In this episode, Sarah dives into a topic many professionals overlook: how to have a meaningful career conversation with your boss. Whether you’re seeking growth opportunities, more fulfilling projects, or simply clarity on your next steps, Sarah shares the benefits of these conversations and a step-by-step process to help you approach them with confidence.

What You'll Learn:

• The difference between career conversations and performance reviews
• Why regular career discussions are vital for your growth
• Key benefits for both you and your organization
• Challenges you might face and how to overcome them
• A practical framework to prepare, initiate, and follow up effectively

Show Notes:

[00:00:00] Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable — Introduction to the podcast and Sarah's background.

[00:01:00] Episode Overview — The importance of career conversations and why they matter.

[00:02:00] What is a Career Conversation? — How it's different from appraisals, one-on-ones, and supervision sessions.

[00:03:00] Benefits for You and the Business — How these discussions support your growth and organizational goals.

[00:04:00] How Your Boss Can Help — The role of your manager in unlocking opportunities and providing guidance.

[00:05:00] Taking Ownership of Your Career — Why you need to be proactive and drive the conversation.

[00:06:00] Common Challenges — Addressing time constraints, lack of clarity, and fear of taking action.

[00:08:00] Identifying What You Need — Clarifying the support you seek: time, capacity, connections, visibility, or guidance.

[00:09:00] Turning Challenges into Opportunities — How to navigate uncertainty and use your boss as a sounding board.

[00:10:00] How to Prepare for the Conversation — Tips for getting clear on your goals and needs.

[00:11:00] Structuring the Conversation — From setting the scene to outlining your vision of success.

[00:12:00] Requesting Feedback — How to ask for constructive insights on your career path.

[00:13:00] Exploring Ideas and Agreeing on a Plan — Collaborating with your boss to identify opportunities and next steps.

[00:14:00] Building a Continuous Career Dialogue — Why regular follow-ups are key to sustained growth.

[00:15:00] What If Your Boss Isn’t Supportive? — Finding alternative mentors, sponsors, or career coaches.

[00:16:00] Closing Thoughts — Final reflections, resources, and an invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

Useful Links

Watch the LinkedIn Live

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Join The Love What You Do Facebook Group

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

Your support means the world and helps more women unlock their extraordinary potential. Remember: Shine brightly, lead boldly, and be unstoppable!

Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

2

leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

3

feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

5

I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

and unstoppable comes in.

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Each week I'll be sharing practical

strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

17

and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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Welcome to episode 15.

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I am so glad you're here.

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Today's episode is about how to

have a career conversation with

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your boss, which is something that

people don't often think about doing.

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And what I thought I'd do is

talk about the benefits of it and

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also a process that you can follow

if you're thinking about having a

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career conversation with your boss.

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Is this something you've done?

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Have you had a specific career

conversation with your boss?

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Is it something you're thinking

about doing and maybe you're a

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little bit apprehensive about?

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Let's just think about what

is a career conversation.

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definitely something that's separate

to appraisal and performance review.

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It's separate to your one

to one catch ups.

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It's separate to your

supervision sessions.

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It is a dedicated conversation

to talk about your career.

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I would recommend you're having

these career conversations two or

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even three times a year, and that

they are separate to all those other

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types of meetings that you have.

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And there are opportunities to think

about where you are in your career

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and where you want to go and to engage

your boss, and through him or her, the

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organisation, in supporting your career

aspirations and helping you achieve them.

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And if your boss doesn't know about

what you want to achieve in your

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career, where you want to go to, how

you want to develop, then they're not

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going to be able to do the things that

they can do to enable that for you.

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It's really important to

have those conversations.

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If you're a leader yourself

as well, to have those career

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conversations with your staff.

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And I have gone into organizations and

run training sessions on How to have

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career conversations for both managers

and employees because those organizations

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have wanted to create a career culture

where those conversations are happening

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on a regular basis, because there's

lots of benefits for the organization

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of having those conversations.

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But those organizations can be rarer.

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So if it's something that's not in your

culture at the moment, it can feel a bit

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daunting to have those, which is why I

thought it would be good for us to do a

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session on having career conversations.

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Thinking about how your boss can help

you through having these conversations.

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One of the first things they can do is

give you perspective so they can give you

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their view on where you want to be, what

you want to achieve, and they can give

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you some useful insights and feedback.

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They can also be a door opener for you.

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They've probably got lots of connections

that could be helpful to you, and they

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can also enable opportunities for you.

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They've got a different view of what's

going on in the organisation, in the

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industry, and they can have you as top of

mind to position you for the opportunities

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that are going to give you what you need.

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There's lots of benefits from having

this conversation with your boss.

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And it's useful also to think about

well how's it helping the business for

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me to have a conversation about me?

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And it's useful for the business

because they can retain you when

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you think about how much it costs

to recruit a member of staff.

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It's quite considerable.

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So they can help retain you.

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They can develop you.

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They can enable you to have

more impact in the business.

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There's lots of advantages for

the business of this conversation.

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If that's been in your mind

about, can I ask for this?

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Is it going to be helpful to the business?

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There are, really valuable.

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Ripples from you having this conversation.

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It's good to position it in that way.

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But what I would say is, this is about

you driving this and being proactive.

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I say to all my clients, no

one's going to be as interested

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in your career as you are.

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Everyone's busy.

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So this is about you being proactive

and driving it and engaging

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your boss with your career.

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And I'm going to talk about

how you can do that today.

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You can use the conversation to

think about present and future.

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Sometimes when we're talking about

career conversations, you feel

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like it's always about advancement,

which it can definitely be.

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It can be, I'm here now and

this is where I want to be.

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I need help to get there.

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So that could be part

of that conversation.

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Or it could be, I'm here now and

I'm really enjoying where I am

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now, but I want to do X and Y now.

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How can you help me do that?

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It doesn't always have to be

about where you want to go.

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It can be making current,

more stimulating, more

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enjoyable, more challenging.

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So thinking about those two things

can be quite useful as well.

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But there are challenges to

having a career conversation.

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The first challenge is time, both yours

and your bosses, because when you're

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working as a senior leader, diaries

are often jam packed with meetings,

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and it can feel like, how can I?

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Find the time in my diary and in my

boss's diary for this conversation,

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but it's prioritizing you and, making

sure that you can find that time to

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have those conversations to enable

you to get from them what you need.

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It's about, okay, I've got to do this.

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I've got to find the time.

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Then the second challenge

could be around clarity.

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Feeling I've got to know the

answers to where I'm going to have

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that advancement conversation.

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And sometimes you do know where

you want to go, but sometimes it

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can feel a bit unclear, but your

boss could help you with that.

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Or it could be clarity around what

you need, because obviously The career

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conversation is about your boss coming up

with the answers for your career dilemma.

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It's about you being clear about

what you need from them and them then

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enabling that, because you don't want

to give more stuff to your boss to do

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because that's just not going to happen.

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It is about you getting clear about

what do I need from this conversation?

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And there could be different

aspects of what you need.

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It could be, I need time.

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I'm really overloaded at the moment,

but I need to prioritize my development,

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I need my boss to help me create time.

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Working out what can I not do, or how

can I do things differently to create

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that time to get the development

exposure, whatever it is I need,

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or it could be about capacity.

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I really want to work on this

particular area of work because I

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want to have impact in this area.

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But with the resources I currently have,

I don't have the capacity to do that.

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But there's real business

benefits of me doing that capacity

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work or that impactful work.

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How could I?

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increase my capacity

to be able to do that.

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And your boss can help

you think that through.

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It could be around connections.

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As I mentioned, your boss is

probably well plugged into the

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industry, to the organization.

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It could be being able to put

you in touch with people who can.

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Help you in some way it could be

visibility, if I want to be keynote

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speaker at this conference or I want

to be a thought leader on this, your

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boss is going to have some great

ideas about how you can access that.

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Or it could be guidance, noticing

what are the gaps for you in

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terms of where you want to go.

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They can give you some guidance

about how you can plug those gaps.

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It could be job information, maybe

your boss has walked the route that

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you want to take and they can give

you information about what's the

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reality of this next role for me?

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What the challenge is, what the Highs,

what do I need to be looking out for?

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Being clear about what you need from

them, and you're not necessarily going

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to ask for all of these things, but it

can help you use that time wisely and

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get from them what you really need.

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It can feel challenging

to get that clarity.

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But it might be saying to your

boss, I need clarity, I need this

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career conversation to help me

work out what it is I really need.

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And they can just be that

sounding board for you.

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And then there could be a challenge

around taking action, I'm going to

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have this conversation, but then

I'm going to have to take action.

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I just don't have time to do that.

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But, it is important to be able to

move things forward by having these

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conversations and recognizing actually.

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It's being proactive in your career and

you're prioritizing your career, which is

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as important as prioritizing your work.

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So noticing the challenges, but

still deciding, yes, this is

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something I really want to do.

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It's going to be valuable to me

to have this career conversation.

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Let's think about then how

you make it happen and how you

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utilize that time really well.

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The first thing I would

say to you is prepare.

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Getting clear, am I talking

to my boss about future?

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Am I talking to them about present?

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And thinking about what you need and

what you want, but not feeling like

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you've got to have all the answers,

but certainly you're not just going to

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go into that conversation unprepared

because that's going to be a waste

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of time for you and for your boss.

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Then you want to establish this dedicated

meeting, so you want to be clear that

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you want to talk to your boss about your

career, that it is a career conversation.

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So they're not going

to have any surprises.

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They're not going to think they're

going to be talking to you about, the

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project you're running at the moment

or whatever, they know that you want to

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have a career conversation with them.

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And then in the actual meeting, you

want to start on a positive note.

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Cause imagine if one of your direct

reports books in a career conversation

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with you, you might be thinking,

Oh God, are they going to resign?

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Are they going to be

asking for a pay rise?

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You're going to be maybe anticipating.

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The worst.

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So you want to open that conversation

on a positive note and setting the

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scene, reassuring them maybe that you're

not, you're not going to be leaving.

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You're committed to your current

role, to the organization, you will

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value their insight into your career.

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You're setting the scene for them.

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They're not going to have to be

on their guard because they think.

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You're going to want a pay rise

or a a negotiation around, the

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fact that you might be leaving.

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You might want to then

discuss your journey so far.

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You might want to remind them

of what you've done already,

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where you are in your career.

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It depends perhaps what your relationship

is like, how distant they are from

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your your previous career or how long

ago it was that you were interviewed

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by them, but you might want to remind

them about your journey so far.

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And then you probably want to outline

what your vision of success looks

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like, whether that's advancement in

terms of where you want to move to.

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And your time scale for that, or

whether it's about your current needs

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to make your current career even better,

your current job more fulfilling.

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And then you might want to ask them

for some feedback around what do they

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see as maybe some gaps for you or

some things that you could do more

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of, things you could do less of.

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those kind of conversations, getting some

really useful feedback on your career.

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Remember, it's not performance

review, you're not asking them for

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performance feedback, you're asking

them for feedback around your career

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aspirations because, you're wanting

their guidance in terms of your career.

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And then it's doing some

exploration about what are their

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ideas, what are their thoughts

about how you could approach this.

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Because you might have come up with

some ideas about what you want them

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to help you with, but they might

have other perspectives as well,

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which are going to be useful.

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And then you want to agree a plan, so

if you're asking them for, you want

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them to look out for opportunities

for you to engage more with a.

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with the C suite or maybe you're asking

them to look out for opportunities for

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you to speak on behalf of your department

or in your industry or, whatever it

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is you've identified you'd really like

their support on, you're going to agree.

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Those things with them, and then you're

going to book in the next meeting,

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because you want to have these career

conversations on a regular ish basis.

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It might be saying, I found this really

valuable, can I book in another career

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conversation with you in six months?

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Thinking about, what time

frame is going to work for you.

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But getting that in the diary, again,

is going to help you stay focused.

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I've had this conversation, I

need to, move progress forward.

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So in six months I'm not having

the same conversation with them.

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And also they're then again

committing to supporting you

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within your career aspirations.

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And then you might want to, after

the meeting, do a follow up.

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Confirming what you've agreed

or summarising the conversation,

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which would be helpful for

you, but also for them to know.

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What you're looking for from them.

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Again, you're going to be

a senior manager yourself.

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So thinking about what's helpful to you.

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If you've had that conversation with

your direct report, is it helpful to

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know point by point or just overview

what's going to be most useful.

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And again, you can also think about.

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In terms of preparing for that

meeting, what your boss is like in

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terms of how they communicate, how

they take in information, are they

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really big picture and less granular?

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Are they quite granular about stuff?

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Thinking about How to get the best

out of that conversation, is it

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better to do the big picture with

them and then you do the more detail

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and get them just to agree to it?

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Or are they good at coming up

with solutions and generating

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ideas or, are they somebody who

likes preparation in advance?

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Do you need to send them a bit

of an agenda about what you

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want to talk through with them?

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So being strategic about how you're going

to get the best out of this time with them

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is going to mean that you're going to meet

what you need from it, but also they're

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going to find it a useful experience

and they're going to be open to having

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another career conversation with you.

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And the final point to say is if you

feel like you don't have this kind of

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relationship with your boss that you could

have this type of conversation because

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let's face it, sometimes our relationship

with our line manager can be challenging.

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If that's Something you don't feel

you can do with your current boss.

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And it's looking for somebody

else that you could have this

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career conversation with.

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That might be somebody else

in the organization that you

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have a good relationship with.

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It could be a previous boss who

you value their insights in.

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It could be that you have a mentor that

you could have this conversation with.

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Or it could be that you feel

actually maybe a career coach

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would be somebody that I would

need to have this conversation with

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because I don't have access to it.

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internally or externally.

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But, knowing that actually there's a lot

of value you can get from having other

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people's perspective around where you want

to take your career or how you want to

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make your current role more fulfilling,

more stretching it's very valuable.

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I hope you felt inspired to

have a career conversation.

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And I would love, to know from

you, if you do go on and book

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some time with your boss and.

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Follow that kind of loose ish structure

around having a career conversation.

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I'd love to know how you got on.

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This episode is also available

as a LinkedIn Live and I'll put

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a link for you in the show notes.

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And while you're over on LinkedIn, please

do connect with me if we're not already

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co

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uk, and I'll also put

links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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And please do share it with a

friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.