How To Overcome Challenges In Career Development
The benefits of learning and career development in your workplace are obvious. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to achieve. When promoting a culture of career development, you need to be aware of the challenges that already exist. These challenges can limit the way development takes place.
It is important to overcome these challenges as career development opportunities for employees are a high priority for job candidates. Deloitte reports that this is especially true for millennials, who make up a large portion of the workforce. You also create a culture of career development when your organization handles career development challenges well.
To understand these challenges, you need to look at how individuals interact in productive and unproductive ways. You also need to consider the communication needs and uncertainties that come with career development.
We have listed 3 challenges to career development and how to overcome them:
1.Intergenerational communication
Trying to communicate with someone who speaks a different language can be frustrating for both parties. The more of a language you both speak, the more productive the conversation will be. However, if the language barrier does not allow for verbal communication, the only option left is non-verbal communication.
The same communication barriers can exist between generations. There are now four generations in the workforce, and this creates communication channels similar to four different languages.
Baby Boomers and Generations X, Y and Z all have different views on:
- Technology and its role in the workplace.
- Short and long-term goals and the career development plan to achieve them
- Motivation and how to reach their full potential
It is essential that both parties understand these differences. It is not enough to simply speak the language of the other generation. You need to understand and appreciate where their ideas are coming from. To achieve this, you all need to practice these communication skills and learn that differences are not always an obstacle.
A team that truly functions as a team finds strengths in its differences to fill the organizational gaps.
2.uncertainty after promotion
When people are promoted to higher positions, they may not know what success looks or feels like. This is a challenge in the workplace because you need leaders to be productive and efficient as quickly as possible.
Insecurity after promotions can arise from:
- Change of role from a colleague to a leader
- Change of department
- Moving to a different location
It is important to address this career development challenge early. You can do this with either mentoring or coaching.
Give newly promoted people a mentor who has been where they are. The mentor can use their experience as a guide to help them succeed. Even better, introduce the person to this mentor before they are promoted so they can hit the ground running.
Coaching is another way to help your workplace. Coaches can teach the person being promoted skills in areas such as leadership or communication. This builds the person’s skills and confidence. As with mentoring, you can also introduce coaching before promotion to give employees a head start.
3.Have the career development conversation
For career development to take place, you need to know your employees’ goals and readiness to develop. The challenge is that there is no way to find this out without having a conversation, which can be difficult for some people.
To promote career development in your workplace, challenge your managers to initiate this conversation with their team members. Taking the pressure off the person by initiating this conversation could help them open up. These conversations are important, especially to increase staff retention.
Challenge individuals in your workplace to take on this career development challenge and talk to their managers about their goals. This not only shows their ambition but also creates a great company culture where communication and development are key.
This will enable growth and productivity, and employees will feel comfortable.
