[00:00.1]
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Walk into Your Next Grade. This is a podcast for thoughtful Higher Education professionals who are exploring career progression. I'm Fiona Bicket, your resident professional development coach.
[00:16.7]
Each week I'll help you untangle what working at the next level really means. And, remind you that you don't have to turn into someone else to build the kind of career success that you want. So grab your headphones and come for a walk with me as we work out the moves that matter most as you get ready for your next grade.
[00:38.0]
Okay, so I'm on kind of a busy route today. Hopefully it won't be too bothersome in terms of background noise. I had this great question from senior manager who is thinking about the grade nine step change. And they asked, what should people do if you work in a kind of unsupportive environment where you're not getting the career development support that you want from your line manager?
[01:07.2]
And they suggested maybe mentoring or sponsorship or some of those kind of things. And I think the answer is yes, do all of those things if you can, but be a bit strategic about it.
[01:23.7]
So what we don't want is for you to get a mentor and a sponsor and start taking loads of training courses. And it all to be a bit scattergun, and not to have a plan. And certainly if you're not making the right ask, of the people that you are involving in this process who are, signing up to support you in some way.
[01:48.3]
So if you are approaching somebody to be a mentor or a sponsor, and I'll break down the difference between those two in a second, I really want you to be able to go to them and say something along the lines of, "I would like to progress in my career and get ready for a grade...whichever grade it is that you're going for.
[02:13.0]
Will you help me develop a plan and move in that direction over the next..." Whatever your time frame is, and then that will help them to really understand what is it that you're looking for, and understand that you're not just looking for somewhere to go to moan about your boss, but you're actually, you know, looking for some proper, credible support and that you're taking your career development seriously and that they can then see how they can help you in that endeavour.
[02:46.1]
And I mentioned there's a difference between a mentor and a sponsor. So let's unfold that a little bit. So a mentor and they might cross over. Typically, a mentor is somebody who has had a similar career path to you, has probably held roles similar to the role that you're in, has made the step change that you are thinking about and has some experience to share.
[03:15.4]
And so most of what you're going to get from them is like reflections on their own experience and some thoughts and advice about what you could do. So it's quite advice led.
[03:31.8]
Often it's about them and their experience as much as it is about you and your experience. Unless you get a mentor who has really good coaching skills, in which case it'll be more about you than it is about them. A sponsor on the other hand is somebody who has access to meetings and fora and relationships at that more senior level than where you're operating.
[04:00.4]
Who is the person who's going to put in a good word for you. So they are sponsoring you. So they're the one when they, you know, let's say they're on your senior leadership team. They're the person who, when an opportunity comes up and they say oh, we need to make a task group about this or we need somebody to go on this committee for whatever your sponsor is, the person who's going to go, "oh, what about that person?" They're looking to progress or they're looking for opportunities to gain XYZ experience and they're going to put your name forward in rooms where you're not present or you don't have access to those rooms and those decisions.
[04:43.8]
So really, really helpful to actively engage people in sponsorship activities and again be really clear with them and say what it is that you're looking for. So "will you sponsor me? I'm looking for opportunities where I can get exposure to faculty level decision making" or "where I can engage with a wider network of people who are doing this type of work" or "I want to see how decisions are made around this, this or this", whatever it is.
[05:19.3]
So go with a very specific ask. The other thing that I think is, can be helpful but can be a red herring. So red herring is like a plot device in a mystery story where it's, you know, sending you off in one direction but actually it's not the right direction.
[05:40.8]
There's a more direct route you could go is secondments. So in any career decision making, when you're thinking about your career move and where are you in your current career, there are basically eight decisions.
[06:00.5]
I'll give you the four big buckets, then we'll break some of them down into smaller components. So the big buckets are stay where you are, leave and like leave entirely, leave the sector or move sideways or progress upwards.
[06:18.1]
Secondments can be really helpful in the move sideways category and there are two different rationales for that. So you might be looking to move sideways because you want to diversify your experience. That is a really good reason to take a secondment.
[06:38.0]
So you're looking to develop expertise outside of your current team, current experience and remit. Take a second great opportunity. Beware of the fact it's going to be hard to come back to your substantive role.
[06:56.2]
And the other reason that people do secondments is typically to escape a bad situation. So normally that's where people have got a horrible boss that they're trying to get away from or, you know, there's some sense of stuff being bad in the team that they're not enjoying.
[07:14.4]
And so they take a secondment to get a reprieve. I think that can be a red herring because you're probably better to just leave rather than do a secondment where you're going to have the ultimate pressure of knowing that you need to go back into that substantive role at some point.
[07:31.0]
So if you can just leave, find a new job instead of doing a secondment, which you know, then you've got this sort of psychological lasso holding you in place that could yank you back at any point. So just for clarity, if you're thinking about diversifying your experience, go for a secondment.
[07:51.0]
That's great. If you're trying to escape a bad situation, probably best to just take the bolder move and find a new job that gives you the kind of satisfaction and environment that you're, you're looking for.
[08:07.6]
And ultimately the other piece to this is the invitation to take your own development into your own hands. Because I think quite often, particularly in more junior grades, there can be a sense of, disappointment and resentment, even if you sense that your line manager is not supporting your development.
[08:32.2]
And, you know, I think good line managers will always aspire to support people in their professional development. But ultimately line managers, and particularly senior line managers are normally holding quite a complex web or Venn diagram of responsibilities.
[08:54.7]
And so they need to look after the objectives of the team, they need to actually get the work done. They need to look after the needs of the stakeholders in getting that work done and delivering the thing. They need to look after the budget, which, let's face it, are usually pretty tight these days.
[09:14.8]
And they also need to look after the team. And right now in particular, while budgets are tight and things are quite strained for a lot of people, I suspect the amount of headspace even good managers have to dedicate to your professional development is probably relatively low.
[09:37.6]
So, yes, I would love to change that. I would love to give massive budgets to everybody for career development, but that's just not really the reality that we're in right now and I think, you know, there's a lot to be desired about career development and progression and how all of that works in the sector.
[09:58.6]
And I'm not blind to the systemic issues that exist and I don't think any of you should be waiting for that to get fixed. I think you should absolutely be making your own plans, taking on the development that you need, finding those opportunities to progress things for yourselves.
[10:20.3]
Because at the end of the day is your career, not your boss's career, not HR's career, not your institution's career, is your career. So you have the ability to develop it on your own terms. And you know, interestingly I was at an away day recently with a professional services team in a large institution.
[10:45.2]
They're a professional professional services team of a faculty so they're quite a small team and I was asking them what they thought about professional development and how to go about asking for it in a good way.
[11:00.5]
And we're talking about this example that I use a lot about project management and whether anybody had one of those big set piece project management qualifications like Prince 2 or Agile or any of those kind of big methodologies.
[11:23.7]
And the only person who came back said yes. And I wasn't really expecting anybody to say yes but the director said yes I did. But I want it to be noted that I paid for that myself. And I think that's one of the really interesting markers or distinctions between people who have, have.
[11:45.7]
Oh no, now there's a train going by. Hopefully you can still hear. I think there's a distinction in the attitude that people have about their own professional development between people who are stuck and not progressing versus people who have made some of those bigger moves and are in those more senior roles.
[12:04.3]
Often you will find that people in senior roles have made that move, They've taken their progression into their own hands and they've probably put their money where their mouth is and they've paid for some development. Whether that is one to one coaching, whether it's one of those big programmes like project management which I don't entirely recommend, we'll probably have that run another episode.
[12:31.0]
Or if they've joined a programme like Getting Ready for Your Next Grade, which is the one that I'm offering at the moment. But the key is they've decided not to wait. They're just figuring out what they want.
[12:46.0]
Now there's a police car. Blimminek. This walking business might not be the best plan for recording. Yeah, they have probably taken it into their own, you know, circle, of influence and they've gone, well, what can I do?
[13:01.8]
Okay, I can pay for myself to do this training to get this development. And so they're not waiting for their institution to support them, they're just getting out there and doing it. And so that's the invitation to you. If you know that you want to progress and you're feeling really stuck, don't wait.
[13:19.2]
Don't wait for your institution to be ready to support you. Go and get those opportunities for yourself. Which brings me nicely to my programme. If you'd like to join Getting Ready for Your Next Grade, The cohort for grade Nine is currently open and we'll be opening the cohort for Getting Ready for Grade eight very soon.
[13:40.3]
So that's the grade eight is typically senior manager. So you're managing a fair sized team and quite a big portfolio of work. Grade 9 is typically those Head of Service, Associate Director kind of level roles. If you want to join that then I will put the link in the show notes and we'll be doing exactly this type of work in there.
[14:03.3]
All right, I think that brings me to the end. So if you've got any questions, ping them over on email. I'd love to hear from you so that I can address those in future episodes. If you'd like to join the programme. If you'd like to chat with me about the programme, see if it would be a good fit, let me know. Otherwise I will see you in a future episode.
[14:21.8]
So take good care and I'll speak to you next time.
