The Barclays UK Retail Bank (UKRB) offers a range of development programmes and support to its Senior Leaders.  When the talent and leadership development team asked senior leaders where they felt they needed more development, they found a need for them to have successful career conversations with their own direct reports about talent and development.  As specialists in this area, Jackson Samuel was asked to design a best practice workshop themed on having ‘successful conversations’.  The workshops included a range of practical exercises to encourage active learning and a toolkit to guide leaders through real-life conversations.  Actors were also used at the workshops to demonstrate both good and bad examples of conversations.

The successful career conversations workshops have had a great impact in helping leaders to:

• Know how successful conversations link to the talent and development agenda and why they are important
• Understand what a ‘good’ or ‘successful’ conversation looks like and recognise what a ‘bad’ conversation looks like
• Prepare for difficult conversations
• Be aware of their own (and others) mindsets and assumptions in conversations
• Develop the strategy and the skills to support their direct reports with successful talent conversations.