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An organization’s culture shows through in the conversations. Improving the quality of conversations can create cascading culture change and better business outcomes.
Managers face relentless demands to meet performance goals, with priorities and challenges shifting constantly.
The key to improving your talent development process is equipping managers to hold meaningful talent conversations and provide regular, effective feedback.
When done right, talent conversations engage employees and boost their performance and development. These discussions allow managers to guide their teams toward better outcomes and growth. And remember, these conversations shouldn’t be limited to performance reviews — they can (and should) happen anytime.
Preparation is crucial for a successful career development conversation. Our talent conversations content offers models that managers can learn and practice to maximize these discussions.
The focus of a talent conversation will vary based on an employee’s performance. Whether they are top talent, solid performers, potential performers, or underperformers, the approach will differ.
Regardless of other formal talent management or leadership development systems, talent conversations are where real development happens. This is the prime opportunity for managers to boost their direct reports’ commitment to the organization and engagement in their work.
Leaders can prepare for and facilitate development conversations with employees using our proven development frameworks:
Start having better development conversations with employees at your organization by equipping your team with these talent conversation skills. We can deliver our world-class, research-backed talent conversations content to them — or you can.
You can use our proven content to deliver a workshop or internal training on development conversations either online or in person, whichever you prefer:
Deliver targeted training to key leaders or small groups — leverage our content on talent conversations to host a half-day leadership development workshop
Accelerate development across your entire organization with comprehensive access to this content and all our leadership topics and solutions
Or, we can incorporate it as part of a larger initiative for your organization:
Combine with other topic modules and interactive experiences into a customized learning journey
Organizations that have partnered with us to upskill their ability to have effective development conversations with employees consistently tell us the same thing: their experience with CCL made a significant impact on their culture — and their bottom line.
But don’t just take our word for it — take theirs.
“The reputation of having a formal coaching program that is trusted and relied upon has enabled us to now start coaching at the top levels of the organization. And the quality of our coaches — we’re getting great feedback.”
Senior Director of Team and Leadership Development
Major Healthcare System
“The Better Conversations program was so impactful by using real experiences, and having a coach in each group makes it really effective and creates lasting impact.”
Program Participant
Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation about development conversations with employees at your organization and how our talent conversations content could help support your development initiatives.
An organization’s culture shows through in the conversations. Improving the quality of conversations can create cascading culture change and better business outcomes.
Have a difficult colleague? Confrontation may seem scary, but when done correctly, it leads to positive outcomes for everyone involved. Here’s how to get the best results.
Help managers hold more effective talent conversations and give more constructive feedback, and you’ll greatly improve your talent development processes.
Talent and career development conversations play a critical role in engaging employees and influencing their performance — but only if they are done effectively and frequently. These conversations also allow managers to share feedback that encourages and supports others in adopting behaviors that improve performance, enhance their development, and drive positive outcomes for the organization. Plus, career development conversations are a great time for managers to build commitment and motivation among their direct reports and cultivate a strong feedback culture.
Holding a talent conversation with an employee will vary based on how the individual is performing. The focus of the discussion will depend on whether the employee is considered top talent, a solid performer, a potential performer, or an underperformer. If you’re a manager facing an upcoming conversation with an underperforming or difficult employee, remember that this is a great time to help shift behaviors and drive real development. Consider leveraging these 5 steps for tackling difficult conversations.
First, it’s important to understand that development conversations with employees should happen more than once or twice a year. The key to preparing for an effective talent conversation is to leverage our proven development frameworks, including Assessment, Challenge, Support (ACS) and our SBI model for holding regular feedback conversations with employees. By using these tools, managers will be able to help direct reports discover their strengths and areas for opportunity through feedback and coaching.
More questions? Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation!
Package our research-backed boundary spanning leadership content with other proven leadership development topics and solutions for a customized scalable solution perfect for your organization’s unique needs, context, and culture. Related topics include:
