Career Goals Worksheet

Note to Self

Managers at my company were given a career goals worksheet to be sent to our respective team members to fill out. The goal is "to align individual growth with [COMPANY]'s needs, while helping employees feel ownership over their development" and it's described as "forward-looking growth tool" to be used for annual reviews, mid-year check-ins, and when discussing role evolution and promotions. As an inexperienced manager, I am curious about what the actual impact of doing this exercise is to the business and to our teams themselves.

My hypothesis for the bigger picture goal of this exercise is probably to have some sort of impact in decreasing employee turnover. I think the most important work when filling this sheet out is to actively listen to each team member and work with them to analyze and fully understand their strengths, frustrations, and aspirations. Without a clear understanding, clearly defined and agreed upon SMART goals, manager check-ins, and employee follow through, the purpose of this exercise just becomes unnecessary paperwork and a waste of time. There also needs to be two things additional to be done in the leadership context: as a manager I need to make sure their future aspirations are practical, and the company needs to make sure they can concretely support these aspirations.

To grab a clear understanding of my team member's perspectives, I'll ask them to fill out the sheet themselves with proper guiding context and then host one to three follow-up 1:1s until my team mates are clearly understood and we have aligned on SMART goals. In these one on ones, I should let them lead the conversation (while taking notes and being fully curious), listen for energizing/draining topics they bring up and expand on them as much as possible, be honest when something isn't immediately possible and explain why, and let them set their own expectations for pace of progress.

Some leading questions: "what are things you'd like to be doing?", "I've noticed you're on a lot of X, but you could be on Y - thoughts?" - this is if the team member doesn't bring up something you noticed, "when would you like to get this done by? / what are the weekly steps you'll take to get it done by then?", "I felt X about Y" > dig into it > "what made you feel X?" > "how can you feel this more/less?"

I also notice these questions don't get asked at all in our day to day so collecting this information in depth across the entire org is helpful to look at and analyze. This is especially true since my main impact here is to get a read on employee turnover as well as connect individual ambition to company opportunity and create progress in that context.

To support employee follow through with their goals, I'll try to push for monthly check-ins for progress to make sure these 12 - 18 month goals are on track and to adjust the goals if they have a change in mind or if they're not being met. A monthly 1:1 Google Meet with each team member will service this just fine.

To expand on the practicality of their ambitions, our company's growth rate is below average if not average, so something like "I want to be a director and be managing 6 people" is unrealistic. Another similar thing is promotions/pay increases. Our company's revenue has been relatively the same/decreasing every year, so if anyone suggests this I'll need to have a deep understanding of whether their skills really match the next level's job description and be able to articulate what the next steps are. If skills are more than enough, then I'll have a conversation with leadership to discuss changes in staffing.

If we don't create SMART goals with this exercise and see them manifest over time, then the purpose of this exercise is lost. Therefore, my last note to myself on this is to have as many 1:1s and discussions as necessary to make sure a clear roadmap is defined for each team member and to make sure that roadmap is practical and supports company growth.