[00:00.4]
And welcome along 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.
[00:15.6]
Each week, I'll help you untangle what "Working at the Next Level" big air quotes really means. And, remind you that you don't have to turn into someone else to build the kind of career success you want. So grab your headphones and put your shoes on.
[00:32.0]
Come for a walk with me as we work out the moves that matter most as you get ready for your next grade. This week, I have another great question to answer. So this person asked, "How should Grade 8s maintain honesty with the people they manage while progressing in their career?" So, I don't have all the backstory on this question.
[00:56.2]
I don't know what the particular context is that this person's operating in. Going to make some big assumptions for the purpose of this answer. So in thinking about the answer to this question, I'm kind of assuming there's a sense that the operating circumstances are less than optimal, let's say.
[01:21.6]
And that might be why this person's worried about honesty, particularly if they feel like their career progression might involve a move out of the team or department, or even an institution, because of, like, a tricky, difficult working environment.
[01:45.5]
Otherwise, can't really see why you would be worried about honesty. But I think it does speak to the fact that as you progress, there is more complexity around the decisions that leaders need to take in terms of what we share with team members, what we're role modelling to team members, what we decide not to share, what we're not allowed to share and I think this can, as this question rightly suggests, create a sense of, what's the word?
[02:33.2]
Incongruence for those senior managers who are thinking, well, you know, they might be thinking, well, this is a shit storm, and I just want to get out of here. But they also know that they need to kind of toe the party line, so to speak, in terms of showing up for the team.
[02:51.9]
One of the items or the components of the Hidden Curriculum is about being able to hold yourself or working through uncertainty, being able to hold yourself steady and stable, and demonstrating clarity and calm to team members so that they can turn to you in a crisis or through periods of uncertainty, and unrest.
[03:18.2]
And you might be thinking, well, I don't want to do that for my team because actually, I'm trying to leave and I think they should probably leave too but I can't really say that to them out loud. So there can be this sense of being hypocritical or disingenuous for senior managers who are looking at progressing their own career and worried about leaving team members behind in a difficult situation and am I kind of portraying a lack of clarity or a lack of honesty or making them seem like everything's great when actually I hate it here and I'm just going to leave. And I think this is going to be a bit of an integrity call for each person, given the circumstances that they're in, to decide where they want to fall on that spectrum for.
[04:12.6]
Some of you, it might be absolutely the right thing to say to your team members, I'm leaving. I'm leaving for these reasons", or I'm looking for opportunities to do this, this and this, and to signal that you are taking control of your career. You don't necessarily have to tell them all the ins and outs of why you're leaving or that you hate your director or that the PVC of Education is a complete nightmare or, you know, any of those things.
[04:39.5]
You don't have to be. What's the word? You know, divulge anything politically sensitive or to be dramatic or inflammatory. What you can do, though, is really signal that you've made this positive choice to back yourself and that right now this role, this team institution, isn't the right fit for you and that you're off to do whatever it is that is a better fit for you.
[05:04.3]
And so you're taking that move. I think for me, that's much better role modelling for team members to see senior managers making those decisions and making those moves in a really healthy, stable, adult way that is really kind of, you know, calm in your nervous system and there's a certainty and a robustness in your own leadership over your own career versus going out in a rage or a sort of vulnerability, shame storm of going, "This place is awful.
[05:39.4]
And I'm out!" and like, resigning on a post it note that says, fuck this shit, I'm off. All right, we don't really want that. We want you to be able to save face. But it's totally legit to say, actually, this role or this team or opportunity is not working for me right now, so I'm going to go and pursue this elsewhere in this XYZ direction.
[06:00.3]
I think that can also then cause this feeling of guilt for some line managers, where particularly I know right now there are managers who are moving on because they are experiencing a lot of pressure from above to do things in a certain way.
[06:20.1]
They might have leaders who are, leading in ways that are very difficult to navigate as a senior manager who want to protect their team, who might have spent the last few years really cultivating a great team, you've spent a lot of time doing some of those groundwork pieces of, you know, designing the culture that you want and bringing people on board with the way things are done, and getting great policy and process set up and team building and all of those pieces that we really want from great, thoughtful managers and leaders all across higher education, professional services.
[07:00.2]
That's the ideal. But then when you come to leave because you need to look after your own mental health, there can be a real sense of grief and a sense of, you know, kind of leaving people in the lurch to deal with a difficult situation, and I think that makes sense.
[07:20.8]
I think it makes absolute sense to have those feelings of guilt. And I also still think it's really important. If the right move is for you to leave, then you should leave. If the right move for you is to stay, then stay by all means.
[07:37.2]
I'm not suggesting that people should move just for the sake of it. Like, actually, I think that's absolutely the wrong thing to do, like moving for the sake of it because of the dreaded should. Well, I should be here by then, or out, of some sense of competition with peers or any of those things.
[07:54.9]
I only want you to be seeking career progression if it's for the right reasons for yourself. I don't think it's okay for you to hold yourself back from that career progression and from having the kind of life and career that you want because of some outweighed loyalty to your team, particularly because if they're really good team members and you're actually kind of on the edges of friendship rather than team or like colleagues and you'll stay in touch.
[08:32.3]
I'm still in touch now with people that I managed or worked alongside years and years ago. So it doesn't necessarily mean the end of the relationship if you and they don't want it to. And if they are good colleagues, they will support your decision and will probably take it as good role modelling that they can make those moves for their own selves as well.
[08:58.1]
So I feel like I've meandered around this answer a little bit. Hopefully that has helped. If you've got a question you'd like me to answer in a future episode, then email me and I will be more than happy to answer it for you. Otherwise, I will see you soon in another episode.
[09:16.2]
Thanks for listening. Take good care and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.
