What are some effective ways for leaders to provide career guidance?

Helping your team grow is crucial for both personal development and the success of your organization. Here's how you can do it effectively: 1. Know your team well. Understand their skills, goals & what makes them tick. 2. An open-door policy encourages open communication. 3. Tailor your advice. One-size-fits-all doesn't work here. 4. Offer resources like training programs or books to boost their skills. 5. Give them challenging tasks to stretch their abilities. 6. Encourage networking. Sometimes opportunities come from unexpected connections. 7. Keep an ongoing feedback loop to see how they're doing & adjust your guidance accordingly. 8. Be honest but constructive in your advice. If they're not ready for something, help them prepare.

Being a team leader is a real privilege, y'all. It's not just about steering the ship; it's about understanding that every team member is unique. You've got to see what they're great at and where they might need a hand. Empathy and compassion aren't just buzzwords, they're the foundation. When you approach your team with a big ol' helping of these, it opens up doors to growth you didn't even know were there. Regular team communication and one-on-one check-ins, keeping those lines of communication wide open - that's the ticket. It's how you help your team bloom beyond even their wildest expectations. So, here's to leading with heart, embracing uniqueness, and fostering growth.

As a people leader, what I follow with my team is to give them the opportunity to explore different areas or functions within my portfolio, and have an assessment of how they fare in those. I do give them my feedback on where they performed excellently well and also have my assessment of their strengths and improvement areas. Next step is to get the aspiring areas and strengths from their perspective and try to strike a balance between both. And with that as a base we work towards an Individual development plan which has clear short term and long term definitions for success based on their expertise and experience. I use a tool to assess their motivational factors and try to align it with the organization's goals.

The most helpful thing you can do - before you give any advice - is ask questions and listen. Ask someone: - what do you want? - what is important to you? - imagine you have a magic wand. what would be your dream role? what do you want to do, learn, and accomplish? Most people don't know the answers to the above questions. Before you spend any time trying to help them ACHIEVE their goals, help them DEFINE what those goals actually are.

Ask questions about them, evaluate their skills and aspirations, and offer constructive feedback and coaching to enhance their capabilities. Providing various learning and developmental opportunities, like training and mentoring, and encouraging networking to expand their professional relationships is essential. Designing clear career paths can help visualize their future roles within the organization, and addressing work-life balance is vital to maintaining their overall well-being and job satisfaction. I'd like you to regularly revisit and realign career goals and development plans to ensure continued relevance and feasibility.

The second step to providing career guidance is a little more simplistic, which is to offer feedback and coaching to your team members. Here is the playbook: 🗣️ Give feedback. 🤝 Offer coaching. 📈 Enhance performance. 📚 Develop skills. 🚧 Overcome obstacles.

I encourage and celebrate the involvement of leadership in one-on-one meetings. It is an opportunity for mutual engagement, and normalizing the team's approach to processes and growth. In my one-on-ones, I incorporate a weekly breakout session where we discuss: "Stop." - This indicates what I am halting for the week and the reason behind it. "Start." - This signifies why I am beginning a new learning exercise in response to the previous stop. "Keep." - This highlights what I am retaining. "Ask" - Towards the end. I requested leadership's assistance or addressing any concerns they may have. Establishing a framework allows you to demonstrate the direction you are heading in. It also fosters communication and promotes teamwork.

Coach people towards THEIR vision of success, not yours. Ask: where do you want to be in 5 (or 1 or 3 or 7) years? What do you want to do, learn, achieve? Then I say this, in the following order: 1) Alright working backwards - what skills do you think you'd need to be set up to do that? 2) How do you rate yourself against those skills now? 3) Where are areas to develop? Or strengths to double-down on? 4) Let's put a plan in place together to develop those skills...

Meet regularly with your peers to learn more about what are the aspect of their day to day activities they thrive in vs those they dread. Many people do what it takes to get a job, but it is important that you leave enough room for them to then explore and do what they love. Learn about their hobbies, about things they could do for hours non stop - and setup a part of their work to be related to it.

Clear expectations, appreciation, and honest, feedback are the three most essential things to give your team members. Sometimes delivering feedback can be uncomfortable when it is about where people are not meeting expectations. I met a women I managed years later that I had had to give uncomfortable feedback to. When I saw her again, I worried she might hold a grudge with me. Instead, she thanked me. She said I was the first boss to give her an honest assessment of how she was doing and what she needed to do to better to excel at the job. With that information, she decided to change careers. She found tremendous success, and happiness, in her dream job and wanted to thank me for helping her make that change.

This one is so often forgotten, or left to employees as their own respnsibility. If a leader is committed to development, then just analyzing, planning and feedback are just a part of the formula.

Learning opportunities are how your team members can acquire new knowledge, skills, and experiences that can help them advance in their careers. Here is the playbook for the third step: 📚 Offer learning. 🌟 Develop skills. 🧰 Learning opportunities. 📖 Training courses. 🔄 Job rotations.

From my experience, the most impactful career guidance stems from curated learning opportunities that align with individual aspirations and skills gaps. Whether through formal training or experiential avenues like job rotations, these offerings should be relevant, accessible, and tailored to empower team members for future roles. I believe that this targeted approach not only drives personal development but also enriches the collective talent pool, fortifying the organization's long-term success.

I ask people what they are trying to get good at. Then I ask them if there is anyone they admire for excellence in that thing. And if they name someone, I try to connect them. (You'd be surprised by how many people respond to a cold email from me: "would you be game to chat with a rising star for 30 mins? they really look up to what you do and would love to learn from you") If they don't name someone - I look through my network and make the intro. Often I get a note from both sides on how it was a productive conversation

The power of networking and mentoring cannot be overstated in career development. I actively facilitate connections within and outside the organization, aiming for relationships that are diverse, meaningful, and mutually beneficial. I believe that this multi-dimensional approach to career guidance not only accelerates individual growth but also enriches our organizational culture.

I’ve seen how organised internal mentoring programs have empowered individuals & team members to grow & expand their network. It’s a wonderful way for mentors to grow too as well as share their skills, knowledge, & contacts to guide & retain skills in the next generation of leaders.

The fourth step is to support networking and mentoring that are diverse, meaningful, and reciprocal for your team members. Here is the playbook: 🤝 Support networking. 👥 Foster mentoring. 🤝 Network support. 🤝 Be a mentor.

Identify how values guide career decisions Values play a significant role in guiding career decisions. They serve as a compass that helps individuals navigate their career paths, make choices aligned with their principles, and find fulfillment in their work. Many times, our values can become hidden from us due to societal conditioning, peer pressure, religious influence, and family and educational influences. When individuals become better aligned with their authentic selves (values), they will experience a greater sense of flow and ease in their careers and lives in general. When people are in careers that are misaligned with their values, they experience a sense of dissatisfaction and being 'out of sync' with their organization.

The fifth step is to aim to recognize and reward fair, consistent, and transparent achievements for your team members. Here is the playbook: 🏆 Recognize achievements. 🎉 Reward progress. 🏆 Acknowledge efforts. 👏 Encourage growth.

Be receptive: Set realistic goals and if team members think another way, be receptive to their feedback as well, if you want a winning scenario. If the team members progress, the project will progress and so as a leader will you. So, always keep up this approach and no one can stop you from achieving success.