The ideal job doesn't exist
"Where do you see yourself in five years?" Employees always get asked this question during job interviews. But do managers have an answer to this question? Where do they see their employees within five years?
Manager or employee?
Lesley Vanleke, founder of TalentLogiQs, advises managers to talk to their employees about career success. According to Lesley, it is important to ask employees what career success means to them, which tasks give them satisfaction and make them want to get up every morning.
It is important to engage in a dialogue with employees and show them how to achieve career success. Because knowing what you want does not guarantee that you will get what you want. If you want to get what you want, you need to develop four career skills:
- Sense of purpose: "I have a clear career vision."
- Adaptability: "I am constantly networking and therefore I see new opportunities."
- Self-initiation: "I dare sell myself, take care of my own visibility."
- Mobility: "I dare say yes when I see a new opportunity."
Managers can coach employees to develop these career skills, but employees remain responsible for their careers. It is up to them to make the right choice. And admittedly, it takes some courage of an employee to dare and choose opportunities that suit his or her personal talent and intrinsic motivation if, for example, this means losing status or a company car.
Leave or stay?
Focusing on career skills leads to positive results. Strong skills help prevent burn-outs because employees with a strong career vision know what makes them happy and solve situations that make them unhappy.
Another advantage is that you can stimulate job crafting. Many managers frequently think: "I am not going to invest in career development because I have a flat organisation. There are not many responsibilities here, so my employees will leave." But that is not true. By talking with your employees, you can discover what your co-workers do not like to do, take action, and take it out of their job description.
Lesley Vanleke: "Career guidance does not mean ‘looking for a different job’. Career guidance means: making an existing job fit better."
