New Graduate Hires: Why Is Managing Up Important?
David Shindler
Writer. Mainly. Coach. Often. Volunteer. Sometimes. Learning to Leap. Always.
According to recent research by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), their employer members say the number one gap in skills training for early-career graduates is their inability to manage up effectively. Less than 10% are hired with this skill-set and only 50% of AGR employer members provide training once hired.
What do they mean by managing up? Why is it important to graduate employers? How fair is this view on graduates? Managing up implies some form of hierarchy is in place, where an employee is accountable to a manager or supervisor. It suggests the employee has a role to play in influencing, shaping and engaging proactively with managers above them to help meet personal, team and organisational goals.
Expectations Mismatch?
I'm wondering if behind the headline statistic employers are experiencing graduates with unmet expectations in the first year or two. According to another AGR survey of 191 employers, the main reasons why graduates leave employers are for a higher salary, unmet expectations of career progression and a desire for a career change.
Employers may have expectations that graduates will take some responsibility, skilfully and appropriately, for raising concerns with their managers and being proactive in challenging and supporting them. That means understanding the prevailing culture and deploying a range of soft skills and behaviours. These include relationship-building, showing self-confidence, being assertive, influencing, persuading, negotiating, managing their own emotions, reading the emotions of other people, resilience, receiving feedback constructively among others.
A Cross-Generational Issue?
How many employees of any generation do you know who are sufficiently competent in these areas?
For example, I've been working with some technical and functional specialists in the construction field who are developing their people management skills and mindsets. Despite a focus on managing their teams, a common issue has been the challenges of managing their own senior managers. Some are relatively new to the company, some are non-graduates, and others have been there a while and just taken on a management role.
This is not unusual in my experience. I've met many managers in traditional
hierarchical organisations who lack the relevant skills, development and experience to get the best out of their people. They can perpetuate unchallenged (or even be lauded) in staid and unhealthy organisational cultures. External
pressures, like a lack of resources and an over-focus on quantification, sometimes create perverse behaviours. I find the most common problems are someone without an aptitude for managing people and player-managers giving greater priority to their specialist or functional role. Trying to force-fit a square peg into a round hole is no good for the peg or the hole.
How realistic is it for graduates to arrive in a job able to manage up effectively? Where could they have reasonably developed their capability and confidence? Education at secondary school level is about teacher as 'manager' and the compliance of young people within a system. Undergraduate students are emerging adults in higher education. The emphasis is naturally self-focused. They hit other people-focused in the workplace. The move from 'I' to 'We'.
Of course let's provide more work experience for young people. However, I don't believe the majority of students are developing their ability to manage up during work experience among large employers. They may well be growing aspects of their assertiveness, influence and emotional intelligence, but I'm unconvinced that these are being pointed deliberately at managing their managers. The employment relationship and power dynamics mitigate against this.
More Networks, Less Hierarchies?
Diagnosing the problem accurately is the first step before reaching for solutions (said the consultant). Managing up is a cross-generational issue. The death of hierarchy can't come soon enough for me. What once provided stability and certainty in more predictable times is increasingly unfit for today and the future.
We are in a transitional state before the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Perhaps it is understandable that those organisations built and designed in the 20th Century hang on to outmoded ways of working and being. Yes, it's a reality that some graduates will find themselves working in those cultures and seeking to fit in. However, today's young people are also the leaders of the future and they will create something different because they don't always want to fit in. They are scratching at an itch that will only grow.
We live in a world of wider choices than ever before. Young graduates can and do job hop, work for small businesses rather than corporates, seek greater meaning by working with Teach First rather than go into investment banking, create or work in startups, freelance and work in the gig economy. The future is bright, the future is flatter and more networked. That means managing relationships in every direction.
What do you think?
Graphic via Pixabay and Photo by Martyn Franklin
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David (@David_Shindler) is an independent coach, blogger and speaker, associate with several consultancies, founder of The Employability Hub (free resources for students and graduates), author of Learning to Leap: a guide to being more employable, Digital Bad Hair Days and co-author with Mark Babbitt of 21 Century Internships. His commitment and energy is in promoting lifelong personal and professional development and in tackling youth unemployment. He works with young people and professionals in education and business.
To read more of his work - visit the Learning to Leap blog and download the app to receive his weekly blogs on your mobile (iTunes and Google Play).
And check out his other published articles on LinkedIn:
Work Readiness: Are You Lost in Translation?
Job Seekers: Test And Learn To Be A Game Changer
Career Adventures: Take A Walk On The Wild Side
Accountability, Productivity And Saving Lives
Being Human In The Artificial Age
The Unwritten Rules Of Graduate Employment
Healthy Job And Career Transitions
Solutions For Closing The Gap From Classroom To Career
The Multiplier Opportunity In The Generation Game
Culture: The Quantified Self And The Qualitative Self
Purposeful Leadership To Create The Life Of Meaning
The Uber Effect: Opportunities For Job Seekers And Employers
Hierarchies are tumbling as Social soars
The Emergence of the Holistic Student
New Graduates: Following Is A Rehearsal For Leading
How Redefining Success Helps You Succeed
Why Developing Yourself Is A Matter Of Life And Death
Generation Now: The Imperative Of Intercultural Skills
#If I Were 22: Choose Insight Before Hindsight
How To Align Talent, Careers and Performance
GradStart - helping young employees build a successful career on a solid foundation of business skills
8 年David, thank you for writing this deep and thought-provoking article. We have just come to the end (sadly) of our 2015/16 GradStart programme (www.akonia.com/GradStart), the business and soft skills development programme for graduate employees. Over the past year we have seen a very positive transformation in the young employees who have come through it. They are now more: > capable in their abilities > competent using important work and life skills > confident to use their 'voice' and make a contribution to their team, department, business unit, company. During the programme it became evident that when recruiting first-time young employees, it is best for employers to recruit on attitude and cultural fit, rather than skills and expertise, because as the GradStart programme has demonstrated, you can teach skills and provide an environment in which to nuture and develop them. With regard to 'managing up' we have definitely seen how our young participants have 'found their voice' within their organisations. Here are a couple of quotes from them that reinforce that point: “Made me understand the bigger picture for my company, [and] has made me see how the top positions operate and what stresses they can be put under.” “With discussions based on real workplace problems, the GradStart programme offered a safe environment to explore and address these issues. It was these discussions that helped me to develop as an individual through increased self-awareness and a greater appreciation of my colleagues.” “The training has helped me to reflect on the issues facing management, as well as, understand how and why decisions made will impact employees and the business as a whole.” One of reasons that we have been able to help these young employees take more responsibility for their own future aspirations, as well as build the confidence to 'manage upwards' is because we put a lot of emphasis on emoitional intelligence (EI) throughout the programme. This has helped the young employees to better understand their colleagues at all levels and therefore learn how to communicate more effectively with them. By building better relationships, this has lead to them achieving better results for their teams and departments, which is also leading to them gaining greater responsibility, and laying down a solid foundation on which to build their careers.