Middle management has been around for a long time; it attracts different perceptions from different people. It also means other things to different people based on their experience with the middle management concept.
For our context, a middle management leader (MML) will refer to anyone whose role requires working with others below and above them.
This could include a supervisor, team leader, manager, or even some executives.
Middle management leadership positions are usually not considered to have much influence. That's true if all you are looking at is the power to make significant decisions like hiring, business growth, and the expansion or introduction of new products.
From a leadership perspective, if we measure power in terms of who has the ability and potential to make the most significant impact within and outside an organization, it is the middle management leader. The CEO might influence major financial and policy decisions, but the MML facilitates day-to-day operations among team members and interactions between team members and customers.
- The MML bears the burden of passing critical information from the top management to the employees and vice versa.
- The MML gets called to resolve customer issues, and too often, it is the MML who gets blamed when things don't go as expected.
- The MML has the power to make or break an organization, and so they deserve to be recognized and treated with respect.
One of the critical roles of an MML is being the interface between the top leadership and the employees. I had the opportunity of being an MML for over ten years.
MMLs have the power to break or make an organization. This means organizations need to invest time and resources towards selecting the right people for middle management positions and developing those leaders once hired.
One of the expectations of MMLs is to pass messages, information, and requests to the employees and top management.
A well-trained MML can receive information from the team, objectively digest it and pass it to the top management without exaggeration and causing drama.
They can also deliver messages from the top management to the employees with confidence and without minimizing the weight of the news. Miscommunication by MMLs to either the team or the senior management can be detrimental to the organization and the leader's life and career.
Middle Management Myths
By definition, middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for leading small to medium-size teams.
In my daily work with managers and leaders, I consistently lean more towards the non-traditional way of looking at things, and middle management is no exception.
The traditional view many people have of middle management leaders is misguided, considering the kind of work the modern manager does.
As a professional coach and trainer, one of my goals is to educate leaders and their team members on how interwoven their roles are.
Here are the top three myths organizations have about MMLs:
- The MML is there to represent the top management and the employees to the top management.
This expectation has some truth, which looks like a crucial role. The top management feels they have one of their own to be their voice to the employees, and the employees feel they have one of their own representing them at the executive table.
In my experience as a manager for many years, this assumption just puts too much unnecessary pressure on the MML. I've been a part of the discussion where the MML is accused of being too close and lenient to the employees and not pushing them enough to do their job. I've also been a part of discussions in companies where the employees feel like the manager (who used to be one of them) has abandoned them and has joined the enemy camp (the leadership team)
Considering that every organization needs help from the MML to drive results, I believe the critical roles of the MML are: - Fostering Harmony between the employees and the top management as they all move toward a clearly defined goal.
- Facilitating the flow of information from top to bottom and vice versa.
- Professionally collecting and communicating objective feedback from employees to the leadership team, from the leadership team to the employees, and from customers to everyone in the company.
Any expectation outside of the effort to deliver exceptional results is a waste of time and a significant distraction to the MML.
- The MMLs should always prove their worth by working harder than everyone else.
This is a big misconception. Leaders get things done through others, and if they get good at it and deliver results, they shouldn't wait for the traditional five to ten years before getting a promotion. The traditional way of career advancement is about the tenure of service and seniority. The modern world is ready to reward people who deliver results even if they have been in a position for a year. Of course, some responsibilities cannot be handed to a newbie, and that's understandable.
I have observed within companies that many dreams and ambitions get killed by people who look at middle management leaders as entry-level leaders even after consistently delivering better results than someone who has been with the company way longer.
From a performance perspective, a promotion should be an opportunity to influence and deserve more people. So, if someone is ready, why hold them back.
The Unrecognized Impact Made by Middle Management Leaders
There have been and are still great leaders in the world. Steve Jobs for setting the stage for Apple to become the most valuable company in the world, Jack Welch for growing GE from $12 billion to $410 billion and making it one of the most profitable companies in the world, and Nelson Mandela for fighting Apartheid in South Africa and later becoming a highly respected statesman.
These leaders impacted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. Yet, their accomplishments in business or otherwise don't give an accurate picture of their contribution compared to the contribution made by the people within their teams and movements.
The reality is that 99 percent of all leadership occurs not from the top but in the middle of an organization. This is the space where the MMLs play day in and day out.
Pro Tip
If your goal is to grow a company and make more money, gain recognition, and advance in your career, don't focus on getting the promotion and all the perks that come with it. Instead, focus on growing yourself as a professional, consistently delivering results, and influencing others to do the same. Your skills and abilities will always be in high demand, which will lead to more promotions than you can take on.