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Up-Level Your Team's Career Development Conversations

Writer's picture: Amelia WatersAmelia Waters

Updated: Jan 24

When I was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, my manager sat me down after a project, pulled out the consultant performance review sheet, and told me how I’d handled my last project. “Overall, a solid performance,” he commended.


And then, he said, "Let's talk about what’s actually more important.” The second piece of paper he held was the Project Leader performance review. “This is how you’d stack up against Project Leaders.”


The outcome wasn’t nearly as pretty as the consultant performance review, but it was infinitely more helpful. The career development conversation showed me the gap I needed to close in order to deliver at the next level of my career.


For most companies, performance reviews have the same structure, whether you’re fresh out of college or the corporate vice president. They evaluate employees on various attributes, e.g., leadership, communication, collaboration, analytical skills, insights, etc, against a subjective scale of “as expected for that level.”


But no one ever clearly articulates what’s expected for that level. BCG had the luxury of a defined, 4-rung career ladder for its management consultants. Most companies are too large and have too many different roles with different responsibilities to be able to offer customized performance reviews by role.


So, when I became a manager in corporate America, I hacked it. 


Here’s the 5-step process on up-leveling your career development conversations:


1. Schedule a separate conversation. Set clear expectations


A performance review isn’t synonymous with career development. The former is retrospective; the latter is forward-looking. Don’t muddy the waters. A separate conversation will allow your team member to approach the conversation with fresh perspective and less trepidation.


I make it clear always and repeatedly that this isn’t a critique of their current performance in their role. It’s a roadmap for developing into the role that they want.


2. Give them pre-work


I ask my team to search LinkedIn or other job posting sites for the job they want in two to three years. This is a critical step in grounding the conversation in “this is a real job in a real company but not your current role in this company.”


3. Review and segment the job description. Evaluate against their current skills


In the meeting, we segment the role expectations into table stakes (“you have to nail these ABCs and 123s”) versus performance stakes (“what would really make you stand out in that role.”). Then I evaluate their current skills relative to the segmented responsibilities based on three levels: Room for growth; Meets expectations; and Outstanding.


The end result is a 3x2 matrix of prioritized opportunities.



The matrix shows how aligned their current skill set is relative to the job they want in two years. 


Sometimes, the matrix is alarmingly weighted toward “Room for growth.” It might be because the chosen job description was a significant stretch, or extremely different from their current role. If I don’t have any context for evaluating their current skills against the new role, I just defer to their personal judgment.


From my experience with these conversations, the skills that appear in “Room for growth” are skills that aren’t expected of their current role. If we’d limited ourselves to making career development plans based simply off performance reviews, we might never have uncovered these opportunities.


4. Create a development plan


Targeting the table stakes with room for growth is the obvious first step, but much of it will depend on the on-the-job opportunities in your company, or your budget for training resources outside the company.


My team member, a nurse, wanted to develop presentation skills, so I arranged for her to take the lead on a project that would culminate in a presentation to the CEO and the executive leadership team.


5. Follow-through and set them up for success


It’s not enough to create the opportunity for your team, and then say, “Off you go then. Good luck and have fun!”


We’ve come all this way. We might as well finish on a high note.


Do what it takes for them to be successful. Help them build a framework they can use the next time they need to do it on their own.


Back to the story of the nurse. I made sure that her analysis was solid. I coached her on how to structure the presentation to drive insights and executive decisions. And when she practiced with me, I challenged her with far harder questions than the CEO might have asked.


When she finally went into that executive presentation, she was ready, and she rocked it.


Better yet, she knew how to set up her next executive presentation for success.



And there you have it; five simple steps to up-level our career development conversations with our team members.


Oh, and one more thing. Whenever I share this tip, I’m often asked, “Aren’t you worried that they’re going to take their new skills and jump ship to another company?”


And my answer is, “Perhaps they will, but I helped them grow. And when I need someone great for a role in my team, I know that I can pick up the phone or send the email, and say, “Hey, I have an opportunity in my team–” and before I can finish the sentence, they’ll say, “Tell me more. I’d love to work with you again.”


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