how to talk to your boss about your career goals _ careerbright

11/01/2012 How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals | CAREERBRIGHT

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You are here: Home / Career Self-Help / How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals

How to Talk to your Boss about your CareerGoals

By Shweta 12 Comments

Performance reviews and appraisals are not the

only time when you discuss your career goals with your boss, the goals can be set either at the very first meeting

when you join in a new job or a new team/division or anywhere during project changes or set up in timely

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recurring meetings throughout the year.

Whether you had a great or a bad performance review for the last year, now is the time to ensure a more

positive one for this year. Plan and prepare to meet with your boss on goal planning for the current year. Most of

us just chuck it under the carpet or roll our eyes, wanting our best to delay as much as possible, either the goal

setting meeting with your boss or discussing your performance review before it happens. But taking charge of

your career is in your hands and you better be diligent and proactive about it. If you don’t take control now no

one would and the outcome may not be to your liking.

Performance management is as much your responsibility as your manager’s, well in fact more of yours. Your

company’s performance management system may be a real sucker or even one that changes every now and then(a personal experience – when a previous year’s performance appraisal was very conveniently ‘lost’ by the

system. I ignored it then, with the “who-cares” attitude; but now realize the importance of what it truly means to

be better informed of the performance management reports and what it means to visit them often to be on top of

personal career development).

Not tomorrow nor later – today is the time to take initiate: if you have never had a goal setting meeting or

performance review (whether new to the company or have been there for ‘don’t-know-how-long’) – now is the

time. Managing your performance review and setting career goals with your boss strengthens yourcommunication with upper management and brings forward your work and achievements within the company.

You have to market yourself continuously to be visible as a valuable contributor to the organization, if you do nottoot your horn no one else will – so take charge now.

Setting up a Meeting with your Manager

Initiate a meeting to discuss on goal setting plans for this year.When? Ensure that you and your boss are not in a hurry to join another meeting or a Friday evening when all

you have in mind is to be out of the office as soon as you can shake off that last task.Email request: Send a meeting request email or just walk in and talk to him/her about it. (Though it should very

well come from your manager but why wait if that has not happened since long – when you initiate you displayabilities to lead and take charge of the situation).

Start your Email or conversation on these lines (after the ‘usual’ polite greetings and salutations):

“I want to meet with you to discuss the career goals for this year and to explore further growth

opportunities within the company. During this meeting I propose that we take time to assess each otherexpectations on my current projects and also I shall have the opportunity to get clarifications on futureprospects of my career development.”

Ask your boss for a convenient date and time for this meeting. Try to adhere to his timelines.

Such a conversation or communication enables the management to see “what’s it in for them” though rightfullythey should be more concerned about how to develop the employee, but yet again if you are not in that set ofenvironment – it is important to realize that keeping on top of your career growth is your responsibility and in a

way recession-proofs your career as well.

What and How to discuss with your Boss in this Meeting

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Discuss in depth the expectations from the present and planned projects and keep the task measurable.

Draft a process for continued communication or seek suggestions on how your manager plans on keeping

track of the tasks and deadlines assigned to you. Don’t be shy to communicate if the expectations donot match and/or you have a proposal to work on some other tasks within the team.

Ask your manager on how the feedback system would work – on the task accountability and appraisals

going forward.

The goal setting discussions should not be just one-a-year-discussion, take time to find out through yourcompany policies if mid-year reviews are supported and ask your manager if he endorses multiple

reviews (twice or quarterly) in a year.

Tip: Use good communication skills during this discussion and be a good listener.

Post-Meeting Action Items

Document what has been discussed in the meeting. Prepare a concise outline and send your manager forapproval, from here on it should be the manager’s responsibility to follow-up with HR to get your goals

well placed in the performance management system of the company. But do not hesitate to follow-up afew days or a week later to find out how the process finally shaped up and if there are some action items

on your plate now.

Document again the final goals set and visit your performance management system if and when the needarises to update tasks on their status or add new ones.

Further during the year your tasks and responsibilities may change, make sure that you edit it on the

review system as well in your personal documentation.

Take charge of your career, manage your career well and reap the benefits of growthevery year!

What has been your experience talking to your boss about your career goals? Please share incomments below.

If you have liked this post and would like to read more on career topics please do subscribe toCareerbright blog through RSS feed.

Related Posts:

Tips to Prepare for the Performance Review

What are Performance Reviews or Appraisals

How to Deal with a Bad Performance Review

How to respond to a Bad Performance ReviewTime to Revisit your Performance Review and Employee Talent Management

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Filed Under: Career Self-Help, Communication@Work, Work Smarter Tagged With: after bad performance

review, goal setting meeting or performance review, How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals,

performance management system, performance review, personal career development

Comments

1. William Roberts says:

at

Goal setting is very important if you want something to be done in a short period of time.”~,

2. Emily Smith says:

at

The advice to document the expectations that were discussed at your meeting is key. Not only does it

clarify to your boss what you heard, but it also puts in writing essentially an agreement that your boss and

you are working toward agreed upon objectives.

3. Shweta says:

at

You are right to highlight that Emily, it’s one of those points which many employees say “I wish I knew it

then..”

very important to make it a habit and you’ll see tremendous benefits in the coming years.

4. ultima online shard says:

at

Thank you very much for the info provided! I was looking for this info for quite some time, but I wasn’table to see a reliable source.

5. Jayme Sebek says:

at

Thank you for that smart critique. Me & my neighbour were preparing to do some research about that.

We received a very good book on that matter from our local library and most books exactly where not as

influensive as your information. Im quite glad to see this kind of information which I was searching for along time.



6. Shweta says:

at

Thank you! That sure makes my day and I’m glad you found this info helpful, please do add on any other

points in your comments that can supplement the present info.

Sincerely appreciate your comments!

7. shenghuoganwu says:

at

This is really a very beneficial read for me, Need to admit you might be 1 in the most efficient bloggers andmy seotons I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative write-up.

8. Boris says:

at

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Thanks

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at

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