The Ladder is Broken with Julie Winkle Giulioni

Career development is broken and our expectations have not kept pace with the reality of today’s workplace, according to today’s guest, Julie Winkle Giulioni. Julie co-authored the book, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, and works with organizations world-wide to improve performance through leadership and learning. Today, she’s talking about developing and growing employees.Why She Wrote the BookJulie believes one of the primary ways we can put humans first is by recognizing and honoring our human drive to learn, grow, and contribute. Enabling development empowers the whole person, in the workplace and beyond. In this way, career development is broken, and that’s one of the main reasons people join organizations. Julie explains why she wrote Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, and why it’s like a Swiss Army Knife for leaders.The Nature of Work is ChangingThe way we work is much more organic than ever before. Projects, opportunities, initiatives: they’re all formulated around customer needs and competitive challenges. This makes the workplace very different than 10 or even 5 years ago. The problem lies in the fact that our expectations of what career development should look like are not lining up with the reality of the workplace today. Julie talks about how the ladder is broken and why the word ‘career’ might be a liability.What Employees Really WantThe Millennials aren’t the only ones in the workforce ranks. Generation D is nipping at their heels while Boomers are holding on to management positions far longer than anyone expected. But we’re viewing this through the lens of each generation wanting something different. According to Julie’s research, this just isn’t the case. Employees as a whole want generally the same thing, and it’s very different than what leaders believe they want. Julie shares what leaders and managers can do to make a difference for their employees and keep them longer, and it begins with reviews being an ongoing, more holistic process. She thinks of career development moving from an annual event to a ‘subscription model.’ This moves toward a more agile workforce, which in turn helps create an agile company.Common Career Development MythsThere’s a disconnect between ideation and action in development. An idea may be great and exciting, but the its execution is severely lacking. How do you take a great idea from the head and heart and move it to the hands and feet? Julie says part of it is building a plan collaboratively with employees. The other side of that is accountability and support. Julie shares how she thinks we can revolutionize career development.Fear-Based ManagementWhy do managers and leaders still lead by instilling fear when there is obviously a better way? It comes down to something very mundane: habit. As children, we grew up with fear: don’t touch that, don’t do that, and so we carry that fear into the workplace. Ideas like ‘fear is a motivator that drives results’ are far too prevalent. Julie talks about how this management style is directly linked to overwhelm and how we can start to chip away at it: self-awareness and positive modeling.“People have an innate desire to learn and grow, and organizations face increasing pressures to deliver more. So rather than treating these things as separate, and as competing priorities, it’s time to bring them together. Helping people to develop and grow serves them in their human drive to do and be more, and it also serves the organization as it needs to be and do more as well.”Resources for JulieWebsite | LinkedIn  | Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go

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