Last month, we wrote about hiring and training staff systematically – experienced people with the capacity to teach and entry-level staff with a capacity to learn quickly. We also asked you to be patient, and to “start by accepting that a new junior hire’s first month or two will be a learning process.” What we neglected to add, is that it will not be easy, and that patience really is a virtue. You will, necessarily, have to develop your patience and resilience for the long-term growth of your people. Alas, this article follows up by walking you through some approaches to handling that.
We continue to emphasise that you should hire for the individual’s attitude to learning. Nobody knows it all, so this is key. In addition to that, we have realised, over the course of our work with people, that aptitude matters as well. A person might never have heard of a hub-and-spoke model, for instance. However, you want to hire someone to whom you can explain it once, and they are quickly able to grasp what you are saying. Someone who knows how to ask the right questions, to guarantee their understanding of getting the job done. So this is another thing you will look for when assessing a candidate’s capabilities during their recruitment period. Do not get carried away by a person’s eagerness – it will quickly become annoying when you have to repeat the same instructions multiple times.
That brings us to the next point– how you give instructions. So, you have hired a smart individual with little experience, but a can-do attitude. Until your entry-level people have gotten a handle of things and gone through a few projects or assignments – to the point where they more or less know what to expect from their typical work assignments – how you instruct them will have to change and become quite modular. This means that you have to do a lot of the thinking beforehand while bearing in mind the learning opportunities you have to leave in for them, while they execute.
For example, imagine you are preparing a presentation for a client. At this early stage, your analyst has no clue what is relevant or irrelevant in terms of the expected content. They expect to follow your lead. You can approach this in a couple of ways. The first is by using an example, and walking them through what works and what doesn’t, then leaving them with the framework or outline for the presentation. You can also take the time to describe the end goal – what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you think it should be done (leaving the floor open for suggestions – to get their buy-in and sense of ownership). Most managers do not take the time to do this and end up getting very frustrated when their junior staff comes back having done the wrong thing. What ensues is a lot of back and forth – leaving the Manager to do the work himself or herself. Don’t do that. It is unsustainable.
For this manager-analyst training relationship to work from the beginning. It is best to start them out on low-stakes projects – whereby the missed deadlines (there will be a couple) will have little negative effect on the business. In this case, their working closely with senior staff will help them to understand what is expected of them, in a low-pressure environment, leaving room for them to assimilate it all. By the time they are settled, and ready to work on more mission-critical tasks, they will have developed the ability to ask questions, ask for time extensions, manage expectations and be clear on their deliverables. Time builds confidence. This is why patience is important.
Furthermore, start with giving small tasks at a time, or even one task at a time. It might seem boring to start with, but it is better than the alternative, which is a lot of rushing to finish everything badly. Having said all this, it will depend on the capacity of the individual. Some people learn quite quickly, and so will easily breeze through the tasks. That is fine. It only means that they will move through the process quicker, and not that they should skip any steps. As you build trust in their abilities, you assign more responsibility. Again, at the risk of being tiresome – slow and steady wins the race; patience is key.
Having said all this, managing a junior person, requires that you take responsibility on their part. Nobody wants to mess up. And while there are people who could do better and have a bigger sense of ownership over their work, it does not release you from having to check yourself as well. So make sure that you are clear, and understood. Have them repeat the task back to you in their own words until it is clear that you are on the same page. Write things down, so that you too will be forced to confront the gaps in your thinking, which ultimately affect your ability to deliver coherent instructions.
Basically, humility is important. So is a sense of responsibility. So, you must not have the attitude that the “staff are just bad”. You need to constantly be asking yourself – “how can I give better/clearer/more useful instructions?” This is a perfect opportunity for you to engage in conversation and get feedback on your management style. The feedback can’t only be one-way.
So, to recap:
- Hire for attitude, but also aptitude, specifically emphasising the ability to learn quickly and implement given instructions appropriately
- Be clear about your desired output. Be able to answer the “what?”, “why?”, “for whom?”, “how?” about the work you want to produce.
- Start with low-stakes/pressure projects so that they can learn to and become comfortable with asking the right questions for direction on their work.
- Be modular in your assignment of tasks – one task at a time and increase as their abilities improve.
- Have a sense of responsibility and humility – refrain from blaming your analysts, especially if you have not taken the time to be sure the instructions you gave, in the first place, are clear.
- Ask for and receive feedback on how you can be a better manager
- Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.
We successfully use this approach to train analysts in our Spurt! People Pipeline. While we can confirm that it is difficult, we have to say that it does, in fact, pay off in the end. Feel free to reach out to Spurt! about our analyst training services.
Oladoyin & Kristin
