Leadership: Don’t Skip the Middle
John Maynard, CFE, AHFI
Principal Solutions Architect at SAS | Healthcare & Govt | Changing the World with Advanced Data Analytics
Life can be tough in the middle. However, the best leaders spend time there on their journey.
I recently had lunch with a former leader of mine from government. She had experience from the local to the federal level – a visionary, strategist, and builder. As we lamented the struggles of some current managers and leaders we knew, we agreed they didn’t spend enough time in the middle. In this case, it’s middle management.
Television has emphasized the struggles of the middle with shows like “The Middle” and “Malcolm in the Middle.” Middle children had to tough it out in “The Brady Bunch”, “The Simpsons”, and “Modern Family.” Coincidentally, these fictional middle children seemed to excel, and like them these middle families learned how to survive and grow stronger.
Why is middle management so special?
Experience is a great teacher. Middle management is the place you hone your management craft, learn to fail and get back up, and test your survival skills. Once managers spend significant time in the middle, they will learn if they even want to grow farther and take on greater leadership responsibility.
The middle is where leadership development programs should be picking out likely candidates to grow into future leaders. I think these future leaders can benefit from experiential leadership training that stretches them. Once done, my experience is these managers know if they really want to move up or simply settle in. Those who believed leaders in the top of the organization sit around basking in their achievement find out quickly it doesn’t get any easier – it just gets faster and more complex.
During my time in government, I worked with an award-winning leadership development professional. He built an experience-based leadership training program. This was no easy task. He also helped my audit management team with an insightful workshop. Some results were striking.
As a group, managers examined the job classifications for the auditor series along with the related core competencies. By voting on and discussing which competencies were most important to each job level, the group agreed on how to best develop staff and themselves. It later helped support hiring and training, and it gave the managers more information about what to expect as they advanced into higher levels of management.
Only one position in the series got at least one vote for all 17 core competencies. Yes, it was the middle manager. In this case, it was the Section Chief position. In our world, this position managed a group of 45 people that were decentralized across the state of Ohio. They provided audit and consulting services to 132 separate agencies and nearly 20 regional workforce development areas that administered numerous federal and state grants.
Why do middle managers use more key competencies?
I shared that I had held this position for about 8 years. It meant tending to multiple teams downstream with differing work and purposes. Being decentralized made communication harder. There was lots of tactical work involved. Upstream, this meant supporting the Bureau Chief and the agency’s senior leadership. That work was more strategic. Plus, there was the need to track and report work efforts and outcomes as well as goal attainment – separate administrative work on top of supporting and managing multiple teams.
There was a constant shifting between tactical issues and strategic issues. Some days I couldn’t check a single item off my planned To-Do List as my work was driven by those above and below me. I learned to shift gears constantly, and that meant shifting between the numerous core competencies identified in our experiment.
What’s in the middle for you?
You can learn a lot in the middle. You can learn by doing yourself. You can also learn by excellent coaching from leaders above you. The good ones take time to explain decisions and changes to you, getting your input and pushing you to think critically. The best mentors revisit past decisions and changes, maybe sharing what couldn’t be shared at the time along with the various considerations that went into those decisions. You learn the point, pace, and politics of the work your group and organization are performing and how to navigate those waters with various key stakeholders. This might be rallying a team, spotting and growing talent, integrating new work units, building alliances, how to carry yourself, reading a room, or overcoming the many complications of people simply being human.
Skipping the hard work in the middle and rising too fast can leave an aspiring leader unprepared. Like Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars”, you can rush off too quickly to face the Empire and Darth Vader. After a good pummeling and losing your hand, you’ll discover there were things you needed to learn. While Luke lives to fight another day, some inexperienced managers get wiped out. For every Steve Jobs that bounced back and went on to great success with Apple, there are many more who got obliterated.
My former leader and I agreed that doing time as a middle manager shouldn’t be viewed as being held back. It should be viewed as getting ready for greater things. Embrace it and use that time to learn everything you can about how to be a great manager and leader. Take risks and stretch yourself. Find a good mentor who’ll help your development and build your confidence. Observe your own organization's best leaders.
Learning to spot a bad leader is just as important as learning to be a good one. The greatest test is the ability to determine for yourself how you are doing. If that seems like a strange proposition, think of the horrible managers and leaders who sing their own praises while being painfully unaware of the shocked faces of their teams. Self-awareness and empathy are critical leadership skills – practice them.
Life can be hard in the middle, but it’s worth the effort if you’re setting your sights on higher places like the C-suite.
Using my 30+ yrs in Healthcare and Security to help Global Govt. and Private entities analyze and interpret data, fight Fraud & Crime and use big data to Gain insights into their Business.
5 年Well said John, Middle Managers ARE where the rubber meets the road most days. It is where you will learn if management is for you or not. I learned alot as a Middle Manager, I think it helped me become a stronger leader, at least I hope it did.
? Professional Certified Coach ? Organizational & Leadership Development Professional ? Certified Professional in Talent Development ?
5 年I feel like you have peered into my soul writing this :) I am currently a Section Chief in State Gov't.? I too had the wonderful privilege of learning from Mr Sapper.? The middle can be a rough place, however the knowledge and insight I have gained are immeasurable!? I think those who lack time in the middle, who may rush to the 'top', miss out on very valuable lessons learned.? Thank you for this GREAT article John!?
Special Investigations Unit
5 年Well said John!
Director of Inclusion and Diversity
5 年Very insightful and true.