Amid tight deadlines and big projects, regular discussions between employees and their managers about career aspirations are too often placed on the backburner. But those development conversations are too important to leave to chance, especially when it comes to employee retention and growth.
In fact, when employees feel their employer supports their career growth, the effects cascade across the organization, according to a 2023 Gartner employee survey. High performance increases by up to 39 percentage points, retention likelihood by up to 19, and employee engagement by up to 61.
Those benefits won’t materialize when development conversations are an afterthought. Keep reading to learn what development conversations are, how to structure them, and what questions to ask.
What Are Development Conversations, Really?
Development conversations with employees are regular, employee-led check-ins about their short- and long-term career goals. They’re distinct from performance reviews, which focus on past performance, and regular 1:1s, which tend to cover current tasks. Instead, employees come to development conversations ready to talk about their career goals, and the manager coaches them on how to meet them.
“It should be driven by the [employee], so that the person is learning not only to guide their own ship in terms of their future, but starts [taking] accountability and ownership,” said Carolina Caro, CEO of Conscious Leadership Partners, a boutique consulting firm.
Why Development Conversations Matter
Career development conversations signal to your team that you’re invested in them beyond their daily to-do lists, and research backs up why that matters. According to a 2023 Gallup survey, for example, employees whose departures were preventable ranked creating career advancement opportunities and more positive interpersonal interactions with their manager among the top actions managers could have taken to prevent them from quitting.
And LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report 2025 found that organizations with robust career development programs are more confident in their ability to be profitable and to attract and retain talent, and are more likely to describe themselves as “frontrunners” in adopting generative AI tools.
Discussing employees’ aspirations and helping them get there shows individuals they’re supported, while uncovering what they need to feel fulfilled and engaged. Those insights pay off in stronger employee retention and growth. That kind of long-term thinking doesn’t always come naturally to managers, but it can be the difference between managers who develop people and those who simply manage them.
“A good manager will say, ‘You’re going to stay here for a period of time, I’m going to develop you. We’re going to build the relationship, and then you’re going to move on,’” said Stacey Berk, founder and managing consultant of Expand HR Consulting. The aim isn’t to hang on to employees forever, but to invest in their growth so they can move on and, potentially, return as a colleague who still sees you as a trusted ally. “But that’s hard to do,” Berk acknowledged.
How to Structure a Development Conversation
If you’ve never had a career development conversation with an employee before, it can be hard to know where to start. Here’s how to set the right tone:
1. Set the Stage
Before diving in, clarify the conversation’s purpose and outline your role in it. As the manager, you’re there to support the employee’s development and provide some accountability to keep them focused on their own professional goals. You should also take responsibility for making sure they have time to work toward that development, rather than getting overwhelmed with work.
2. Let the Employee Lead
As the manager, your aim is to support employees in their career planning, not to tell them what their goals should be. Let them direct the conversation while you act as a sounding board and source of information and knowledge. During development conversations, focus on helping the employee figure out their motivators, strengths, and areas for improvement.
3. Outline a Development Plan
Once you’ve explained your role and placed the conversation in context, it’s time to get specific with an individual development plan — a road map for where your employee wants to go and how you’ll help them get there.
First, guide your direct report as they set actionable goals for their own progress. The SMART goal framework can help ensure their goals are realistic and trackable. Or, if you’re already using objectives and key results (OKRs) as a team, those can help create ambitious goals with organizational alignment.
Then, set up a way to document goal progress — either within your usual performance management system or more informally in a shared document.
Finally, work with your employee to identify development opportunities that align with their objectives. The three E’s (experience, exposure, education) offer a useful framework for covering the full range of learning and development opportunities:
- Experience refers to hands-on time spent performing a new task or learning a new skill. Help the employee identify gaps in their experience, then create opportunities to address those gaps. If they’ve never given a presentation, for instance, ask them to present in a low-stress setting, such as a weekly team meeting.
- Exposure is the opportunity to spend time watching other people perform the target skill. To use the presentation example again, the employee could shadow more experienced team members when they give presentations, take notes, and discuss their learnings with you at their next development conversation.
- Education covers formal training and development. To support that budding presenter, you could help them find an online workshop on public speaking or building high-impact slides.
The key to an effective employee development plan is making it actionable. It should break your employee’s larger goals and career path into small, manageable steps.
4. Conclude with Clarity
Wrap up your career development conversation with clearly defined next steps. By the end of the session, you and your direct report should have:
- Recapped their motivations for pursuing development goals
- Reviewed the goals they’re going to pursue
- Created an action plan, with next steps for both of you
- Set a date for a follow-up meeting to review progress and make adjustments as needed
That follow-up is critical. When managers make good on promises of additional training or new connections, it signals real commitment, Caro said. “They’re seeing that my manager is invested in the things I’m telling them, not just checking a box.”
Career Development Questions to Ask Employees
Effective career development conversations start with questions that spark meaningful discussion. These career development templates, along with the questions below, can guide your next development conversation with an employee.
Questions to Understand Career Aspirations
- What does your ideal next step look like professionally?
- What does successful career progression look like to you in the short term and long term?
- What motivates you most about the work you do?
- Of these three possible goals, which would be most personally meaningful to you? [Give three goal examples.]
Questions to Identify Strengths and Growth Areas
- What tasks do you find most stimulating?
- Which areas of weakness are currently affecting your day-to-day work?
- What strengths do you feel aren’t being fully used in your current role?
- Are there skills, talents, or interests outside of work you’d love to find ways to use in your role?
Questions to Surface Growth Opportunities
- Who in the organization would you most benefit from learning from or being mentored by?
- What skills are you most motivated to build?
- Are there stretch projects or new responsibilities you’d like to take on?
- Are there projects or initiatives in our organization where you’d like to contribute more visibly?
Questions to Drive Follow-Through
- What’s one concrete next step you can take this week toward your career goals?
- What’s a reasonable timeline for reaching your next milestone?
- What roadblocks are getting in the way, and how can I help you remove them?
- How can I help you stay accountable to the goals we’ve set today?
Don’t just reserve these conversations for once a quarter or, worse, twice a year.
Tips for a Productive Development Conversation
The questions and framework above cover how to run a successful career development conversation. The practices below separate managers who run these conversations well from those who just go through the motions.
Encourage Varied Growth Paths
Professional growth means different things to different employees, and it doesn’t have to mean working toward a promotion. Emphasize that career advancement can happen in numerous ways within an employee’s current role — through developing new skills, working on new projects, or taking on new challenges — not just through promotions or role changes.
Encourage Employee Autonomy
Let employees lead the conversation about their career paths, and avoid imposing your own aspirations on them. “[When it’s] guided by the manager, then it feels like I’m told to do this versus this is what I want to step into,” Caro said. “That empowerment piece is really important.”
Emphasize Consistent Engagement
An employee’s goals, ambitions, and career trajectory will change over time — a single annual or quarterly conversation isn’t enough. Build career development discussions into your continuous feedback cycle, so employees know their professional development is a priority to you.
“Don’t just reserve these conversations for once a quarter or, worse, twice a year,” said Christopher D. Connors, executive coach and author of Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader.
During these discussions, stay focused on your employee’s development. Don’t lump the conversation into an employee performance review or regular 1:1. Regular, focused development conversations will keep you informed about where your employee is and what they’re working toward, so you can provide the support they need to get there.
Separate Development from Performance
When conversations feel more like an evaluation, employees will self-edit, worrying that sharing a skill gap, for example, could count against them in their next review. To avoid that, set the right tone from the start by explaining that this conversation is different from a performance review or 1:1. Use language that signals it’s forward-looking.
Instead of saying, “We’ll talk about how you’re doing,” which might signal a focus on a current project or task, a manager might say, “My goal today is to learn more about your career aspirations. Where do you want to go, and how can I help you get there?”
Make Career Development Conversations Simple with Lattice
Ready to jumpstart your organization’s career development process? Lattice Grow gives managers the tools they need to develop employees — including identifying development areas, capturing goals, and clarifying growth paths. Set up a demo today to see how Lattice can help you turn these conversations into an impactful practice.
FAQs
What If My Employee Doesn’t Know What They Want for Their Career?
Normalize that it’s OK if they don’t know how they want their career to unfold, said Francine Watson, an executive coach. Let them know that the point is to encourage exploration, and use the conversation to create space for employees to discover what they want.
But Caro noted that if an employee doesn’t know what they want, that could be a sign your leadership or organizational culture hasn’t encouraged them to think about what’s next — and that’s worth addressing. “We don’t know what lights people up, and we don’t know how to turn on that light,” she said.
How Do I Have a Development Conversation with a High Performer Who’s Already on a Clear Path?
Talk with high performers about how they’re preparing for future opportunities through stretch goals, such as mentoring or special projects. At the same time, check in on how they’re doing. “Your overachievers sometimes are creating expectations that are unrealistic,” Caro said. Use the conversation to explore how their strengths are serving them, and what might need to be dialed back.
What Should I Do If the Development Opportunities an Employee Wants Aren’t Available at Our Company?
When budgets or roles aren’t available, look for low- or no-cost options, Berk advised. Check out inexpensive online training courses, or connect the employee with a mentor in your own network. Encouraging them to sit on a local nonprofit board is another option, she added — as a board member, they could provide guidance in their area of expertise, such as marketing, finance, or HR, while building leadership experience.
How Do I Document a Development Conversation Without Making It Feel Like a Performance Review?
The employee should lead the conversation, with the manager coaching and guiding them. Both should take notes, document commitments, and agree on a timeline for next steps. The action plan section of Lattice’s Career Development Conversation Template can help, keeping the focus on goal-setting and next steps and making sure the conversation stays collaborative and documented.
How Do I Follow Up After a Development Conversation So the Plan Doesn’t Stall?
Employee growth happens when it’s nurtured. Ideally, managers and employees meet at least quarterly to track progress. Systems like Lattice Grow can also send automated reminders to both manager and employee, so follow-through isn’t left to memory. But, Berk stressed, tools are only effective when organizational culture takes performance management and development seriously. “It’s a cultural issue, with the tool supporting it,” she added.
How Long Should a Development Conversation Be?
It depends. A first conversation might take an hour, while quarterly check-ins might run 30 minutes, and informal touchpoints even less.
What matters is having enough time to be expansive and exploratory, said Watson, who encourages managers to deliberately step out of the usual meeting room for a walk or coffee for these conversations. A different environment signals that this is a more reflective conversation about the employee’s career. “Those sorts of conversations, they need time,” she said.
