaged leader.