Managing in the Middle - The three key habits good leaders practice

Good leadership often starts well at the top but does not always cascade to the bottom.

Most employees experience leadership, culture, values, mission, vision, engagement, etc., predominantly through interactions with their direct manager (or superior), not the CEO.

This is where management really happens - in the middle! 

Regrettably, few organisations pay enough attention to middle managers - their selection, training and development.

Tenure, experience, competency, and expertise are common reasons for assigning management responsibility to individuals. Yet, these have little to do with the necessary abilities needed to lead people.

By making a technical expert who lacks basic people skills a leader, you often end up with a bad manager and a distracted technician. 

The role of a middle manager or frontline manager is a critical function in any organisation and must be given due attention. 

In our experience, this necessitates mastering three key areas:

1. Authentic Engagement - Communication & Candour

2. Maximising Strengths - Trust & Vulnerability

3. Setting the right priorities - Commitment & Accountability 

AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT

As we've promulgated for almost two decades now, good management comes down to humanising the team members. Understanding them as individuals first (their 5 Fs - Faith/Spirituality, Family & Friends, Fitness & Health, Finance, Fun & Passions). Listening to them...giving them our undivided attention in meetings. 

Authentic Engagement requires good communication skills. Sharing appropriate information so they are empowered to execute their role. It is a manager's responsibility to be understood. 

Finally, candour must be embraced with empathy. Having difficult conversations.

MAXIMISING STRENGTHS

The miracle of teams is simply this: as individuals, we are limited by our greatest weakness, but on a team, we can play to our greatest strength. A manager is responsible for making this happen by establishing high levels of trust and vulnerability in a team so people can depend on others to support their weaknesses while doing what they do best.

Maximising strengths relies on managers bringing together people with complementary skills to fulfil the mission, encouraging them to be disciplined and continually improve. 

Maximising strengths also demands managers exit those that don't fit the team. 'A' players want to play with 'A' players. Allowing 'B' players - whether performance, character or values - on the team discourages and demotivates peak performers. 

SETTING THE RIGHT PRIORITIES

Managers must understand the importance of setting and accomplishing the right priorities. It starts with managing themselves well and, of course, those for whom they are responsible. Failure to master this skill leaves many teams and organisations at sea, spinning their wheels (inefficient or ineffective) or speeding in the wrong direction. The only thing worse than doing something poorly is doing something well that should not be done at all.

Setting the right priorities involves clearly understanding each person's commitments and accountabilities. What must be done - quantitatively and qualitatively? For how we perform is as important as what is accomplished. How do we measure and manage this? 

Setting the right priorities must also include a feedback loop - recognition is one of the most underrated leadership practices today - authentic, specific and contextual to the person. It establishes rewards and consequences.

Middle managers make or break organisational culture. They are the reason people stay in organisations and often the reason people leave. 

If you'd like to equip and empower your middle managers, we have a 2-hour course that we delivered numerous times that may be of interest. It provides the foundational framework to get started on one's leadership and management journey.

https://calendly.com/mrv/workshops

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