So I sat there opposite my boss the other week and listened to him share his thoughts on emerging talent in small to medium organisations. He outlined the barriers – for their managers and for emerging talents. He spoke of the frustrations for both parties, and the fear factor for managers. It was bizarre. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if he’d said: ‘take Lyndal here for instance’.

The poor guy has to deal with my hyper levels of energy, the fact that I want to do it all. Now.

The fact that I too work in an organisation that is expanding and always adapting to a changing context (it’s what Common Purpose does, right?), and that when it comes to a place with a disproportionate level of chiefs and Indians…, you’ve never seen anything like it. I work at a leadership development organisation. We’re all chiefs. We all have big ideas and vision. We are all passionate and have convictions that are steel enforced. And we all really believe in what we do and strive not just to do it well, but to do it excellently.

So I am my harshest critic as an emerging leader, which to me says that nobody on this earth is going to feel as bad as I will if I get it wrong, and that should be a check and balance in itself. I just need to be given enough rope to hang myself and I can really contribute something valuable and deliver results. I’ve been doing what I do for a while and I was hired to do it, surely that’s enough reason to give me my wings?

But if it were my organisation and my responsibility as caretaker of a budget, scarce resources and team of people looking to you for the final call, would I hand over control  so easily? I’m not sure. The truth is that as a leader you’ve got to your place in life by being really good at what you do, and that means paying attention to the details. It’s hard to let that go.

Oliver’s insights shared with Knowledge Peers were reassuring in that he captured the plight of myself and so many like me in a few punchy sound bites. This is particularly relevant for those working in medium-sized organisations, irrespective of the sector. There is a ceiling, there are limited hours in the day and it’s not like I manage a public relations department. I am the department. There are days when it is just a case of ‘get it done, whatever it takes’.

Hand on heart most managers know all this, they see it and they see themselves (once upon a time) in their emerging talent. It wouldn’t kill them to say it once in a while so that their emerging talent knows that it isn’t personal and that if they work together on moving forward, both parties will feel a lot safer and bought into a common goal along the way.

I’m lucky I do get that communicated quite clearly…and then my manager had the courage to put it on film in the public domain. We’ll be reviewing its content at my next appraisal, you can count on it. He gets where I am, that I am bouncing off the walls to make a difference and make my mark. I, like all career driven people, want to contribute to the vision of an organisation and see my concepts realised….and we’ll get there. He needs to have faith, I need to have patience and in time I will get my chance.

I just hope it’s next week, because I’ve got about 800 ideas of how to make it all happen. Now.

- You can view Oliver Mack and other expert Talking Guides on specific areas of business management at Knowledge Peers. You will need register. Common Purpose has also published research on the ‘quarter life crisis’ and ‘Time for a Change’, which explores issues facing emerging leaders in their careers.

Common Purpose

Common Purpose gives leaders the inspiration, the knowledge and the connections they need to produce real change. Through our unique leadership development courses, a growing number of people around the world are making a difference in the industries and places where they work, in the communities where they live and in wider society.

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With appraisals looming this opening paragraph in a Management Today article ‘Death of the Bollocking’ got me thinking about whether I’m brave enough to find a way to give critical feedback. I worry about whether I’ve become too soft, too worried about being too harsh, about de-motivating staff, about making sure any critical feedback is offered in a praise sandwich. I’ve had it drummed into me for years that praise is the thing we don’t do well, that we need to do better. 

“You need to tell people where they stand,” says Deborah Meaden, entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den dragon. “If someone’s done a good job, you should tell them they’ve done damn well. But if they haven’t, you should take the same attitude. Tell them: ‘That wasn’t good enough.’ It creates an environment where everyone understands where they are.” One of the dangers of not pulling people up when they underperform, she adds, is that they’re genuinely surprised when things don’t turn out well for them, or the project they’re working on isn’t a success.

It’s so unusual for leaders to speak out about what’s wrong. Zenna Atkins, a recent speaker on the Common Purpose Masterclass on Leading Beyond Authority, was recently quoted in an Observer article giving a critical report on the civil service:

“A damning assessment of the civil service as a ‘desperately overpopulated’, ‘broken’ institution which is stuck in the 19th century has been made by one of its most prominent figures. In an astonishing attack, Zenna Atkins, a director of the Royal Navy Fleet Executive Board, chair of its audit committee and also chair of Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, described the practices of central government as ‘utterly antiquated’. ‘I could say without doubt that significant parts of the civil service are broken,’ she told The Observer. ‘The machinery of government is not even in the 20th century, never mind the 21st century.’”

Does that mean she doesn’t care, or doesn’t think the civil service is doing a good job in many areas? I doubt it - would she spend so much of her time dedicated to working with it otherwise? Maybe we need more leaders like this. But as the Management Today article points out it’s harder for these people to operate in this way if those of us who are parents, teachers, managers don’t show our own leadership and practice being bold, speaking up and giving critical feedback. I’m sure it doesn’t mean we need to kick boots at people, or get the proverbial hairdryer out, just remember that we want things to improve

So what will I do differently? Try and notice when I’m cushioning every piece of negative feedback, make a few attempts to deliver only critical feedback (after so many years of offering the praise sandwich). How will it go? I’ve no idea, but I know I need to try and to learn, if I don’t I’m not being fair to anyone.

Oliver Mack