Your 1:1s Are About Work. But Are They About Development?

Turn Everyday Manager Conversations Into Opportunities to Develop Your People

Regular conversations between managers and employees are an important part of keeping work on track. But when priorities or immediate challenges fill the agenda, those conversations can easily become focused almost entirely on performance and getting the work done.

That's necessary. But if every manager conversation focuses on today's priorities, when do employees get the coaching and development they need to grow?

When Manager Conversations Become Status Updates

Most managers aren't intentionally avoiding employee development. They're responding to what's right in front of them.

A deadline is approaching, and priorities have shifted again. With limited time together, it makes sense to focus on the most immediate needs.

The problem comes when the immediate becomes the only thing managers and employees talk about.

Over time, regular check-ins can turn into a cycle of updates, problem-solving, and next steps. The manager may be providing useful guidance and feedback, but the conversation can remain almost entirely focused on what the employee needs to accomplish now rather than how they are growing for the future.

Talking About Performance Isn't the Same as Talking About Development

Managers need to help employees perform well in their current roles. That means setting expectations, providing feedback, addressing challenges, and helping people deliver results.

Development coaching serves a different purpose.

Instead of focusing primarily on what an employee needs to accomplish now, development conversations help employees think about the capabilities they want to strengthen, the experiences that could help them grow, and how they can build on the strengths they already have.

Managers can start with questions such as:

• What part of your role would you like to get better at?
• What strengths would you like more opportunities to use?
• What kind of challenge would help you stretch?
• Is there something you would like to take greater ownership of?
• What experience would help prepare you for what you want to do next?

These questions don't necessarily require a separate meeting or formal development plan. They can become part of the ongoing coaching conversations managers are already having.

Employee Development Doesn't Have to Wait for the Annual Review

One reason development gets pushed aside is that organizations often treat it as an event.

There may be an annual development plan, talent review, or performance-management process that creates a designated time to talk about growth. Those processes can be valuable, but employee development shouldn't depend on them.

Some of the best opportunities to develop people happen in the flow of work.

When an employee completes a challenging assignment, the manager can ask what they learned from it rather than immediately moving to the next task.

When someone demonstrates a particular strength, the manager can help them recognize it and consider where else they might apply it.

When a new project emerges, rather than automatically assigning it to the person who can complete it fastest, the manager can consider whether it could become a stretch opportunity for someone else.

These moments don't require another formal development process. They require managers to recognize how everyday work can also build employee capability.

Who Owns Employee Development?

Managers play an important role in developing their people, but that doesn't mean they need to decide what development should look like for each employee.

The strongest development conversations are collaborative. Managers can help employees identify strengths, think about capabilities they want to build, provide useful feedback, and connect them with opportunities to learn or stretch. Employees bring their own goals, interests, and ideas about where they want to grow.

Instead of a manager deciding, “Here's what I think you should do next,” the conversation can start with “What do you want to develop, and how can I help?”

That shared responsibility helps employees take a more active role in their own growth while giving managers a practical way to support development.

Build Development Into Everyday Manager Coaching

Managers don't need to turn every check-in into a development discussion. But employee growth shouldn't continually get pushed aside by whatever feels most urgent that week.

Development can be part of the work already happening. A manager might use a regular conversation to talk about a skill an employee wants to strengthen, identify a stretch assignment that builds new capability, or discuss how an employee could take on greater responsibility. Coaching can also help employees recognize where they're already strong and find new ways to put those strengths to work.

The goal isn't to have more meetings or add another process. It's to make employee development a more consistent part of how managers lead.

When managers coach with development in mind, they're not only helping employees handle today's work. They're building stronger capabilities for what the organization will need from them next.

Help Managers Strengthen Their Development Conversations

Knowing development conversations are important doesn't automatically make them easy to lead.

In our upcoming Manage OnPoint! Developing Your Direct Reports public workshop, managers will learn to distinguish between coaching for performance and coaching for development and use a practical, strengths-based approach to help employees take greater ownership of their growth.

This focused, two-hour virtual workshop gives individual managers and small groups an opportunity to strengthen their employee development and coaching skills and immediately apply what they learn in everyday conversations.

Manage OnPoint! Developing Your Direct Reports Public Workshop
Wednesday, September 23 | 1:00–3:00 p.m. ET
Online, facilitator-led | Learn More and Register »