HBR Guide to Retaining Your Best People

Chapter 14 How to Talk to Your Team About Career Development

by Rebecca Fraser-Thill and Shuba Gopal

When you step into a leadership role, it becomes your responsibility to help your new team members determine their career goals, grow within your organization, and continue to feel engaged at work. But often career development conversations between managers and their employees don’t happen until it’s too late—only after the employee has already decided to leave the company. Since the pandemic, workers have been even more likely to leave their organizations if they cannot see ways to grow professionally. Lack of career development consistently ranks among the top reasons individuals leave their current positions.

Managers typically aren’t trained ...