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Hello and welcome along. It's Fiona. Grab your headphones and your keys because we are heading out for a walk. This is my new podcast. It's called Walk Into Your Next Grade. The podcast for Higher Education professional services managers who are tired of being brilliant at their current grade, but invisible when it comes to promotions.
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Don't know about you, but I do some of my best thinking while I'm out walking, so I figured, why not bring you along? So, apologies about the background noise and the occasional laboured breathing as I walk uphill. Each episode we'll walk together and I'll share what I'm seeing, what I'm thinking about, what I know about the Hidden Curriculum of Career Progression in Higher Education.
[00:48.9]
That's the unwritten set of rules that determine who gets promoted and who stays stuck even when you're doing exceptional work. We'll talk about what credibility actually looks like in those managerial roles. So grades 7, 8 and 9 in a sort of average UK Higher Education Institution.
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So first line manager, senior manager, and then stepping up into those head of service or, associate director level roles. And we'll be tackling those questions that you might have been wrestling with at 2am when you're wondering, "oh, should I apply for that role?" "I'm not sure, am I even ready?" And "why is it that someone less experienced than me just got that promotion?" We'll figure out what you need to work on so that when the next opportunity rolls around, you're not just ready.
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You're the obvious right candidate. So let's walk, let's talk and let's get you ready to walk into your next grade. Now, I asked, some people for some suggestions of what they might like to hear about in the podcast.
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And I got this question from somebody who is a senior manager and they're thinking about the step up to, grade nine. And the question is, so they said: This applies to all grade transitions, but how should staff start to embody two different mindsets?
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I think this is a great question because often people who are looking for a promotion are often given the advice that you need to show that you're ready for that next grade by actually doing the work at, that level first and then getting the promotion.
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And I think that's really unhelpful advice because what it means is we end up with all these people who are working super hard, taking on more and more and more and some of the more and more and more is at the next level, but most of it is actually just more volume at the current grade and they're actually burning themselves out by doing too much.
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And I know this is particularly challenging for a lot of people right now because we've just gone through or are going through these big redundancy restructurings and people have lost jobs. Those of you who are left are probably holding an enormous remit that has been left behind for those people who have left.
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So let's shuffle that slightly to the side because we can't. I can't address everybody's specific nuances. So in an average situation, let's say, I think the question about mindset, so they've said how do you embody two different mindsets?
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Is really helpful because I think it's two things. It's the work and it's the mindset and I want you to really be thinking about developing the mindset at the next level. So for this person who's thinking about the transition from 8 to 9, I want them to really be thinking about developing a better awareness and articulation of strategic risk for them to be couching all of their decision making, their communication, their problem solving, their approaches to work in relation to the business risk.
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So this is things like what will the impact of this decision be? What cost will it incur? What would be the cost if we do nothing? What interaction is there between this decision or this strategy or this change of process or protocol and things that are going on more broadly across the institution, other directorates or faculties, what's going on on a national level, international level, all of that kind of stuff.
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So it's about looking with a much broader horizon and not just focusing on those local impacts. So that's the kind of strategic mindset shift. But I know that also takes quite a lot of mental bandwidth, particularly if you're practising something new, can feel really difficult and really easy to stay stuck in the detail of just doing the work at the grade eight where you've been operating for some time.
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So what you need to do is not actually think about it as two mindsets but think of it as one evolving mindset ...oh, walking uphill now. This is hard work talking and walking uphill. So it's an evolving mindset and the way to create space for that is you need to make sure that you've really got a fine tuned team.
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And in fine tuned team, I mean I want you to actually tackle those performance issues that might have been lingering along. I want you to be having some of those tough conversations. I want you to stop doing everything and being in all of the detail. I want you to start delegating really effectively into your team and that means making sure that they understand the boundaries of what they can and cannot do in their role.
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Where is the boundary of their decision making authority and where is the boundary of your decision making authority so that they're escalating appropriately. And I want you to have set up some of those really robust communication protocols in the team so that you can feel safe that if a, senior leader, a Director or a Dean of something or PVC of something turns around and asks you for an update on some piece of work that you're not actually doing because you've delegated it now that you've got enough information at your fingertips to be able to give them a reasonable update and I want you to start signalling that you're doing that.
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So if you don't have that information, instead of going, "oh, I don't know, I'm not sure, I'm really sorry." I don't want you to do that. What I want you to do is say, "actually I've delegated that responsibility and I'm due an update from that person tomorrow or whenever, so I will find out and get back to you then." And you're signalling that you're delegating more.
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You're signalling that you're not trying to do everything yourself and that can be really powerful for those senior leaders who are, you know, they're thinking about like who's ready, they're thinking about succession planning (hopefully), and really reviewing who is it that's operating at that next level.
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So you're not only doing things differently, you're signalling that you're doing things differently. Oh, the other thing that I want you to think about here is using your intermediary, line managers. So often when you're stepping from grade eight to nine, you might be starting to manage managers.
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So this is where you have got a team and a couple of layers of hierarchy in there. So you might have first line managers or supervisors or Team leaders, those type of roles. Make sure that you're not then getting involved with the team members that those managers are managing.
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You really need to get very comfortable with the idea that you're setting the tone in the team that those other people are, then having those difficult conversations and doing that management stuff and you're not getting drawn back into the drama in the team.
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We want you to kind of rise up above the drama, stay really steady and stable, but be setting the context and making sure that the culture in your team embodies the values that you actually want. Sometimes those are explicitly aligned with the institutional values and sometimes the institutional values leave some things to be desired, let's say, or are a bit brief and you might have some thoughts about what that means for you and your team around things like integrity and communication and doing things properly.
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And so it's for you to really begin, as you make this transition up out of being a doer of things to a leader of things, to be setting that tone and to be demonstrating those values in action for your team members, but also helping your intermediary managers to be embodying those values as well, so that you're all pulling together in the same direction.
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And that's totally appropriate for you to be doing. And it's something that people will be looking to you when they're, you know, the senior leaders, when they're thinking about who's ready for promotion. If you've got some nasty team issues going on in your team, you've got underperformers, you've got stuff that's not being tackled or not visibly being tackled, that's where some of those credibility questions come in from for senior managers.
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So we want to show that you're on top of that, that your intermediary managers are on top of all of that and that you're really setting the culture, making it clear what's okay, what's not okay, what are the standards of behaviour that you require, all of that kind of stuff so that you're again, not doing too much in the do space.
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But you're really clarifying that tone for people. Now, if that all sounds good and you think, "yeah, Fiona, nice, but how do I actually do all of that?" And you want some support, then I really invite you to join. my programme Getting Ready for Your Next Grade.
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The cohort that's open at the moment and enrolling is grade nine. So if you're a grade eight manager, or even if you're a grade seven, who's looking to step up to nine? Anyone who's looking to get ready for grade nine, very welcome. If this is not quite the right time for you, but sounds interesting, you can join the waiting list for that.
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And there's also a waiting list open to the cohort for Getting Ready for Grade 8, that's, senior manager level, and a cohort that is Getting Ready for Grade 7, which is that first line manager level. And you will find the waiting list sign up or the programme details in the description below.
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Really hope to see you there if not, and if this is not the right time, but if this, episode has been interesting, tune in next time and we'll be tackling some more of those questions. I think next time we've got, How much value do mentoring, network and secondments help or what other ways are there of developing your career if you're working in an unsupportive environment?
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So we're tackling that next time. Hope to see you there. All right, thanks for listening and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
