Align your expectations with your manager

Your manager is your sparring partner

During your studies, you rarely have contact with your teacher, and when you have to finish the subject with an exam, you do what you can to hide what you are not good at. With an employer, the manager becomes your most important sparring partner – both in relation to what you are good at and what you struggle with. According to IDA’s career consultant, the role of the manager can be compared to that of a coach on a football team.

„The coach is responsible for telling them what to do more or less on the pitch. You learn from the other players, but it is the coach who points you in the right direction,‟ says Sanne Mattebjerg.

How do you know if you are doing it well enough?

In fact, 40% of newly graduated members of IDA doubt whether they will do well enough in their first job. And in that group, a full 89% say that they have a good relationship with their boss. Put it another way:

„Even if they have a good relationship with their boss, it is a relationship where the manager and employee do not resolve the problems,‟ Sanne Mattebjerg asserts.

For many newly graduated people, it is not without problems to exchange a student life with friends, reading and parties for a workplace. There may be a new hierarchy here and a lot of unwritten rules. IDAs counsellor explains it with another sports picture.

“As a new graduate, you are starting a completely new sport and you don’t know the rules. There is a communication gap, and unfortunately we cannot expect the manager to outline all the rules on their own. That is why we at IDA make a big deal of training the soon-to-be-graduates and recent graduates so that they can take the initiative to close that communication gap,” says Sanne Mattebjerg.

How do I align my expectations with my manager?

Aligning expectations with your manager at work is crucial to ensuring clear communication and productivity. Here are some things you can specifically do to align expectations with your manager:

• Schedule a meeting with your manager: Here you can discuss expectations and work tasks. This can be planned as a monthly status meeting or it can happen more spontaneously.
• Prepare yourself: Before the meeting, you should prepare yourself by thinking about what you expect from the work and what you think your manager expects from you. Review any goals, tasks and results you are working on.
• Listen and ask: During the meeting, you should actively listen to your manager and ask questions about what he or she expects from you. If you know the company’s interests and goals, clarify how your tasks and goals fit into them. If you have not fully understood the company’s goals, ask them. This shows your commitment to fulfilling the company’s wishes and these are important benchmarks for you.
• Share your expectations: Share what you expect from your manager, including feedback, support, resources or clarity about tasks and ask what is possible to meet, so that you get a realistic picture of what you can expect. Be honest about any challenges or obstacles that may affect your work. This can be anything from noise in the office, doubts about task completion or challenges in collaboration with a colleague.
• Create clear goals: Be clear about goals and tasks, so that both parties know what is expected – when is good enough – and when it is expected to be completed. This helps avoid misunderstandings.
• Prioritize tasks: Discuss which tasks are most important or urgent, and make sure there is agreement on what to prioritize if challenges arise. This can teach you a lot about what your manager is measured by, because the tasks that are typically most important to them are also most important to the company as a whole.
• Follow up: Agree on how often you will update your manager on the tasks, so that you do not feel that you are doing too much or too little. This shows that you are taking responsibility for your tasks and it frees up time for your manager not to have to remember to stay updated on your tasks. Over time, this can mean that you get a good sense of when to update and involve your manager – and your manager trusts that you will reach out when it is relevant or needed.
• Open communication: Have open communication where you and your manager can share feedback, concerns and ideas. Be open to adjusting expectations if the situation changes.
• Document the process: If necessary, document the expectations and goals discussed in writing so that there is a written reference that both you and your manager can refer to.
• Be flexible: Understand that expectations can change over time due to all sorts of different circumstances. So be flexible and be prepared to adapt.

Be clear about your needs

“In general, it is a gift to the manager that you are clear about your needs instead of you keeping it to yourself and get frustrated. It will be easier for the manager to adjust the work and your collaboration so that you thrive better. A problem can only be solved if it is brought to light,” says Sanne Mattebjerg.

That said, there are limits to what you can demand as a new employee and graduate, so make sure you are curious, humble and realistic in your dialogue with your manager, so that you learn more about what options actually exist.

After this, it is important that you regularly coordinate your work with your manager. If your boss does not already have a structure for frequent status meetings, you can also take the initiative to create a model where you and your manager, for example, have a status meeting once a month. And if your manager rejects that idea, then it may be time to reconsider your work situation.

If your manager refuses status meetings without any meaningful explanation, then it may be time for you to find a new job. This does not indicate that your manager is committed to getting you and your team working well together. You have done your part to change it, but you have not been met. If you have „If you’ve been true to yourself, made realistic demands and been thorough in the process, you can easily walk out the door,‟ Sanne Mattebjerg insists.

Remember that you can always contact our counsellors if you have any questions about your studies – or working life.