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 our Boss about our Career Goals

How to Talk to our Boss about our Career

Goals
B Shweta 12 Comments
23
23

9
Li e

17
Performance reviews and appraisals are not the
onl time when ou discuss our career goals with our boss, the goals can be set either at the ver first meeting
Shaou
e join in a new job or a new team/division or an where during project changes or set up in timel
when
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How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals | CAREERBRIGHT

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
Digg
Diggs performance management system may be a real sucker or even one that changes every now and then
company
(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 your
communication 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 not
toot your horn no one else will so take charge now.
Setting up a Meeting with our 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 display
abilities to lead and take charge of the situation).
Start your Email or conversation on these lines (after the usual polite greetings and salutations):
I an o mee i h o o di c
he ca ee goal fo hi ea and o e plo e f he g o h
oppo ni ie i hin he compan . D ing hi mee ing I p opo e ha e ake ime o a e each o he
e pec a ion on m c en p ojec and al o I hall ha e he oppo ni o ge cla ifica ion on f
e
p o pec of m ca ee de elopmen .
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 rightfully
they should be more concerned about how to develop the employee, but yet again if you are not in that set of
environment it is important to realize that keeping on top of our career growth is your responsibility and in a
way recession-proofs your career as well.
What and How to discuss with our Boss in this Meeting
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Discuss in depth the e pec a ion 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
ack of he a k and deadline assigned to you. Don t be shy to communicate if the expectations do
not 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 your
company policies if mid-year reviews are supported and ask your manager if he endorses m l iple
e ie (twice or quarterly) in a year.
Tip: U e good comm nica ion kill d ing hi di c

ion and be a good li ene .

Po -Mee ing Ac ion I em

Doc men what has been discussed in the meeting. Prepare a concise outline and send your manager for
approval, 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 a
few 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.
Doc men again the final goals set and visit your performance management system if and when the need
arises 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 pe onal doc men a ion.
Take cha ge of o
e e
ea !

ca ee , manage o

ca ee

ell and eap he benefi of g o h

What has been our e perience talking to our boss about our career goals? Please share in
comments belo .
If ou have liked this post and would like to read more on career topics please do subscribe to
Careerbright blog through RSS feed.

Rela ed Po

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 Review
Time to Revisit your Performance Review and Employee Talent Management
Sha e hi a icle:
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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

Commen

1.

William Roberts says:

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

2.

Emil 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 t
able to see a reliable source.

5.

Ja me 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 a
long time.

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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 and
my seotons I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative write-up.

8.

Boris says:
at
I wanted details about it on Google and discovered your write-up. I thought it was nice and very clear.
Thanks

9.

atlanta interior designer says:

at
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T ackback
1. The Essentials of Success at Work | CAREERBRIGHT says:
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[...] How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals [...]
2. How to speak to a manager says:
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[...] http://careerbright.com [...]
3. How to Effectively Communicate with Your Boss Office Supply Sanity Weblog says:
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[...] How to Talk to your Boss about your Career Goals [...]
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