When you have a career conversation: 5 ways to guide next steps
As I wrote last week, all career conversations need to start with asking questions and focusing on personal discovery. It is difficult to provide a formula around career conversations because they are so personal. The actual thoughts or actions will be pretty unique to the individual based on their values, interests and strengths — those dealbreakers that lead to someone’s happiness and fulfillment.
When guiding someone in their career, the number one challenge I hear is that people equate career growth with one path — being promoted up the ladder. At one point in our world, climbing the ladder was very much lauded and the only way to think about a career. I start as an assistant and climb all the way to a C-level role at a single company. That did happen. There are plenty of these examples. However, today, this is extremely rare. I would almost venture to say it never happens but I am sure someone would provide an example that proved me wrong.
One of the biggest challenges is to change mindsets that advancing your career does not necessarily mean promotions into management and up and up and up. For me personally, I have been promoted up, I have moved across into parallel roles at the same level, and I have taken a step backward in level and pay to get into a discipline I wanted to return to, namely, learning & development. Career paths are no longer ladders but spiderwebs.
A career coach’s job is to help people figure out what skills, knowledge, experience and attitudes can be transferable across their career webs. While everyone’s web is unique, there are five ways to guide someone in their thinking. There isn’t really a right way or wrong way. This will depend on the coach and the coachee. Based on personality and style, one will emerge as a better method over the others.
Probing
A helpful technique can be to keep asking questions to dig deeper probing into someone’s thoughts. If you remember from last week, the coachee, the one whose career is being explored, should do most of the talking. If you have a 5-year-old or have ever spent two minutes with one, they ask why about a thousand times when you make a statement. There is actually a problem solving technique called the 5 Whys. If you ask/challenge an idea by asking the question “Why?” five times, you get to the root cause. This can also be true in career conversations. Knowing someone’s why is key to figuring out where they want to go and how to get there. This “why” also serves a motivation to achieve your goals. If you probe by asking people: Why, What and Where, you can help someone uncover the answers they need to move forward in their career journey .
Mirroring
Another way to ask questions and help your coachee think about the why behind what they say is to mirror back what they have told you. This is especially helpful if the coachee stumbles around with their answers. Most of us think while we talk if we’re asked tough questions. So, it is understandable we aren’t always articulate. So, if someone stumbles around and says, for example, that being promoted is very important to them, you would ask: “So, being promoted to the next level is the most important factor to you. Is that correct?” The coachee will either say: “Yes”, and then you can follow up with (yes, that’s right): “Why”. If they respond: “No. Being promoted is not the most important factor.” You can then ask what is most important. Mirroring back what you hear can be a good technique to verify understanding and help get to what matters most.
Advising
While I am not a huge a fan of the coach doing lots of talking, some people need a bit more guidance than just asking questions. Some people have a really difficult time clearly answering questions or will turn them around and ask the coach what they think. If you have experience and feel comfortable giving advice on what they can do or where they can go, then do so. I have had many team members over the years ask me what I think they would be good at or what might align to their preferences. I feel strongly people should find the answers themselves but, sometimes, this can be appropriate. When I was in college, I had no idea where I wanted to go. I thought about law school but wasn’t sure. I had a favorite professor and coach at the time who asked me what I wanted. I said I had no clue. She said I should go into Public Relations because I was a strong writer and presenter. This guided my career more than she probably knew. While I started in Corporate Communications, I quickly moved into Corporate Training, which was a closely-related field. Sometimes, when you are young or stuck, a little advice and outside guidance is needed to get started.
Nudging
Some people struggle with coming up with answers to such deep questions and so providing some advice can help move them to action. Another technique is to nudge or push them to try something out. You get answers when you try something out. Remember: Learning you don’t like something is valuable information too! It can be difficult to know what aligns with you unless you talk to someone or try it out yourself. Clarity comes from action. So, take action. As a coach, you can be the one to nudge. Nudge and hold them accountable to come back and report what they learned. Some ways to nudge someone to take action include: conduct an informational interview with someone in the role they seek, spend a day shadowing someone in the role, or try it out through a special project or volunteer activity. I worked for a law firm after college while I figured out my next step. After 4 months, I decided it was not for me. I wanted more creativity. I knew I liked to write and do research but I found a more creative field to apply those skills. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a people manager so I took on a volunteer activity where I had to lead a team of volunteers. This was an excellent way to see if it aligned with me. Turns out it did, and I have enjoyed being a people manager for 15+ years.
Connecting
For some coaches, questioning and advising may not be up their alley but they are really good at connecting people to people. Building on the above, connecting people with experts or others who have had similar challenges or opportunities can be invaluable to someone seeking their career path. Giving names of people they should connect with can be a lifesaver if they don’t know where to start. One of these people may be better at probing or mirroring and, therefore, the coach connects them to another coach. Having more than one coach isn’t a bad thing. Connecting someone with an introductory email can take the angst out of reaching out to a complete stranger. So, provide names but also offer to make introductions.
There are a few techniques that can help people move from their personal discovery questions to action — probing, mirroring, advising, nudging and connecting. I said there was not a right or wrong way. This was partially true. They key to guiding someone effectively is to employ all five techniques. A great coach can do all of these things to help people find their next role or identify a longer path through spinning their own career web.