We’ve all seen it. That ambitious, talented team member who says: “I just want to make an impact.”
It’s promising. It’s exciting. But it’s also vague.
- Do they want to lead a team?
- Are they looking forward to creating something new?
- Is their goal to drive lasting change?
- Do they even know what they want?
The truth is, many employees can’t articulate what “impact” means to them - they just know they want, well, more.
However, when it comes to actually putting that into action, things often stall. That’s because “making an impact” means different things to different people – and most of us don’t get taught how to translate that feeling into clear, measurable progress.
So, as a leader or an HR Manager, what should you do when someone tells you that they want to make an impact?
Let’s talk about it. Keep reading.
Career growth looks different today.
Employees today are rarely content with just doing a job. They want to:
- contribute in ways that matter,
- develop new skills and
- see a clear path forward in their careers.
The gap? Traditional career development plans usually focus on roles or titles alone.
That’s often not what motivates people, especially early- and mid-career team members who are still exploring what kind of work is meaningful to them.
However, (yet another gap), most managers
aren’t trained (or expected) to be career coaches!
They’re already juggling deadlines, projects and team dynamics. So, when a team member says, “I want to make an impact,” it often sparks a vague, open-ended conversation that leaves both parties frustrated.
The Cost Of Ineffective People Management And Career Development
This vague career conversation often costs businesses.
What happens when you don’t find the right way to address the “I-want-to-make-an-impact” conversation?
The employees who don’t get clear responses or action plans feel stuck. Ignoring or mishandling career development conversations has real consequences:
- Employees who feel stagnant are more likely to leave. And replacing them is expensive, time-consuming and disruptive.
- When employees feel like their growth isn’t a priority, motivation and productivity suffer.
- Without a clear structure for career development, businesses miss out on developing and promoting in-house talent, leading to unnecessary external hires.
When you fail to invest in leadership and talent development, you don’t just lose people, you lose momentum.
AI-Powered Leadership Development For Internal Mobility
At GoFIGR, we understand that managers can’t (and shouldn’t be expected to) have all the answers.
That’s why we’ve built tools that empower employees to take charge of their own growth, while making leadership development easier for managers.
Here’s how it works:
Simple Conversation Templates For Effective People Management
GoFIGR gives HR managers and leaders easy, actionable frameworks to guide meaningful conversations. Whether it’s exploring someone’s strengths, uncovering their frustrations or setting a shared vision for their development, GoFIGR makes it easier to have deeper coaching-style chats.
Career Growth Tracking With AI-Enabled HR Technology
Employees and managers use a shared board to outline the steps of a career upgrade experience. This makes it easier to break a big goal into smaller, achievable actions and to track progress over time.
Advanced Career Pathing For Talent Retention
Once someone’s goals become a lot clearer, they can get a chance to work on projects (or work with other teams) that match these goals. This helps team members grow, build confidence in their ability to create impact and see a clear future with you.
Internal Talent Marketplace In Action | Real Leadership Development Results
Now, all these may still seem a bit theoretical – so let’s paint a picture of how it looks in practice, shall we?
Let’s say a team member – maybe a customer support specialist – says they want to “make more of a difference” or “go beyond just answering tickets.”
That’s a valuable instinct, but it can easily get lost without structure.
GoFIGR helps you facilitate career conversations where you can help them create a clearer goal, for example:
“Design and run a pilot program to proactively reduce customer complaints through better onboarding.”
That goal becomes the anchor for their development journey. You use GoFIGR insights to check in on their ideas, roadblocks and progress. There are also conversation templates that help you dig into their motivations, whether they’re more interested in process improvement, communication or customer experience design.
GoFIGR then maps training and upskilling opportunities (both internal and external) that will support them, as well as internal opportunities where they can apply what they have learned and work towards achieving their goal.
Everything will be recorded on a shared Kanban board, keeping their project on track with clear stages.
This always ends in a win-win: the employee feels recognised and re-energised in their role, and you get to keep a motivated talent who is willing to make an impact with and for the business.
Transform Your Workplace With AI-Powered Internal Talent Marketplace
Of course, the experience may look different for everyone (which is where the people analytics feature of GoFIGR will be most useful), but if your people want to make an impact, it’s important that you don’t leave them guessing about how to do it.
Support them with the right structure, conversations and recognition. Make career growth feel exciting again.
Because your future team is already working for you.
Your employees want to grow. They want to contribute. They want to lead the way.
But they don’t always know how.
You can find, inspire, grow and retain them with an AI-powered internal talent marketplace platform like GoFIGR.
It’s the ultimate way to build internal mobility and foster a progressive workplace culture to minimise your reliance on the hiring cycle.
It’s a great way to save crucial hours in your day as well.
Contact GoFIGR today to discover how we can help you foster a future-focused workforce using our Internal Talent Marketplace platform.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
