Who Are The MVP's In Your Company?

If you were asked “which role in your company has the greatest impact on the company’s success” what would you say?

The predictable responses are often:

• The CEO; the person who sets the course and steers the ship through calm and troubled waters, or
• The Sales & Growth team; the team responsible for making the deals, to win that next big contract or client. The team with the large entertainment budget and endless coffee shop meetings
• The Staff; the backbone of our operations, our customer happiness and fulfillment crew, who without them none of this would be possible`

All true, but there is a critical missing link here.

There is that often maligned role in medium and large organisations called the Middle Manager (MM).

Just hearing those words will make many of you groan.

The Middle Manager. Really??

For the many of you out there who are MMs, do you often feel underwhelmed with the level of empathy that others may have for your role?

Or overwhelmed with the expectations placed on you?

Well, read on for an alternate perspective of the true value and impact that great middle managers can have on an organisation, as well as strategies to deal with middle managers that may not be making the grade.

With a deeper understanding of the world of a middle manager, organisations can prosper and these key people can reach their full potential.

Your key takeaways from this article will be :

• A renewed perspective on the value of MMs
• What type of development should apply to MMs
• Why promotion of great MMs is not always the best option

Middle Managers (otherwise known as Line Managers), are the bridges between the top level and the shopfloor workings of an organisation. This bridge is essential to ensuring an organisation stays on its chosen path.

When this critical link is weak or broken, the entire organisation under-performs.

The Corporate Superhero?

MMs are the most versatile element in an organisation. They are expected to be all things to all people.

Their superiors want them to be strategic, yet their role demands they are proficient at the operational functions of the business.

They need an eye for detail whilst also developing and instilling “big picture” thinking. They must pursue continuous improvement and innovation, but at the same time deliver tight business outcomes on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.

They are expected to “make things happen”, to be creative and to “drive value and productivity”. Yet they are often restrained by corporate governance processes, politics, delegation of authority limitations, and enlisting the buy-in from senior management ranks in order to progress anything of significance.

Workplace blockers are everywhere, thus a MM must balance their time between managing upwards, managing the functions and outputs of their group, and leading their staff (along with the minefield of issues that come with this).

The one consistency throughout is that they must be excellent “people people”, and this aspect takes far more mental and physical time than you can ever imagine (if it is done properly).

Leverage

Middle management, when done well, has a significant influence on the success of an organisation, and conversely, when it is done poorly, it can have a 10x negative effect on an organisations health and well-being.

I'll explain why.

MMs are the people in your organisation who have the greatest influence on the staff. They typically directly lead large teams, and will therefore specifically impact the morale and personal development of the majority of the workforce.

If either of these are done poorly, the effect is immediate within the larger workforce, and immediately obvious to your customers.

“It takes months to find a customer and only seconds to lose one”

A generally accepted rule for leadership is to aim for a span of control of around 10 staff, that is, each MM has up to 10 staff directly reporting to them.

Thus, when a MM is performing poorly, this will directly influence at least 10 other staff.

“People join organisations but leave managers”

The ones who are good at all of this and are adept at the corporate politics and stakeholder management are the ones that will get opportunities to progress further up the corporate food chain...if they want to.

The ones that are good at this, and who do not want to progress to the next level of management are your corporate unicorns.

Hang on to them, look after them and if you keep them happy and challenged your ROI will be 10x++

In a paddock full of thoroughbred horses, look after the unicorn

Unicorn or Rhino?

Once you have recognized that you have a unicorn or you see the potential for a horn to grow from their forehead, then you must nurture and develop this potential.

MMs are no different to all other employees. They have a desire to be challenged, to influence positive outcomes and to feel valued.

Many fail to recognize how valued they could or should be as corporate history shows that MMs are often an early target to be "downsized" when the going gets tough.

And downsizing often shifts additional responsibility onto those that remain.

Unless there are genuine productivity gains to be realized through process optimization and/or automation, the remaining MM’s become weighed-down and less effective.

The unicorn is fast becoming the rhino…a heavier, slower and less “magical” version of their former self. And just like the rhino, they become an endangered species.

The good ones will be hunted by corporate poachers. There is a real risk of losing them forever.

The remainder of the herd become subject to the law of the jungle…survival of the fittest.

Some will self-select themselves out of the organisation because they cannot adapt to the new environment. Those remaining will battle on to survive another day, then another, and another.

Those remaining are the ones you must look after as they are indeed an endangered species. Invest heavily in protecting them via well conceived development plans and performance management.

Development

People skills are what matters. Everything else is secondary.

Focus on an MMs ability to connect and communicate effectively with people. Here are the top 10 skills to develop in a MM ie: their ability to

• Listen
• Collaborate
• Facilitate
• Empathize
• Read (people)
• Motivate / inspire
• Influence
• Engage
• Speak
• Write

Thus, their ability to run effective meetings, to implement change, to have the tough conversations, to recognize and reward team members, to gain approval to proceed, to build networks etc are all outcomes of having the above skillset.

An MMs development plan should almost exclusively have actions in place to address each of these, until they can do all of these very well.

Don't have a development plan that consists solely of the easy, obvious and mid-tier value stuff such as "advanced excel", "time management secrets" etc.

Instead, re-balance their development plan towards these activities; "critical conversations", "selling without being salesy", "influence and personal presence" etc.

A recommended book to guide you to establishing a truly effective development plan for your staff is For Your Improvement by Korn Ferry.

Performance Management

The Peter Principle, described below, is a well celebrated and unfortunately regularly occurring feature in organisations.

There are countless situations where someone has been very good as a "shop floor" worker, being a standout amongst their peers. Management take note and when the opportunity arises, this person is promoted.

Peter’s Principle :

“In an organisation each person rises to the level of their own incompetence”

— Laurence J Peter

This can happen once, twice or even more, but at some stage the person is promoted to a role that is actually beyond their capability. They know enough to maybe get by, but not enough to be the rockstar.

Their star gradually falls, and with it goes their own self-belief and hard-earned reputation.

Unfortunately, middle management is the breeding ground for this phenomena. It is often the first level of promotion on offer, so the odds of this happening are higher. The best, most promising worker wins the job, but will they be a great leader? Many succeed, some do not.

For the ones that do not, organisations fail to recognise and act on this outcome quickly enough, if at all. The hope that further development will win the day, or is it just inexperience, or the lasting memory of how great a worker they once were, does not always translate into them being great leaders.

Thus, performance management is as critical to the MM as it is to the new employee who is on their initial probation period.

Remembering, that a poor performing MM disenfranchises an entire team of people, so they need to be adept at the role, and quickly.

If the wrong decision was made at the appointment stage, then a strong decision is required next.

Invest or divest?

Whichever the outcome, it needs to be a well thought out and documented decision. Use the above Top 10 skills as a guide.

Will they make it or not?

A special word of caution for the appointment of the bright new prospect from within the organisation into a leadership role for the first time.

Often their appointment comes without a pre-arranged probation period because there is known (positive) performance history with this person.

This is dangerous territory.

Whilst this prospect may have demonstrated their potential, remember that they have not yet established a proven track record in leadership.

What is recommended is a defined point in time (say 3–6 months from now) where both parties make a go/no go decision on the appointment.

Just like a newly married couple, the intention is that it will be a forever thing, but the reality can be another thing.

So commit to a probation period as it focuses both parties on whether the fit is actually the right one or not.

Plan B

If you can see that they won't make it, offer a graceful exit strategy that preserves the persons dignity and reputation as the once great <insert> widget maker. If done skilfully, they may actually embrace the option to step back down and return to their level of extreme competence.

This is where they will surely be of greatest value to the both themselves and the company.

If you choose to (continue to) invest, then regular and active guidance, development and feedback is essential. Only when they are capably performing the 10 attributes listed previously can you sit back and say "good choice, and job well done".

The Bottom Line

An organisations priority should be to find, develop and retain the best middle managers they can possibly get.

Business success must come from all levels of an organisation, but it is the middle manager who yields the most direct influence over the workforce.

Great middle managers give executive management the confidence that the vision has a good chance of being successfully represented and implemented at the shop floor of the organisation.

Conversely, poor middle management can create a slow festering wound in the organisation, impacting the culture, morale and effectiveness of the greater workforce.

To ensure your organisations’ service model is being competently delivered and continuously improved upon, you must find, train and retain the best middle managers you can get your hands on.

This is the best way to ensure that your end customers are receiving the outstanding customer service that the organisations’ glossy booklets and website talk about.

And when all is said and done, it is this impression that is the only one that truly matters.