Perry Maddox shares his experience of supporting middle management and organisations to overcome some of the struggles of emerging leaders caught in the middle.
“Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios, tan cerca a los Estados Unidos”
“Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States” goes the saying.
A powerful neighbour can be dangerous, especially when that neighbour isn’t aware or doesn’t care how its power impacts others. A troubled history along the Rio Grande and the suffering of far too many people today tragically attest to this truth.
I began my career in international development working in Central America. That’s where I heard this quote. Unsurprisingly, I hadn’t heard it growing up in the United States.
It’s something I wish more leaders would hear earlier in their careers.
What’s Going on with Middle Management?
Geek confession. I love to dig through the raw data in our annual staff surveys.
It’s a wealth of insight about the pulse of our people globally, and I enjoy playing with the numbers to learn all that I can. I read each qualitative comment from hundreds of respondents, and it’s consistently the most valuable day I spend every year.
A few years back, I observed a worrying trend.
Our middle managers were notably unhappy, consistently across countries, genders, functions, you name it. They were less satisfied, more stressed and having a tougher time.
In our structure middle management is vital. We depend on these roles to lead the young leaders and delivery teams who make our work and impact happen.
Yet, they were struggling. It hit me one day while speaking with a few middle managers in Sierra Leone.
Pobre México… poor middle managers.
Just Outside the Leadership Room
Our middle managers sit one level below country leadership teams.
Close to leadership but not in the room.
Working one tier, one person or one degree of separation from leadership is exceptionally challenging. In such spaces, emerging leaders often feel caught in the middle.
It’s tough because what the groups do is so different. Leadership teams focus on the success of the entire organisation and mission, while those they manage tend to lead one programme, team or vertical. Both types of leadership are equally valuable, but they are very different by nature.
Emerging leaders in the middle feel it the most. They’re trying to grind out great performance while adapting to new direction and decisions from leadership. They’re caught between the big picture and the practical, the holistic and the detail. They are expected to deliver regardless of the big picture changes. Sometimes they’re not consulted on those changes. Worse, they’re not always well informed by leaders of what’s changing or why.
Still, they must deliver. No wonder they feel the pressure.
Pressure and damage builds because leaders forget, like the USA, about those in their blindspot.
Shine the Light on Your Blind Spot.
We all have blind spots.
Our leadership teams didn’t understand how their ways of working impacted those below them. An important group of people suffered as a result. So did our quality, our impact and our talent pipeline.
Blind spots can ruin you as leader. They can harm others.
So ask yourself who might be your middle managers, your Mexico. Who leads the team that executes the decisions you make? If they’re not involved in decision making, watch out. Whose voices never come up in the conversation? Listen up. Which groups of people aren’t represented in leadership? Big red flag. What’s the data telling you? Dig into uncomfortable facts. What’s your gut telling you? Pay attention to who’s avoiding eye contact in the office and who seems unhappy.
With blind spots located, now you can fix the problems you’ve been overlooking. Here’s what works:
- Embed participation into big processes from strategy development to budget creation to annual planning so that ‘leaders’ don’t do this work alone in isolation.
- Bring diverse voices into decision making. Increase representation from middle management and from underrepresented groups in leadership rooms.
- Create space to monitor and reflect on how your leadership impacts others. Spend a day with the staff survey. Have a coffee with team members you don’t hear from to understand their experience.
- Communicate more, transparently. Make the time to talk your people through big decisions and direction, listening well to concerns, ideas and reactions.
- Adapt plans based on what people tell us. Our middle managers are experts in making our work happen. Only a fool would ignore their insight.
It starts when we identify blind spots and face into how our leadership, decision-making and power affects those around us.
And those middle managers, you ask? Can we really help them to thrive in the middle?
In last year’s survey they registered 90-97% satisfaction, slightly higher than the staff above them.
Sí, se puede.
“Yes we can.”
