If a team member isn’t happy with their career trajectory and opportunities, how do you prefer they handle it?

Our reader poll today asks: If a team member isn’t happy with their career trajectory and opportunities, how do you prefer they handle it?

• Come directly to you for a face-to-face discussion – 79%
• Go to HR or a mentor for a discussion – 9%
  
• Send you an email laying out their case for you to consider – 6%
• Seek better opportunities on their own – 5%
• Stay quiet and just do their job – 2%

Talk to a manager. There’s obviously a strong preference among respondents that team members come directly to them for a conversation when the individual is unhappy with their career trajectory or opportunities. These can be uncomfortable situations and, as a leader, your role is to make sure people know they can and should come to you. You also need to make it a comfortable discussion. As soon as you say “well, that’s just the way it is” that person will never come to you again, nor will their colleagues. Be inquisitive. Seek to understand their source of frustration, their hopes and expectations, and what they want for their career. You might be able to guide them to non-traditional or interesting opportunities they (and you) hadn’t considered before. To make this process even easier, try proactively reaching out to your team members to have these discussions. That can remove the fear they might have of coming to you directly and it could put you in a more open mindset to consider opportunities for them.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog.  It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!).  SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.