Book ~ "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want" (2012) Beverly Kaye and Julie Winkle Giulioni

From Goodreads ~ Study after study confirms that career development is the single most powerful tool managers have for driving retention, engagement, productivity, and results. Nevertheless, it’s frequently back-burnered. When asked why, managers say the number one reason is that they just don’t have time—for the meetings, the forms, the administrative hoops.

But there’s a better way. And it’s surprisingly simple: frequent short conversations with employees about their career goals and options integrated seamlessly into the normal course of business. Beverly Kaye, coauthor of the bestselling Love ’Em or Lose ’Em, and Julie Winkle Giulioni identify three broad types of conversations that will increase employees’ awareness of their strengths, weaknesses, and interests; point out where their organization and their industry are headed; and help them pull all of that together to design their own up-to-the-minute, personalized career plans.

Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go is filled with practical tips, guidelines, and templates, as well as nearly a hundred suggested conversation questions.

I  received a copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.

As an employee, I found it an interesting read and I enjoyed it.

If managers ignore career development, they have three threats:

1. Employees leave because they believe their careers aren't getting the attention they deserve.
2. Others decide the freelance life suits them better and get a variety of projects that becomes a career.
3. There are employees who stay but withdraw their engagement, motivation and enthusiasm.

According to the authors, when it comes to the manager's role in development, talk is actually the most precious and results-driven commodity managers have to share.  And instead of sitting down with an employee for two hours and mapping out a career plan for the year, they feel that doing the same thing in a dozen ten-minute conversations over the year is more effective.  It keeps development alive in everyone's mind and sustains the momentum.

Helping employees pursue career goals involves exploring three key areas:

1. Hindsight - looking backwards to see where employees have been, what they love and what they are good at
2. Foresight - determining what is changing in the company and what those changes mean for the future
3. Insight - where hindsight converges with foresight ... where you jointly determine the full range of ways to move forward and the actions to take to achieve career objectives

I liked that there are quotes from employees and managers which made it more personal.