Graduate Development Programs

Your Manager

Relationships are everything in business. Fortunately for you, Graduate Programs provide a great way to establish relationships across the entire organisation, starting with your fellow graduates to managers who are guest speakers/participants in the program’s activities. Despite having little influence, graduate positions are generally high profile.

One relationship is more important than all of the others. Aside from your good self, there is nobody more important to your development, progression and general job satisfaction in your organisation than your manager. Nobody! They are your gateway to the organisation, so cultivating a healthy relationship with them is especially important.

If you work in a hectic department, a good manager will help make sense of it all by working with you to provide clarity and prioritise objectives within your team. Likewise, she will work with you to ensure you have a targeted development schedule to prepare you to not only perform in your current position, but also prepare you for promotion. A good line manager takes pride in the success of her direct reports. Unfortunately, they are exceptions.

While it makes going to work much more enjoyable when you have a supportive and capable line manager, having an inadequate line manager can be equally destructive to your prospects; if you allow it to be.

In the first few weeks, take things as they come as you don’t want to appear too “jumpy” or arrogant. Being the graduate, you are expected to sit back and listen, at least in the beginning. Some people may find it a little out of order should you take the initiative and try to steer the relationship straight away. Sometimes you need to act the part and other times, break the mould.

Allow your manager to set the tone for your relationship and then fill in the gaps as they appear. Engage your manager in the following areas in order to get the most out of your relationship with your line manager:

-    Career Development Plan (1/4, ½ and annually)
-    Weekly Catch-ups
-    Pipeline of Work (work to be delegated)
-    Work in Progress (work currently being undertaken)

If you have an inadequate manager - and nobody is perfect - you must do something about it! Not right away, but before things get out of hand. However, before you take action first have a think about what the issues are and then use the following framework to raise them:

-    Identify the issue/s
-    Frame the issue/s
-    Provide potential solution/s
-    Outline benefits

Some questions that will help you with this process:
Framing the Issue
Is it relationship or task related?
Why are you dissatisfied with the situation? This will tie into the desired outcome.

Potential solutions
Is this something that can be improved or solved with a change in your behaviour or outlook? Just because something isn’t to your liking does not mean it must be changed.
What else can be done to improve the situation?

Desired outcomes
If this changes, how will it help you, the team or broader business?
What will be different?

This framework will keep you focused on solving issues instead of using your manager’s time to simply complain about things you don’t like. Rather than waiting for your manager to get back to you with a potential solution (that you probably won’t even like), it is best to be proactive and push your ideas first.

Be particularly careful not to personalise problems. For example, if you have an issue with something your manager is doing, then it’s best not to frame the problem with:

-    I don’t like the way you are doing ….
-    You are far too ….
-    You must stop doing….

These frames are appointing blame right away and in most instances will result in your manager defending their actions. Instead try focusing on a positive to begin with.

E.g.
If you need some direction:
My productivity would improve if we could take 15 minutes clarifying some points before I…

If you need less direction:
I think it was good that you supervised my work quite closely in the beginning. It really helped me to begin with, but perhaps we can spread our catch-ups a little more. Can I suggest we meet every x days to make sure we are still on the same page? It would help me manage my time better and get my work to you earlier.

If you are not able to resolve the issues with your manager, consider escalating the issues further up the organisation but first consider the implications. By taking the issue outside of the relationship, you risk destroying the level of trust between you. So make sure that the nature of your problem is serious enough to take that chance.

Anything that is adversely effecting your development should be considered for escalation, whether you are being treated unfairly or don’t think you are getting an appropriate level of engagement from your manager.

Just remember that not getting everything you want does not necessarily call for escalation of the issue. It’s all very subjective, but that’s business. Escalation of an issue should be a last resort. Doing so raises the stakes of the game and losing out can be costly for your prospects, so take the option of escalation very seriously.

The next article will be focusing on building trust with your manager. Make sure you don’t miss out! Remember to subscribe by clicking here.

Of course I can’t leave you without something from the world’s greatest manager: