[jeffyang]

Yes it's okay to say you're happy. And yes, you need to help your team members learn and grow.

If there are no opportunities to learn and grow, you're going to get bored and leave. And most people will not let you know ahead of time, they will just leave. Even if they tell you, by the time they realize they're bored, you've already done them a disservice by not helping them earlier.

For someone who is happy, I think setting targets is overkill. They don't need to aggressively climb the ladder, but you do want to brainstorm with them opportunities to learn things they want to learn. Note this doesn't have to match with what the company "thinks" they should learn but it does have to intersect with actual business needs. Keep it lightweight but always have something they can work towards.

If they don't seem to be working towards it, debug what's stopping them.

1. Don't know how to start? Too hard? Help them get started. Break it down into easier goals/steps.

2. Current work is too much? Lighten their load or change the goal to help them learn how to do the current work better. Be more efficient, prioritize better, etc.

3. They aren't interested? Find a different goal that they actually want to achieve.

4. Temporary setback? Check in later.