If you are hiring and leading fresh grads, you have a very important mission, I believe.
Because the first years of professional life may determine who you are or whom you want to become.
As the leaders, we are the architects who define the foundations of our fresh grad team members.
They learn:
- How to communicate with other stakeholders,
- How to prioritize the tasks,
- How to manage the time,
But most importantly how to learn “learning”.
These are the essentials of a building to be resistant and can be created with the right coaching & patience of the leaders.
There are lots of good leadership books out there, and what I learned with the combination of books and my experience with cross-cultural team management are two important leadership traits:
- How much do you inspire & empower others to achieve
- How you can touch the heart of your people, and make them feel “secure” by “creating opportunities”.
When I observe the most successful leaders, I have noticed a common thing – people like them and want to work with them by heart.
Of course leadership at any level has some challenges.
However, your fresh grads are like babies, and your leadership style will affect them more than it affects an experienced team member.
That’s why we should act by knowing the fact that our leadership style will affect the next generation of leaders.
They will feel lost, confused, or maybe they are not a good fit for the position when they make mistakes. The way you handle the failures and give feedback is important.
- Be patient, positive, and supportive by making them learn from their mistakes.
- Create “enough” time to give feedback. When you have a busy schedule, your might have the intention to postpone these feedback sessions.
- Understand your team members’ personalities and learning types. So you can adjust your coaching style accordingly, don’t forget that everyone is unique!
- Determine the milestones for their growth, not only for business but also for personal growth.
- Let them learn step by step (NOT at once – they are not a machine) by actively coaching
- Encourage them to discover their full potential. Sometimes they might not have the awareness which is normal. It is like a precious flower that blossoms under the right conditions and you will be amazed at what you observe during that evolution.
Confidence can’t be built in one day. It comes with experience, by doing. Let them see actually, they can “do” the projects you expect from them.
Having a coaching culture in the company is essential, it is not one leader’s job but everyone’s.
Maybe you can be the initiator of this culture, can’t you? 🙂
I saw companies that are proud of “only hiring experienced people” which harms the company culture significantly.
Finally, I would like to share a quote from Peter Drucker:
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
with which I totally agree.