As agreed by all, the brightest and the best of young employees will be chosen and picked up very quickly as leaders. However, young managers usually face a lot of challenges when they are chosen and promoted. Will they lose friendship after becoming managers? How should they position themselves among peers? And what sort of means can be used by young leaders to manage defensive peers and seniors? Today we are going to devote our air time to the dos and dons of leadership for young managers.
Robert Parkinson, Founder and CEO of RMG Selection, a leading Asia focused executive search business, shares his views and his suggestions on the topic. To get useful information, please listen to this week’s Career Builder.
What are the difficulties that young managers usually face once they are chosen?
I think the biggest challenge for young managers is the fact that there is now a difference in relationship with their peer groups.
Managers are rarely friends with their subordinates. But if young managers are truly friends with their peers and both sides deal with it in a respectful way, they will not lose friendship.
A big thing that young managers face is self-doubt, which creates a lot of problems. My suggestion is to just stop self-doubt and build up confidence. You can take small calculated risks every day. Another advice is that young managers should face the reality that you are not fully grown yet and are from perfect.
In initial years when young managers haven’t proven themselves, if your peers are so defensive that they don’t want to listen to you, then how to deal with the situation?
If you listen to people, and you will be listened to. So give opportunities, and create opportunities as well to listen to other people express their opinions. Then they will probably listen to you more readily.
Do not give up and never be indulged in that you are being treated wrong.
Young managers face seniors too. How can young leaders deal with seniors or experts seemingly better than you and not abiding by orders?
It is a very important task for seniors to mentor and coach young managers in order to make them become good leaders. Young managers should learn from seniors.
Still young managers should abandon self-doubt. You don’t need to doubt yourselves and you are in the position because you earned it.
What are the dos and dons for managers?
One of the points I noted is that you (young managers) can never talk in a discouraging way about the organization you work for. Or indeed others within your organization will copy your behavior. Behavior breeds behavior and people tend to copy their seniors.
Will it be a time when subordinates don’t really know who is in charge?
Frankly, in some company, there is management ambiguity. But some companies even promote such confusion.
Two situations may lead to such phenomenon. One is the personality of the new leader, who finds difficult to say no. For such person, he or she really needs to get used to new shoes. The other situation is that he or she is not used to the new position. Then it takes time.
How do young managers to say no and at the same time not turn it into a confrontation?
Kill them with kindness. Be nice to people.
Young managers should not be defensive themselves. They got to keep smiling.
CAREER BUILDER - ON CRI
As agreed by all, the brightest and the best of young employees will be chosen and picked up very quickly as leaders. However, young managers usually face a lot of challenges when they are chosen and promoted. Will they lose friendship after becoming managers? How should they position themselves among peers? And what sort of means can be used by young leaders to manage defensive peers and seniors? Today we are going to devote our air time to the dos and dons of leadership for young managers.
Robert Parkinson, Founder and CEO of RMG Selection, a leading Asia focused executive search business, shares his views and his suggestions on the topic. To get useful information, please listen to this week’s Career Builder.