Having Career Conversations with Your Team

Explore the four-stage Pivot Method for helping your direct reports map their growth through targeted, one-on-one career conversations.

Introduction

• Applying the Pivot Method to help employees map their career growth
• Why career conversations matter
• How career conversations differ from performance reviews

1. Plant: What's Working and What Does Success Look Like?

• Identifying ideal outcomes in a career conversation
• Avoid problem solving in career conversations

2. Scan: What's out There?

• Bridging the gap in career conversations between what's working and how employees are most excited to grow
• Help your team find their flow state with stretch projects at work

3. Pilot: What Can We Try?

• Coaching employees toward pilots and small experiments for their next career moves
• How career pilots fit within a pivot portfolio, even if not full-time

4. Launch/Pivot Cycle

• Practical tips to close career conversations with clear ahas, actionable insights, and small next steps
• Build the Pivot coaching process into your regular one-on-ones

5. Additional Pointers and Next Steps

• How to launch career conversations with your team
• Manager dos and don'ts during one-on-one career conversations
• Tips for managers, mentors, and coaches on preparing for career conversations—without overdoing it

6. Coaching Tips to Accelerate Aha Moments

• Career coaching tip: Find resonance through body language brightness
• Career coaching tip: Draw from all three intelligence centers—head, heart, and gut
• Career coaching tip: The two most powerful follow-up questions

7. Bonus: Pivot Coaching in Action

• Coaching conversation: Plant stage
• Coaching conversation: Scan stage
• Coaching conversation: Launch stage