As part of Operation Coup de Pouce orchestrated by Syntec Conseil, Julien Bareaud, Consultant Robert Walters, offers his vision of the added value of a senior within a company.
After 15 in corporate finance, Julien Bareaud is turning to the recruitment of middle and top management in this same field. His dual professional experience gives him a perspective and allows him to better understand the essential role of seniors in a company., that of a knowledge broker. We often ask ourselves the question : why recruit a senior ? What if the real questions were : why recruit him and how to keep him ? For his talents and professional maturity, obviously.
A company does not expect a senior manager based on his technical skills, she knows that they are acquired. The company is waiting for the senior on its posture, on the way he behaves, sur ses soft skills, on everything he will be able to share, pass it on to a younger generation. The senior will bring to others what cannot be learned at university., but what is acquired through experience. He will share his knowledge all the more easily, accompany and help, if we ask for it. He is indeed looking for another form of gratification, an interest complementary to his professional activity. Loyalty, maturity, political games, management principles are all things that the senior will be able to transmit.
Management
Management is learned above all through practice. That is why, the senior manager through his experience, both as a manager but also as a managed, knows all the codes and workings. One of the important management concepts that the senior will pass on is exemplarity. : “Do what you say and say what you do”. It’s his contact, by mimicry, that you junior, in turn, will know how to be exemplary.
The whole question of delegation and control is also crucial in management. The manager, by delegating, ensures follow-up, supports his teams so that they succeed like a conductor. It will make it possible to understand all the stages of this delegation and control process.. Things don't necessarily need to be verbalized, they are transmitted in particular through contact and example.
Finally, the senior, by his experience , often shows empathy, not to be confused with benevolence. Empathy is one of the essential qualities of any good manager. Empathy in management, it is the ability to listen to others in such a way as to recognize and understand, their needs and feelings to support them even better. The senior does not seek to be right at all costs, it is much more consensual. What interests him is moving his team forward, his idea. He is not going to go into confrontation, and will prefer to open the dialogue, in order to create the appropriate conditions for constructive exchanges. Empathy thus makes it possible to establish a peaceful working climate of trust and transparency..
Political relationships in business
The senior knows and masters the political game which allowed him to advance his subjects, to progress in the organization. He is aware of the importance of having a good network, understanding power games, of influence and interests to gain support for its projects. This political sense is acquired over the years and the senior can draw its broad outlines, make people understand the importance of an internal network as well as an external network, show how to create it, use it wisely and thus develop its roots and its influence in the company.
Professional maturity and loyalty
With the years, the senior has learned to take a step back, to prioritize one's priorities and manage the stress inherent to one's role. In this, more than just a place in supporting the most junior, he has a tacit responsibility in this transmission which will allow professional development, a point often underestimated but which is nevertheless a lever for success.
Finally, regardless of the age at which one considers oneself to be a senior, you must remember the retirement age. In this, the senior, less “volatile” lasts over time and demonstrates obvious regularity. The senior saw others, he has the will in him, the sense of effort and will not collapse at the first difficulty. He learned over time to ask for help before it was too late, to cling, persevere and find solutions. These aspects of the sense of effort and will touch on the question of loyalty. You don't leave the company at the first difficulty, we cling, we show the company that it can count on us. And by his example of perseverance and endurance, the senior instills the value of loyalty and the trust it engenders in the employer.
