Managing Up: Is this fair for Inexperienced Graduates?
David Shindler
Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
Research and my recent anecdotal experience show that employers want graduates to 'manage up'. What's driving this call and what does managing up mean anyway?
Cultures, cultures everywhere
Currently, I'm working with graduates on an in-house development programme for a Data Analytics company. I'm also coaching early career professionals globally who work for large charities in diverse national and organisational cultures. In both cases, managing up is a recurring theme.
Also, I was talking recently with an experienced development manager in a leading Arts organisation. She said that HR was encouraging and putting emphasis on managing up. When I asked what was meant by it, she explained it was primarily about being assertive, talking to more senior managers in an adult-to-adult way, and not being afraid of voicing your ideas and concerns. I read the flip side as lacking confidence, overly seeking permission, and holding back too much.
Seemingly, all good and sensible stuff. However, the reality isn't always like that and context matters. The troublesome factor is often the culture. We obsess with accountability to the next level up and it breeds a desire from some managers to control borne from fear. Accountability then becomes more about minimising risk.
Self-interest can be the priority for poor managers lacking skills and under pressure from above to deliver, especially when tied to reward and recognition. Inexperienced graduates may catch the fallout. Put yourself in their shoes and you see why it can feel daunting to challenge or say 'no' when you're new and perhaps insecure. You want to play safe, say 'yes' to demands made of you, make the right impression, and not put your foot in it early on.
The issue of managing up has been around for decades. Peter Drucker wrote a classic HBR article in the 1990s on How to Manage Your Boss. The notion is symptomatic of hierarchical cultures and there are plenty still around. The very word 'managing' has negative undertones of controlling or dealing with something unstable or difficult. It's why I believe the job label 'manager' has outlived its usefulness because of its reputation as constraining and limiting.
Yet, that's not the direction of travel in our networked, diverse, and VUCA world. Instead, we need genuine accountability to ourselves (and coaching can engender that in people). Part of every people manager’s role is to create the conditions for each team member to step up willingly and take responsibility with skill in relationships with others of trust and mutual respect. As Clive Wilson puts it, we need to liberate talent and enable people to be at their best more of the time. Others might say it's the difference between leading and managing.
Weasel words?
The language of hierarchies is still embedded in the mindset of employers. For example, in its 2018 annual survey, The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) found that the top skills gaps for employers' graduate intakes included:
- Managing up - just 5% arrive skilled, although 80% of employers expect graduates to lack these skills, and 59% train them on this.
- Dealing with conflict (16%/70%/73%)
- Negotiating/influencing (18%/70%/89%)
- Resilience (31%/50%/72%)
I'd argue that managing up is not a single skill and that all the above contribute to the skill set needed to manage up. But the findings above are no surprise given the challenges facing graduates in getting meaningful employment. They include difficulty in articulating their offer to employers and confidence to apply and secure opportunities. One in five lack relevant work experience. A university degree will not provide the opportunities to develop enough of the critical soft skills employers want. Only a small percentage are accepted on graduate development schemes. And the competition between employers is still strong.
Sites like Glassdoor have opened the lid on employers who attract graduates by saying one thing, only for the reality on the inside to be somewhat different. Managing up can seem like weasel words when a graduate finds it translates to make me look good, do what I say, don't challenge me, don't outshine me. Or, when the contradiction becomes apparent between show us how you stand out and we want you to fit in during recruitment. Which then translates to we want you to keep your head down and do as you're asked at your level and the voices from below are ignored. That's been the experience of my graduate daughters in corporate environments they have since left.
An inclusive culture and genuine values are vital for lasting retention and true diversity - or millennials will leave #ISERec18 Sophie Milliken, Recruitment & Employability Expert
It's a partnership
Rather than managing up, I believe a healthier and more effective approach for today's world of work is partnering. It involves a shift from a parental mindset to more autonomy and empowerment. Managers as enablers, helping people to realise their potential, use their talents, and grow. Not purely for altruistic reasons, but also to deliver for the team, the section, the business.
Ideally, the relationship works best when the roles of direct report and manager are complementary. We are interdependent. For example, a graduate coder will have relevant knowledge for software development. Often, a manager will be less familiar because they don't need to work with it every day. However, they will have other knowledge, skills, and experience that help the graduate to achieve (context, strategy, coaching, client relationships etc). The learning and mutual support are two-way.
If you're an inexperienced graduate, seek to establish how that partnership is going to work through regular one-to-ones with your manager. If you're a manager, create a psychologically safe space together where graduates can be open without fear. How can you support each other? A regular conversation about personal performance and growth is a healthy personal, professional, and business enabler.
Managers can free themselves by freeing their people. Step down to step up. Stop managing, start enabling.
Employers and Graduates: what does 'managing up' mean to you?
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David (@David_Shindler) is an independent career coach, apprentice mentoring trainer, author, blogger, speaker, and associate with several consultancies. He is the author of Learning to Leap: a guide to being more employable, and co-author with Mark Babbitt of 21st Century Internships (250,000 downloads worldwide). His commitment and energy are in promoting lifelong personal and professional development and in tackling youth unemployment. He works with young people and professionals in education and business. www.learningtoleap.co.uk
Visit the Learning to Leap blog to read more of his work and check out his other published articles on LinkedIn:
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