Manager's Corner - The Middle Management Mess

The March 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review had a great article by Robert Morison, Tamara Erickson, and Ken Dychtwald entitled "Managing Middlescence." Their article addressed the mid-career employees, aged 35 to 54, who "should be at their peak of productivity," but instead "are the most disaffected segment of the workforce." With one in four of these employees holding managerial or supervisory positions, this is a problem we as employers need to be aware of and act on.

So why are these employees dissatisfied with their careers, burnt-out, and generally feeling as if they're in dead-end jobs? According to the authors' and other research, these individuals are often responsible for raising their children, (from first and second marriages),caring for aging parents, helping their twenty and thirty-something children meet expenses, and looking at their own limited retirement nest-eggs. Because they're not "star" performers, they are often overlooked by senior management and grouped together as a single category of "middle management" so their individual skills, dreams, and desires are lost. In addition, according to the study, this group has the lowest satisfaction rates with their immediate managers and the least confidence in top executives. I believe that last finding is stunning, insightful, and as an employer, a cause for reflection and action.

So what can we do to fix the middle management mess we allowed to form in our organizations?

1. First, re-evaluate how and where we focus our energies. If yours is like most organizations, we focus most of our energies on the top 10% of employees and the bottom 10%. We woo the top and try to "fix" the bottom. We need to look at this logically. The top 10% don't need that much time from us as they're already self-starters, driven, and frankly they'll resent too much "guidance." We simply need to point them in the right direction, provide them with the resources they need, be available, and let them perform. The bottom 10% are probably not a right fit for us and we're not a right fit for them. So if we've made an honest effort in helping them gain the skills they need to succeed with our organization and it's not worked, face the fact that it probably never will and let them go. The middle 80% have been left alone as they're doing what we expect. However, "left alone" has turned into "ignored."

2. Second, we need to start communicating clearly -- throughout our entire organization -- what our organization's vision of success is and how each individual employee and his or her position feeds into that vision. Ensure each employee understands where and how he or she fits in to the Plan and keep repeating that message until everyone knows it and "gets it."

3. Third, start focusing on creating a pool of qualified candidates for every position in your company. Why only focus on a few "star" employees and base your organization's future on them? Why not focus instead on developing your pool of middle managers to become a more skilled, more engaged, and more productive group overall? Why not create opportunities for more than just a few and see who else rises to the challenge? Meet with your middle managers and supervisors to hear from them what challenges they see to this proposal and what ideas they have to make it happen.

4. Fourth, implement this middle management development process by mentoring and cross-training every middle manager so they understand not only the job they were hired to do, but they understand the job of the person tangent to them, below them, in different departments, and above them. This cross-training not only provides exposure and stimulation, it expands their skills, knowledge and quite obviously expands their understanding of your organization overall. This broadened knowledge allows them to make better decisions because they will have a better understanding of the ramifications of their actions and your executive team's as well.

As John Maxwell says in his book, 360 Degree Leadership, "99% of leadership comes not from the top, but from the middle." I agree. Given that, why not ensure we're supporting the middle as much as the top? Fix your middle management mess by fixing the way you support them.

Copyright 2008,2006 - Liz Weber, CMC - Weber Business Services, LLC.
WBS is a team of Strategic Planning and Leadership Development Consultants, Trainers, and Speakers. Liz can be reached at liz@wbsllc.com or (717)597-8890.
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