There are two kinds of people in your workplace; those who believe they have career opportunities, and those who don't.  Within each of these groups of people are two kinds of attitudes toward a career; the attitude that personal action will make a difference, and the attitude that personal action is not appropriate.

Imagine that all of the people in your workforce are assembled in a large auditorium.   Somehow they have managed to collect into the corners of this large room in a way that forms four groups based on their similar career perceptions. 

As you listen to the conversations from each group you begin to recognize a pattern. In one corner you hear despair. You might hear people say things like, "We just keep on keeping on," or "A fair day's pay for a day's work, that's all I expect," or "If they want us to stand in this room all day that's fine with me, it all counts toward retirement." These are the people who see no career opportunity and are not inclined to take any personal action. I call this group the Career Hopeless.

In another corner you hear people saying things like, "I've done everything they told me to do so it's about time I get noticed," or "I hope I get picked for that hot project we heard about," or "Maybe it's my turn now, I've certainly worked hard enough." I call these folks the Career Hopeful.  They see career opportunities but they don't know how or don't want to take any personal action to advance their aspirations.

As you stroll by the third corner of the auditorium you are aware of an increased passion within this group of people. Now you hear people say things like, "I've done everything I can to get noticed, but there just isn't anywhere to go," or "I worked my tail off to make that project successful and all I heard was 'nice job' from my manager," or "It looks like the only way to get ahead is to move on." These are Career Combatants. They have aspirations and believe they have the talent to move, but like the Career Hopeless, they don't see any opportunities. They are inclined to take personal action to achieve career movement, especially when it doesn't happen when they think it should.

The last corner you come to has people I call Career Contenders. These are the people who see career opportunities and are inclined to take appropriate actions to achieve career movement.  You now hear things like, "The goal was high but we worked together and found a way to get there," or "It's hard for me to believe how much I've learned in such a short time," or "Now I'm ready for another challenge, and I have an idea what it is."

Just as you think you have seen everything you notice several people wandering around in the middle of the room. These are people who can't decide what a career opportunity might look like, let alone what kind of action to take. They are called the Career Clueless and often have the look of deer caught in the headlights. Often frozen by their total confusion, and frequently bumping into each other, you won't hear much more than mutters as this group tries to understand what is going on.

Each of these groups of people is classified and categorized based on their perceptions and beliefs about your workplace. They may work side by side but they see events as either opportunities or barriers. It is possible for the same person to spend time in each of these corners, even passing through the zone of confusion from time to time.

Consider how perceptions translate into feelings, and those feelings become attitudes, and then attitudes translate into self-talk, and then open expression, and eventually into behaviors. As you take an imaginary walk around this auditorium, whom do you want in your workforce?  Who would you want interacting with your customers, clients, business partners, or suppliers?

Just yesterday I was at a grocery store checkout when I heard the animated and surprisingly loud dialogue between two clerks. The content was about how much better the working conditions were at a nearby, and named, grocery store. As a customer I did not feel very important, and I did double-check my receipt for accuracy on the way out the door. What I heard was the venting of a Career Combatant.

The customer usually is not as aware as this example of the inner dialogue of the Career Hopeful or the despair of the Career Hopeless. The damage to the organization is in the form of malicious compliance, lost talents, and a high maintenance workforce. I suggest to my clients that open career dialogue and transferring career knowledge and career skills to all parts of the organization can help deal effectively with many aberrant workplace behaviors.

A starting place is to reach an agreement on what "career" means in the American workplace and in your organization. Then you can move on to look for ways to engage in meaningful career conversations. This might be about developing knowledge and skills that are needed to maintain competence within a specific function or about preparing for emerging roles within the organization.

By creating an environment of open career dialogue you increase awareness of short-term organizational goals and challenges and longer-term organizational opportunities. You give individuals the chance to take charge of their career by encouraging them to actively prepare themselves for the future.

When you, or your customers, interact with someone with a Career Contender profile you will recognize an attitude of commitment to the organization's purpose and goals.  This attitude translates into behaviors that add value to the transaction and a spirit of personal awareness and confidence.

The objective of open career dialogue is to build and maintain clarity of purpose, for the organization and each individual. With that sense of purpose people will be able to optimize their knowledge, talents, and aspirations in a way that contributes to personal and organizational success.  An expressed management concern has been that with an elevated career dialogue people will have unrealistic career expectations. The fact is, people have career expectations...without an open and active dialogue those expectations are, by definition, unrealistic.