Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go

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 the thing that gets side-lined. When asked, the number one reason managers give is that they just don’t have time. Don’t have time for the meetings. The forms. The administrative hoops.

And it’s surprisingly simple: frequent short conversations with employees about their career goals and options, integrated seamlessly into the normal course of business. Kaye and Giulioni identify three broad types of conversation have the power to motivate employees more deeply than any well-intentioned development event or process. These conversations will increase employee’s 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. Illuminated with stories, quotes, and the perspectives of real managers and employees, this book proves that careers are best developed one conversation at a time.