Corporate managers play a vital role in sustaining a company’s growth by bringing out the employees’ best potential. Conducting employee development conversations forms a crucial part of the process. It keeps the top talents motivated and focused while ensuring an improved retention rate.
There are multiple nuances to this employee-facing role, which will be covered in this ultimate guide to employee development conversations.
Significance of Employee Development Conversations
People feel valued when nurtured with the proper support and guidance. As a team manager, ensuring the growth of your team remains one of your primary responsibilities. Having open and productive personal development conversations can make your team feel valued. Such conversations will encourage them to chase excellence and give their best to the company.
Pair these employee development dialogues with action plans around measurable goals to boost motivation and team spirit. This will help your team do a more productive and focused job while paving the way for individual professional growth.
With better skills, support, and a growth-oriented environment, your team will have a sense of ownership toward the organization's goals. This will also help the company build better products and services, creating a win-win situation for all.
Here’s your 101 guide to conducting impactful discussions with your team members.
Tips to Have Productive Employee Development Conversation
Make the most of the career development sessions with your team using the following tips.
Conduct regular employee development conversations
Stay connected with your employees to genuinely help them in their career growth. Most managers make the mistake of limiting career discussions to once a year. This is rarely helpful in getting the desired results in the long term.
Like life plans, career goals and ambitions change with time. Having a meeting once a year to understand your report’s challenges and motivations isn’t the best approach.
Executive coach Christopher Connors advises in Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader that managers need to have employee development conversations once every week. Even if you keep these discussions short, they help you stay updated with the overall team morale.
With frequent and intentional developmental conversations, you can find the best guidance to support your report's career needs.
Leverage streamlined software to make development discussions seamless
To maintain transparency with your team, make sure all the developmental meetings with your reports remain active interactions. Here’s how you can make the most out of them:
- Before the conversation- Prepare yourself by considering the professional journey of your report. Work on identifying ways to bring them closer to their goals.
- During the conversation- Keep the feedback shared in the previous discussions in mind while asking questions or providing suggestions. When working with a virtual team, you can use Loopin to access previous meeting notes and make this process hassle-free.
- After the conversation- Conduct follow-ups with your report on their personal goals and identify opportunities for the report to progress on their goal. This helps them stay motivated
Ask personalized questions during employee development conversations
The "one-size fits all" approach doesn't work in career development. Common questions like, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” aren't meant to help every employee. Many employees don’t feel comfortable answering this, or they attempt to reply only to move on further in the meeting.
The best approach is to tailor questions according to the report you’re interacting with. Try to understand their stimulus, interests, skills, etc., that help them in their role.
Leverage this conversation as a personal development opportunity for your direct reports. Based on their goals and objectives, you can support them in a way that justifies their role and contribution within the company.
Back your discussions with the development plan
Limiting personal development sessions to conversations won’t bring efficient results. Build a concrete plan with action items and trackable goals for every team member. This will help them, and the organization will get visible results.
While making a development plan for your report, keep the 3 E’s in mind – experience, exposure, and education.
- Experience- Explore the best ways to use the team member’s prior experience for the company’s growth. This will also boost the confidence of your report and empower them to bring more value to the organization.
- Exposure- Give them opportunities where they can leverage their skills. Set milestones for every employee that nurtures their motivation to grow at every step.
- Education- Provide them with upskilling resources based on their current challenges or objectives. It could be a training course or finding them the best mentor for their growth. This maintains an environment of learning and development within the company.
Developing an impactful plan will be a source of accountability for the employees to stay on track. This will also help you to monitor their progress and provide customized guidance to your direct reports.
Give meaningful feedback to your reports
Be mindful of your audience while giving feedback. Not every employee is good at handling a critical review of their performance. Some might take it as a constructive assessment and understand the scope for improvement. But there’s a possibility you might end up discouraging others.
Addressing their limitations is essential, but don’t forget to acknowledge their capabilities and achievements. Helping your team to grow in their particular roles must be on top of your mind during employee development conversations.
Keep their understanding level in mind while giving feedback. Only when they know the intent of your suggestion can they better grasp your input. This approach will help you tap into their highest potential while providing relevant suggestions.
Conclusion
Employee development conversations pave the way for managers to guide their reports best. They help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your team and make room for constructive discussions that help them channel the motivation to realize their goals. As a manager, you can find ways to align your report’s goals with the organizational goals and make your best effort to maintain growth.
Career conversations are beneficial in identifying capable leaders who can help the organization deal with unprecedented challenges. An invested manager leverages employee development conversations to improve productivity and dedication of the team towards the workplace while optimizing the turnover rate.
Make the employee development conversations a medium to help every team member put their best foot forward. Here’s how you can help them become successful and irreplaceable in their respective role:
- Conduct frequent and intentional employee development conversations
- Leverage streamlined software to enable seamless discussions
- Ask personalized questions during employee development conversations
- Back your discussions with an achievable action plan
- Give meaningful feedback to your reports
Use these guidelines as your prime points while conducting career discussions with your reports. These are practical enough to deliver the best business results while adding value to the employees and the organization.
