Unlock potential in your Middle Leaders

Do you have a past manager who you would love to work with again?? Someone who had the uncanny ability to engage and motivate you, who made you feel like an integral and crucial part of the team and inspired you to do your best work???

Now imagine the impact if most of the managers in your business created this same effect on their teams. What difference would that make to your business? What would become possible that today seems out of reach??

The impact of great managers is profound. ?

We all know what a crucial role our manager plays in our daily effort, our long-term loyalty and the culture we create.??Managers are the driving force behind teams and they create organisational culture, employee motivation, and overall results. They account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement (Gallup), so every interaction and decision they make shapes the culture experienced by everyone who works for them and with them.???

And yet..??

...middle managers, in large businesses, are often maligned and characterised as the ‘frozen layer’; the unambitious, value free group who stymie change.? Sadly there is some truth in this characterisation. Middle managers can be force for progress or they can be a barrier?when they aren’t aligned with the vision set by the ‘C suite’. But surely, this only reinforces the importance of engaging middle managers, and when middle managers are “engaged in the right way, (they) can deliver outstanding results” (Harvard Business Review).?

Middle managers are often in the shadows, and yet they are the ones driving real performance and directly creating the impact of your business on your customers.? This is why two thirds of respondents from 100’s of countries said that middle managers are more vital to success than the C suite?(Boston Consulting Group).? And middle managers account for more than 20% of variation in revenue, more than 3 times the impact of those in 'innovation' roles?(Wharton Research).??

Middle leaders make the difference between a business that is stuck, unable to make lasting change and a dynamic, optimistic engaged workforce ready for positive challenge.??

In a big company, middle managers are the neural network and the beating heart.? If they’re in a bad shape, so is the business.?

And many middle managers are in bad shape!??

According to Gallup, only 35% of managers are engaged, which makes it hard for them to foster engagement in their teams. This sets everyone up for failure. And middle managers know they’re in a bad place.?Research by Microsoft?found 74% of managers feel they don’t have the influence or resources to make change happen, and 54% say senior leaders are out of touch with employees.?

This frustration is leading to increased burnout.? Recent research by Future Forum reveals a record-breaking 43% of managers report that they are burned out – that’s a higher percentage than any other job level.?

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We can’t do our best work when we feel undervalued, under supported and on the brink of burnout.?

So, how can we help middle managers???

Finding the right resources and tools to inspire, challenge and support middle managers has been notoriously difficult because this group can be so diverse.? From high performing Graduates with 2 years' experience to subject matter experts approaching retirement, those leading from the middle come from different backgrounds and have vastly different levels of maturity and expertise.? A ‘one size fits all’ solution for supporting this critical group is a waste of time and money, and yet, as if no critical thinking has been applied ‘Management Training’ is the go to remedy - and deserves its poor reputation.??

Middle Leaders need, and deserve, more than 'Management Training’

Middle managers are perfectly positioned to be the positive transmitters for change but this opportunity is not realised in most big businesses and this is wasted potential.?

Ask yourself, do you want to foster and develop that potential instead of wasting it? Do you want to help?your middle leaders to move from change resistors to the positive change agents???You can do that.

We’ve worked with more than 500 leaders in the middle of big businesses, spending more than 2,500 hours with them 1 to 1 in the past two years.? We know what it takes to inspire a middle leader to move from resistor to being a transmitter for positive change.???

Here’s where we suggest you start.??

1. Drop the Judgement and Impatience?

Understand the good intention?behind most middle leaders. People mean well and have good intent to do the right thing.? Where they are defensive they are often juggling many balls at the same time, and they naturally resist adding more ‘priorities’ for fear of over burdening their team.?

Where middle leaders display defensive behaviours they are often the by-product of a lack of confidence. And our overwhelming evidence shows that lack of confidence is the most common theme holding middle leaders back – by a mile. Defensiveness can also be the hangover from periods of crisis management, when we can focus too hard on controlling costs, risk, time and efficiency.? Avoid falling into the trap of demonising and judging middle managers as many of them have been on the receiving end of this behaviour themselves for a long time.?

Learn about the real constraints and blockers for your team. In highly regulated businesses (such as finance and insurance) hierarchies and process obedience are baked in.? Suggesting that first line managers should engage with a fast-paced change programme that doesn’t account for their necessary checks and controls will sound nonsensical in a process driven, compliance focused environment, especially where large numbers of employees are inexperienced.? Senior leaders need to listen and lean into the detail to understand the nuanced realities of change vs risk control.?

Be patient.? If you want people to embrace change, you must first build their trust.? Expect that. Don’t get critical when the change doesn’t happen overnight. Stay the course, expect to be on repeat for twelve months. Be consistent.?

2. Be Intentional?

Create awareness?of why change is necessary, possible and desirable. Talk with your people about change and what it means for them.?

Discuss and agree what good looks like?and follow this through with how you recognise and celebrate success. Recent Gallup and Mautz research revealed a shocking disparity of 50% in understanding of expectations between middle managers and their bosses.? Be clear about the goals that matter and the culture and behaviour you’re building and back this up with how you recognise, celebrate and reward people.?

Ensure your?messaging is crystal clear?and reinforced by?role modelling?and consistent comms. Seek feedback and challenge from everyone around you and be prepared to have many conversations about why change is necessary and ‘what’s in it for me?’.???

3.? Offer tailored support?

Be prepared to meet every middle leader where they are.? This is vitally important. Middle leaders in large companies are a notoriously diverse population, and we all have different beliefs, expectations and potential.??Unlocking the potential of each individual will always require some individual attention - be prepared to invest in them as an individual. Of course that doesn't mean general management training. Management training isn't individual and doesn't work to unlock potential. It's been tried for decades, rebranded and tuned in an 1000 ways and still doesn't work.

As Einstein said "The thinking that got us to where we are is not the thinking that will get us to where we want to be"

A new approach was required, we created it and we've proven it does work. Please talk to us before you rule this out based on assumptions about cost, we have a proven, scalable approach to unlocking the power of middle managers that delivers measurable impact at the individual and team level in a few short months.?

You don’t need to be stuck complaining your managers ‘don’t get it’. You have a huge opportunity to unleash a whole layer of untapped potential in the middle of your organisation, so they become the transmission, rather than the blocker for successful change.?

If you’d like a conversation with us about accelerating successful change in your business, please get in touch.??