Graduate Development Programs

It is generally in the nature of a graduate to be driven with ambition.  After all, this is a key selection criterion for Graduate Programs.  In the process of getting noticed to fulfil this ambition, it is easy to make the mistake of narrowing your focus on those who are able to give you what you want, often to the detriment of your relationships with other colleagues.

Simply establishing good relationships with senior managers, while neglecting your colleagues can be enough to progress and many get by with this approach for a short time.  However, soon it will come to hurt your prospects.

The graduate experience can be characterised by the following generic progression into management:
-    Familiarisation and Integration: Introductions, putting names to faces, acquiring organisational context.
-    Learning Technical/Hard Skills: Essentially about how to undertake operational business activities through an understanding of systems, products, sales, service and acquiring job specific skill
-    Demonstrating Competency: Adding economic value to the business
-    Supervisory Responsibilities: Managing a small team with a narrow operational focus
-    Team Management: Larger team, broader operational responsibilities
-    Relationship Management: Division or departmental responsibilities

Note the increased emphasis placed on your ability to manage relationships as you progress and fulfil your ambition.  Initially it will be about managing  your team members and later to managing senior stakeholders across the business.

Say hello to people on the way up as you will no doubt see them on the way down.  Ok, there may not be necessarily be “a way down”, however your career is likely to stall as your negative momentum finds its way around the organisation.

If you don’t take the time to relate to people throughout your career, it will breed a certain perception that may see you having difficulties attracting and keeping talented staff.  This is not an immediate graduate challenge, but an important part of building the foundations for your career success.

Now that you are a manager, you will find it difficult to build a team as fewer people will want to work for you as a result of your reputation for being aloof, disinterested or just a plain terrible person to be around.

Some of the peers you ignored on your way to getting promoted have probably surpassed you anyhow or at the very least are your key stakeholders as heads of businesses interfacing with your team.  Now they are spreading the negative momentum at a senior level about your interpersonal skills, which become more important as you rise through the ranks.  How will that effect your prospects for promotion?

Keep in mind that it is not uncommon for even subordinates to surpass their managers in the race for promotion within a reasonably short space of time.  So when you are thinking about exercising some power to reassert your sense of significance, have a good think about how you would like that person to treat you if they were in your position, because it just might happen.  Everybody matters!

Building your profile is a fine balance between letting people know who you are and what you are doing, to arrogantly bragging about how good you are.  Some would suggest it is quite subjective; however I think using the correct methods will minimise the possibility of being misunderstood.  The difference is letting people “discover” you for themselves, not for you to tell them how brilliant you are.  As a graduate, it can be a challenge to hold back because it is quite normal to be somewhat impatient about establishing your identity, gain credibility and set your career in motion with your first promotion.

However, screaming from the rooftops about yourself simply makes you a target for scorn and ridicule.  Rightly so, in my opinion.  Here are a few ways in which you can build your profile:

Put your name on it
Put your name on every piece of work (including drafts) before sending it to anyone.  Embed your name in the footer of the document and have a cover page with your name on it as the author.  If somebody wants to claim your work, make them have to deliberately remove your name from the document to do so.  This way, you have identified a deliberate act to signify one’s intentions and motives.  It is a great way of working out who is who in the zoo! ?

Speak up, but make it count
If you have something constructive to add in a team meeting, then say it!  However be sure to have listened enough to be informed on the matter.  Being a graduate, you want to be careful to avoid being labelled a big mouth. Don’t hold back, but don’t speak up simply because you are in love with the sound of your voice.  Others will realise when you are doing this.  You won’t be fooling anybody!  Stick to commenting on things you are responsible for or will be closely involved in.

What are you working on at the moment?
When you speak to someone in the tea room, apart from asking someone how their day is going, specifically ask them what they are working on at the moment.  They are likely to reciprocate and ask you too, which will give you an excellent opportunity to let people know about the work you are doing.  Not only does this provide you with a platform to spread some positive momentum, but it also enhances your knowledge of other parts of the business.  So long as you speak in terms of the work you are doing, rather than how great you are at doing it, then this works a treat!

Volunteer and put yourself out there
Often there will be cross departmental initiatives which have difficulty attracting volunteers.  Put your hand up and attend, even if they are only information/discussion sessions and make a point of meeting someone new at each meeting.  You never know who you will meet and when they might have an opportunity for you.  Most internal positions in large organisations are filled by word of mouth and executives usually know who they want to hire before they have even advertised for the role.  So get moving and meet some people.

Keep in touch
Have lunch once a week/fortnightly with a colleague from another part of the company and encourage them to bring colleagues along.  This will strengthen your relationship with your colleague and introduce you to people you would otherwise not meet.  After work drinks is another such occasion.

In the next article we will go through how to deal with the inevitable negativity that will come your way.  It happens to the best of us, so be prepared and ready to deal with it.  Distinguishing legitimate and sincere feedback is crucial!

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