Growth and job satisfaction of employees is an importantobjective of any professional organization. Robust two-way communication between the employee and the employer foster both. Open and frank communications are essential to providing the space for assessing growth and setting realistic goals for progress. Effective coaching, mentoring, and enabling resources guide professional growth whichbenefits the employee, the employer, and the profession at large.

Self-reflection and employer evaluation are essential ingredients forestablishing the goals andobjectives of a professional. Maintaining alignment between the two can eliminate wasted efforts that diverge from the mission and vision of the organization, as well asprevent unmetemployee expectations.

Any goal-setting exercise must balance individual preferences with nonnegotiable requirements such as project needs, professional responsibilities and ethics, and business constraints.

Users of this tool should understand that it is not sufficient to rely solely on feedback and goal-setting processes regardless of the cadence of meetings between employees and supervisors. These do not eliminate the need for proper day-to-day coaching and mentoring in the course of activities in a professional office.

This tool can be used together with:Tool #2-3 Employee Evaluation, Tool #2-6: Employee Job Descriptions,and Tool #5-2 Milestone Checklist for Young Engineers.