Employees expect managers to play greater role in their career growth.

(Alexandria, VA) March 8, 2022—In her new book Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive. (ATD Press, March 2022), career development and growth champion Julie Winkle Giulioni asserts that traditional promotions are not the only way for employees to grow within an organization. Employees are looking beyond financial rewards and the corporate climb to grow in their careers, and managers can play a powerful role in helping employees advance in other creative ways. Winkle Giulioni introduces a new framework to help managers support meaningful career development.

While promotions have long been thought of as the traditional go-to incentive for getting employees to stay and grow within an organization, this singular approach is no longer valid. Promotions will always be an important part of career development, but there are other, and sometimes better, ways employees want to grow—particularly when promotions are not readily available.

“Career development is one of the most intimate and important relationships managers can have with employees today,” explains Winkle Giulioni. “It’s a profound and vital connection that has the power to forge unbeatable trust and loyalty, along with deep levels of personal and professional satisfaction in the workplace, both for the employee and the manager. And at a time when organizations are considering better ways to retain and attract talent, exploring how managers and their relationships with employees can contribute to updating the definition of career development is critical.”

The fundamental problem is that career development operates today as it has for decades. While businesses have evolved in nearly every other dimension of organizational life, meaningful advancements to career development have lagged, perpetuating outdated expectations as well as employee frustration, disengagement, and dissatisfaction.

As a solution, Winkle Giulioni offers an easy-to-apply framework of seven additional dimensions of development (contribution, competence, confidence, connection, challenge, contentment, and choice) beyond the traditional climb up the corporate ladder, which managers can use to engage their employees. Adding these dimensions into the conversations between managers and employees expands the definition of career development and helps employees see their career development as a journey, rich with many growth experiences.

“To employees, career development is no longer a nice-to-have, an extra, or something managers can do when they have the time. A workplace priorities, beliefs, and practices survey I conducted of nearly 800 professionals shows that 69 percent believed that one of a manager’s fundamental roles is to support their employees’ career development; this holds true for everyone from young millennial to baby boomer respondents. Employees perceive career development as a core job expectation of their bosses, and one that too many managers are not able to meet.”

She adds, “Most managers want to offer the career development their employees crave. But today’s landscape is congested with questions, contradictions, and complexities that leave too many managers fundamentally confused about how to help others grow. The framework I provide will guide managers on how to approach career development conversations with their employees, ultimately helping employees grow in new and creative ways over time.”

About ATD and ATD Press

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD Press publications are written by industry thought leaders and offer anyone who works with adult learners the best practices, academic theory, and guidance necessary to move the profession forward. For more information, visit td.org/books.

About the Author

Julie Winkle Giulioni is an author, consultant, trainer, and speaker who helps organizations tap their only sustainable competitive advantage: talent. One of Inc. magazine’s Top 100 speakers, she’s the co-author of the international bestseller Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go and author of Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive.

Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive.

ISBN: 9781952157738 | 176 Pages | Paperback

td.org/book/promotions-are-so-yesterday

To order books from ATD Press, call 800.628.2783.

To schedule an interview with Julie Winkle Giulioni, please contact Kay Hechler, ATD Press senior marketing manager, at [email protected] or 703.683.8178.