In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Brandon Laws sits down with Julie Winkle Guilioni, career development expert and author of the recently-published Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive. The two discuss how to align leadership and employee priorities when it comes to career growth development.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Julie Winkle Guilioni is a career development author, a columnist for Training Industry Magazine and Smartbrief, and a leadership speaker. She is passionate about helping others reach their potential and find fulfillment in the workplace.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
REDEFINING CAREER DEVELOPMENT
According to recent guest, Julie Winkle Guilioni, research has found that 91% of us would rate career development as either important or very important. However, the dysfunction that surrounds career development is apparent virtually everywhere you look.
“We’ve bought into this limited definition of careers and career development,” Julie explained. “So many of us have this default setting where career means ‘title’ and career development is the set of promotions that we go through in order to reach that next role title, position — whatever it might be.”
As it turns out, we’re measuring ourselves against this artificial yardstick, when we know careers are so much bigger than that. “We know that there’s a more expansive definition, but we haven’t really had a language for talking about what it looks like beyond just a pathway upward.”
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
A Framework for Growth
“Employees who don’t perceive opportunities for growth are 7.9 times more eager to leave, even if they like their job. But what are we talking about when we talk about development? Some people sort of hijack the brain ladder sort of image, but we don’t know what other people are thinking when they say ‘growth’ or when they respond to a question about ‘development.’ And that’s why introducing some sort of a framework, a way of thinking about this more expansively, becomes important. But not the kind of roadmap that takes us from position to position — a roadmap that can take us from experience to experience.”
Growth Within the Role
“I know a lot of organizations talk about lattices, jungle gyms, and that kind of thing. Yet again, the problem is that we’re looking for a structural solution. We’re still talking about having to go somewhere in order for growth to happen. So at its core, I think the opportunity is to unpack what’s possible within the role someone might have. Because not everybody wants that promotion. Many employees are perfectly happy where they are, doing what they’re doing. They don’t want to have to get up, move anywhere, or take a new role. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to continue to grow and develop.”
Not Just One-Size-Fits-All
“You know how you can go into a cocktail lounge, and the mixologist doesn’t even have a menu? They just take in what the person’s like, what’s their vibe, and they create this wonderful cocktail. What if we thought more about a career cocktail, really taking into consideration what’s unique about each individual — what really interests them, what their sincere goals and aspirations are. We have the opportunity to create a custom experience that’s going to speak to the unique needs of each individual employee.”
The Dimensions of Career Development
“So the heart of the book is the multi-dimensional career framework. And in that, what I do is introduce seven alternative development dimensions in addition to that classic ‘climb up the corporate ladder,’ which isn’t going to go away.”
Knowing Which Course To Take
“It really does come down to conversation and relationship. That’s how we’re going to understand how an employee is wired, what they want, and what it’s gonna take to speak to their hearts and their souls and ignite the kind of passion and motivation. That’s going to keep people engaged and just keep people in the day of the Great Reshuffle.”
What Lights the Fire
“We did some research on these dimensions — over 700 people worldwide. And we just asked them to rank them — you know, just put them in order, in terms of most interesting down to least interesting. What was really fascinating about it? I could never
have predicted it. Contribution was number one.”
Using Interests to Develop Employees
“So you’ve got people who want to contribute, but how can we use contribution as a specific focused, proactive, deliberate strategy to also help them grow? As they’re giving something, what can they get back in terms of an enhanced skills network — whatever it might be — that translates into growth?”
Defining Contribution
“Because even once we figure out that contribution might be their top priority, we still need to dig down deeper to figure out what that expression of contribution might look like. […] And the good news is that there are so many opportunities for people to contribute. When you look around the workplace, there are problems, voids, issues, and situations that need the creative attention of someone. The key though is in engaging with employees and identifying where they want to contribute and how to make sure it’s reciprocal.”
Development in Everything You Do
“In many organizations, there are a lot of developmental opportunities thrown at people. And frequently it’s just more work wrapped in the bow of development, but the development gets pushed into the background while the work is in the foreground. And so what’s key is to bring the development forward? When people think about their experience in this organization, they recognize that there’s development embedded in everything that they’re doing.”
What Leaders Can Do
“I would invite managers and leaders to really look at all of the dimensions over which they have control, which is seven out of eight, and dig into exploring the interests that people might have in those rather than kind of waiting until somebody leaves a spot open. Or there’s an online assessment that you can have your manager or your employees take that gives them a confidential report. It also introduces this idea of the multiple dimensions of career development and gives them a bar chart that shows kind of where they’re at.”
LEARN MORE
Grab a copy of Julie’s latest book, Promotions Are So Yesterday, wherever books are sold, or learn more about her here.