While the world’s workplace has been going through extraordinary and often radical change, the practice of management and day to day business has been stuck in time warp.
New workers – especially younger generations – want their work to have meaning, flexibility, fun oh and they don’t want to be told what to do by command-and-control bosses. They want a manager to guide and coach them, to invite them to share their talents, to speak in their language and to inspire them to be more.
Gallup recently released a book outlining findings of its largest study on the future of work. In the book It’s the Manager they discuss the importance of these middle managers in managing remote workforces, hiring a diverse workforce, grappling with technological change and keeping employees engaged all while delivering year on year growth and return on investment to the executive and shareholders. No mean feat.
Decades of global Gallup research continues to show that these middle managers are the ones who make or break an organization’s success, my experience shows the same. When you support, nurture, train and empower masterful managers - ones who can identify the strengths and uniqueness of every team member and obtain their trust and buy-in - you begin to reap growth, retention and embed a positive, vibrant freedom based culture.
Gallup has found that the quality of middle managers is the single biggest factor in a company's long term sustainable success and I couldn't agree more. When a manager is equipped to meet the challenges of the modern business world, learn to coach and empower their people effectively and bring an unshakable mindset and energy to the table, individuals, the team and the company become high performing.
Ethan Mollick at Wharton, for example, recently conducted a large-scale analysis of the computer game industry and determined that the behavior of middle managers accounted for 22.3% of the variance in revenue. The Boston Consulting Group reached a similar conclusion, calling middle managers a “neglected but critical group” after surveying thousands of employees about the drivers of success at their firms.
The challenge is that few middle managers are given the respect, guidance and support for this critical linchpin role they provide. The middle manager is in a precarious position - the proverbial meat in the sandwich - they are no longer the expert who holds the information, nor are they the decision maker. While C-suite executives create big-picture plans, these middle managers are responsible for putting those plans into action and maintaining employee buy-in to the strategies regardless of the pressure to do more with less. Worse the work they often end up doing is unsatisfying (ie: chasing deadlines), unglamorous (performance management and rosters) and the recipients largely ungrateful (similar to parenting). These managers are constantly squeezed from pressure above them and below them in the organization.
It's time for this to shift. These managers are the primary connection between the employing organisation and the frontline individual. They are the messengers of the wider company strategy, the contextualizer for each employee in their team, the motivator and the culture carrier. Their role more than ever has become the critical linchpin to ensuring ongoing success.
Here are four ways to try to ease the burden and stop squeezing and start pleasing your important middle managers:
With the increase in workplace safety statistics for stress and anxiety it is critical to understand the unique psychological pressures that are faced by middle managers. Hold regular check-ins with them to see how they are travelling, given them respect, encouragement and time out when they need it and to continue to implement strategies for easing the burdens that come along with their in the middle positions. You'll be glad you did.
Alexandria Joy aka ‘AJ’ has spent over two decades helping leaders and managers heal their culture to find their sweet spot where they can do less and achieve more. As CEO of UQ Power, a biophiliac and a culture scientist, she believes the old approaches to culture change and organisational behaviour no longer work and instead there is a simple science to unlocking the power of your people.
AJ argues that organisations are possibly the world’s most under utilised resource for solving many human, economic and environmental challenges. And now she’s on a mission to accelerate the evolution of a more conscious world through the vehicle of culture.
In 2018 downsized her name, her life and her business and now lives and travels throughout Australia in tiny house on wheels. She discovered when you focus your mindset, heal from the busyness disease, remove chaos and clutter you begin to feel lighter, freer, more alive and more able to UP Yourself and your Culture.
You can follow, find or friend AJ here www.alexandriajoy.com.au