Some employees are not suited to managing people but are forced into these roles because that’s the only way to rise up the career ladder. As discussed in this feature, this is ultimately detrimental to the health and productivity of both the individual and the institution, and could be one reason behind the unprecedented numbers of managers currently experiencing burnout.
With the nature of work changing so much and so quickly, some progressive employers are ensuring they have alternative career paths for those employees who are experts in their field but are not interested in managing a team; so they are maximising their human resource to gain competitive advantage, not to mention making work sustainable for people.
But, by the same token, many more companies are not looking at this problem because addressing it means huge structural changes to move away from legacy structures.
This feature looks at how, practically, you would start to create a two tier career progression path which caters for both those who want to manage people, and those who prefer to focus on their expertise without this. It starts by looking at what the institution can do, then what the individual can do, as job crafting in this way needs to be a co-creation for the best chance of success.
From the Institution’s point of view…
Restructuring – where to start?
Unless you’re a start-up, you’ll be coming at this from a position of having a legacy organisational design in place which you’ll need to change.
“So you need to be clear on what your organisational design and principles are and how these align to your business strategy,” says Katherine Billingham-Mohamed, Leadership and Engagement Director, Ipsos. “For example, you have to know how many people you need in people management roles and how much time you need them to invest in this aspect of their job… And what kind of outcomes you want to drive.”
As she says, historically, allocating time to people management has been poor, with not enough structure and clarity around it. Restructuring is an opportunity to address this and support people managers better, being clear about what’s expected of them, what great leadership looks like and how this performance is measured.
Similarly, you need to have clarity around the non-people management roles, too, also understanding “what outcomes they are expected to drive and how these align back to the business strategy, focusing equally on investment in development and measurement”, adds Billingham-Mohamed, she continues:
“This is really important but I think organisations sometimes restructure by thinking ‘well, I’ve got people who are great at X, so let’s design a role around this’. And I’m not saying that is not important – I’m saying that the organisation needs to link job design to the business needs and strategy.”
She advises the first thing to do is audit where the company is in terms of number of employees, managers and departments, how the ‘work flow works’ and set out clear accountabilities in role design.
“You want to create an organisational structure where people have the ability to move up through roles, both in a line manager capacity and a non-people oriented capacity. There’s nothing worse than starting a new role and not being able to see a future development path that’s right for you,” she says.
One of her biggest learnings from leading this work in previous organisations, where it proved a real struggle to create this two tier structure is:
“We didn’t put enough emphasis on the non-people management roles. We really focused on wanting brilliance from the people leaders but, actually, what we didn’t do equally was go far enough to explain the other roles and show how they are available at all levels through a different career path. It’s important with any type of role redesign to show how each role is valued equally.”
Pick your words carefully
As you’ll notice from this feature already, there is a challenge around what to call those employees who do not opt to do the traditional line management role to progress. Defining a group of employees by their lack ie. “those who don’t manage people” will not help you market this path.
In this feature, interviewees talked about “individual contributors”. Others talk about “technicians” or “technical experts”, but it’s important you choose a term that fits your company and which there are positive connotations around.
Address the stigma of not being a line manager
As touched on in the last point, language can help address the stigma, but you’ll probably need to do more than just this.
“There’s absolutely a destigmatisation piece to do,” says Elliot Foster, Workplace Wellbeing Strategy Consultant, SuperWellness. “There’s still very much a stereotype around ‘if you’re not a manager, then you can’t be very good at your job’. But, actually, whether or not you like the people side shouldn’t define whether you’re good at your job or not.”
On the contrary, Foster believes that those employees who recognise that they are not suited to people management should be celebrated for their high self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
The best way to address stigma is via stories, says Billingham-Mohamed: “you’ve got to open the gates with stories, so people can see other people doing it”.
Don’t put the technicians in ivory towers
While your subject experts won’t be line managing, you don’t want them feeling out on a limb or not integrated into their team and company.
“You still have to have them in teams and doing collaborative working,” says Foster. “It’s important to keep them involved so you are not saying ‘do your job and we’ll see you later!’. This is especially true when hybrid working”.
Billingham-Mohamed agrees adding that the institution still has a responsibility to ensure these employees are involved in the self-development of others such as coaching, knowledge sharing and feedback.
Speak to your neurodiversity network
As touched on in this feature, while it’s not true across the board, there’s often high levels of neurodivergency within technical specialists who would prefer not to have the people management element to be part of their job.
Billingham-Mohamed has definitely found this to be the case in her work and suggests talking to your company’s neurodiversity network early on in the process, to get their support and insight, is a good idea.
From the individual’s point of view…
Recognise the need to manage your career differently now…
“We all know that the job for life has now gone,” says Carolyn Parry, Founder and Lead Coach of Career Alchemy and former President of the Career Development Institute. “But companies have to help their employees job craft and understand who they are, and how to find a job they find purposeful. There’s a need to teach people how to manage their own careers. I’d go as far as to say that it’s almost part of a large corporation’s CSR remit today.”
However, while the institution may have this responsibility, the responsibility equally lies on the employee’s shoulders, too, to be proactive and embrace any resources or training that is made available.
Certainly, with the rise of the gig economy, freelance work, interim roles and portfolio careers, it’s in an individual’s interest to future proof their career and be prepared for what the future of work will increasingly look like.
Older employees might particularly benefit from career management skills to help them navigate their career as they head to retirement or – as this feature on pensions discusses – a situation where they use part time work to plug their pension shortfall.
“If people don’t have career management skills, they are not going to thrive in the workplace environment we have now, which is constant change,” says Parry. “You need resilience and the motivation to constantly grow and learn. If you don’t know how to manage your way through your career, and you don’t understand yourself, the chances are you’re going to end up burning out or being miserable.”
Take the plunge
Companies and industry bodies are increasingly creating opportunities for individuals to get live experiences of other jobs, for learning and to see whether they want to progress in that direction. For instance, some are creating databases of small projects that people can apply to work on to build or develop their capacity.
Others are creating “career safaris” where employees can try jobs out for a few days, or as part of a short experiment, in different parts of the company.
“So I’d advise employees to do a skills gap analysis and use these types of new formats to build their skills and see where they could be used,” says Parry.
Make an effort to know, and tap into your strengths, as well as your sense of purpose
For most people, really getting to the heart of what they want out of a career and what gives them a sense of purpose takes time and reflection.
Many employers offer employees ways to do this reflection such as personality tests and analysis of core values. And, if they don’t, an individual can also source this kind of work themselves through bodies like the Career Development Institute.
But again, employers can offer up tools to help but employees have to meaningfully engage with them to reap the benefits.
Ultimately, as Dhavani Bishop, Head of Group Colleague Health and Wellbeing at Tesco, said at MAD World on this self-development process, it takes “some soul searching”, which only the individual can do.
