We have identified five skills fundamental to managers who want to
succeed as career coaches. Such manager-coaches need to:
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Listen. In order to engage employees, grow and develop them in a mean-
ingful way, and maximize their potential, a manager must create an open
dialogue with employees. The purpose of this conversation is to help
employees identify their core values, work interests, marketable skills,
and career concerns.
•
Level. Managers must provide employees with honest, candid feedback
about performance. They also need to suggest specific actions for
improvement.
•
Look ahead. A good manager, like a good mentor, helps employees look
beyond the current situation to identify future opportunities in line
with their aspirations. This means the manager is thinking about the de-
velopment needs of the employee in those terms, and also helping the
employee understand the organization’s strategy, culture, and politics.
•
Leverage.
Managers help people identify options for development and
career growth within the organization.
•
Link.
Managers help people develop detailed learning assignments and
formal plans to move their career aspirations from vision to action.
When people feel that their managers care about their development, they
also believe that the organization cares. It’s the feeling of engagement, hand
in hand with directed development, that is so valuable to organizations in
getting the most out of people, while retaining and growing future leaders.
Despite the critical role managers can play in development, individual
employees are ultimately responsible for their own career satisfaction. For
that reason, we also coach employees on how to take charge of their profes-
sional destinies in line with the possibilities that exist in their organizations.
Employees, at any level, need to be proactive in managing their careers
and development opportunities. We coach people to assess their own skills
and behaviors, discover their aspirations, and link those goals with a develop-
ment plan aligned to the organization’s overall objectives. Some of that
coaching is done online, some in workshops, and some through a process of
collaborative development in which employees team up to support each
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