With the new era of uncertainty putting jobs at risk and making it difficult to predict what the organisation needs to look like in the future, managers must now become career coaches if employees are to maximise their individual potential in a way that also supports the business.

In the last month alone I’ve worked with three organisations struggling with the consequences of removing a layer of management to cut costs. The result of such restructuring activity, happening on an almost a daily basis across both the public and private sector, is that good people who once had a sense of promotion opportunities available to them are now concerned the organisation might not be able to offer them any further development, if indeed a job at all. Managers previously committed to the development of their people are now under so much pressure to drive performance and deliver savings and results that prioritising the time to develop people has become more challenging.

The good news is that managing today’s commercial challenges and maintaining a real focus on employee engagement and people development can be addressed by encouraging managers to not just performance manage their people, but to maximise each individual’s potential by introducing authentic career conversations.

“I don’t have time” is the all too common complaint from managers. However, by finding the time to help people realise the extent to which their current role can still provide them with opportunities to grow and better manage their work-life balance and career aspirations, managers can quickly re-energise and motivate employees, reduce workplace stress and anxiety and boost performance.

Having an effective career conversation in the current climate requires getting managers to be totally open with employees about what the organisation can and can’t offer. Managers need to encourage people to acknowledge where promotion and pay opportunities are limited at the same time as taking a genuine interest in what sort of career, skills and work-life balance their people want to have in future. Explain that you want people to develop the skills required for the future in advance so that everyone can be confident that their next role is the right one for them, be this with or outside the organisation.

Where someone is keen to move into leadership, managers have a vital role to play in helping them to start to think about the personal brand of leadership that they want to bring to the company. Do the want to be totally committed to the development of others and known for getting the best out of new recruits? Do they want to transform the culture of the organisation by demonstrating new ways of thinking creatively to improve services? By helping employees to think about their future career and identifying opportunities for them to start stretching themselves in their current role, in a way that also supports current business needs and the employees personal goals, managers can quickly re-motivate those unsettled by change to give them a new sense of purpose and drive.

Critical to success is ensuring managers understand the different change journeys their people will experience in times of uncertainty, these include bigger roles or managing larger teams, different roles requiring new skills and different behaviours, outsourcing, being put at risk of redundancy or deciding to leave the organisation. Managers need to be able to respond empathically and effectively to these. Even when someone is leaving the organisation, effective career coaching is a means of enabling managers can enable them to leave with a CV that shows they have made the most of the opportunities afforded by the business and a positive mindset about both the company they are leaving and their future potential.

In summary, by working in partnership with HR to develop coaching skills, managers can become effective agents for change, helping individuals develop their personal potential and, by doing so, make their own job as manager even more rewarding and effective. Not to mention create a pool of highly skilled individuals ready to meet the future needs of the business – whatever they may be.

How to have effective career conversations:
Make the individual feel great by helping them recognise their existing strengths
Show a genuine interest in their career and personal aspirations
Help them to identify different options to maximise their personal potential

Create opportunities for them to stretch themselves in their current role

Be authentic and genuine in offering ongoing support and guidance