University Supervisors' Meeting: March 20 Resources

Summary of Career Conversations: Supervisor Training

This University Supervisors Meeting focused on developing supervisors into effective career coaches for their employees. Download the PowerPoint Presentation, watch the meeting recording or review the key highlights and takeaways below.

Key Highlights:

The Career Conversations period is April 1 - June 30. Once you've completed the process, remember to upload the Career Conversation form to UAccess so it's part of your employee's record. We recognize that some units follow a different, often customized process; we encourage you to upload whatever document you use in your unit.

Be candid and open:

• Leading by Example: Supervisors should share their own development goals, discuss challenges they face, seek feedback from their team, and intentionally celebrate growth.

Frameworks you can use:

• Using the GROW Model for Career Conversations:
  • Goal – Help your employee establish a clear goal.
  • Reality – Help your employee determine their current reality regarding strengths and opportunities for improvement.
  • Options – Work with your employee to explore possibilities for moving forward.
  • Way Forward – Partner with your employees to help them commit to specific actions as a way to move forward.
• 4As of An Effective Career Conversation:
  • Ask guiding questions to encourage self-reflection.
  • Assess current skills and goals.
  • Align employee aspirations with organizational needs.
  • Act on the conversation with a plan.

Shift from Supervisor to Coach:

• Embracing a Coaching Mindset:
  • Traditional management focuses on tasks, directives, and immediate results.
  • Coaching leadership emphasizes growth, curiosity, and long-term success.
  • Ask open-ended questions.
  • Offer support, but don’t take over the process.
• Coaching Through Feedback:
  • Make Career Conversations a regular habit: Incorporate in your weekly 1:1 conversations all year.
  • Balancing real-time feedback and career coaching: Impactful feedback is timely, actionable, specific, a two-way dialogue, constructive, empathetic, balanced, and reinforced through follow-up.
  • Avoid the ‘Compliment Sandwich’: This form of feedback is often used to avoid hurting the recipient’s feelings. While well-intentioned, it can gloss over the important details by prioritizing comfort over clarity.
  • SBII Model (Situation, Behavior, Impact, Intent): This model ensures that feedback is clear, actionable, and tied to outcomes. It provides clarity by structuring input in a way that is specific and actionable and promotes growth-oriented conversations.

Focus on continued development:

• Expanding Growth Opportunities:
  • Encourage employees to take risks and own their development.
  • Encourage skill-building and exposure.
  • Connect performance to future opportunities.
  • Support lateral moves and skill diversification.

Related Career Conversations Resources

Other Professional Development Resources