Playing The Messenger

From an organizational flowchart, managers land in the middle tier between executives and frontline workers (customer service).

Therefore that makes them the messengers to bridge the communication gap between the top and bottom layers of the company.

This role can get tricky because you’re delivering the objectives from the top-down that ultimately impacts the bottom line.

• Speak too harshly and risk people tuning you out, work begrudgingly or eventually quitting.
• Speak too loosely and risk people not taking you seriously, taking advantage of you or missing deadlines without a fear of consequences.

So how do you balance the delivery as a messenger?

First of all, know that managers are in a challenging spot.

You’re essentially selling the company goals and objectives to the frontline workers in hopes they will buy-in.

The best way to see results is by aligning personal/individual goals to the organizational ones.

That means knowing what the individual career aspirations and strengths of each teammate are.

Now if you’re thinking that’s impossible because you have more than 10 people you’re managing at the moment — that’s part of the problem.

As the number of people on your team increases, the quality of your leadership decreases.

Translation: you can’t manage people at a high quality level if there’s too many people on your team (I’d suggest 10 max).

So much of your growth as a manager is dependent upon your ability to effectively communicate between the different layers at work.

This concept goes both ways.

It’s also up to you (as a manager) to convey feedback from the frontline to the executives.

You have to decipher what’s worth sharing and what should be kept confidential.

Once again the art of leadership is on display because decisions are made on a case-by-case scenario, not a one-size-fits-all formula.

Some may view this as politics and you’re not wrong for thinking that way.

But really the takeaway comes back to being a strong communicator on all fronts.

At one of my first contract gigs several years ago I played a translator between different generations in the workplace (Boomer supervisors and Millennial workers at the time).

I interpreted my role as taking what the supervisors wanted and motivating the workers to actually get the job done.

It took trust and relationship building, convincing workers it would benefit them and time developing new skills.

From my own experience as a former manager, playing the messenger is a key attribute.

Because if you want to advance to the executive level, you have to prove you can master middle management.

This is more proof soft skills are here to stay.

Fact: EQ is 2x’s as important to distinguish top performers from average ones & 4x’s in senior roles.

Playing the messenger role as a manager takes a bit of finesse.

So if you agree communication is key to success as a manager, but aren’t quite sure how to implement it comment or message me.

God Bless,

Scott