I believe that when middle managers master management, the resulting breakthroughs are profound and sustainable.
What if you could overcome the middle management breakdown, the block that keeps executives’ dreams from being the reality executed by the frontline team members?
If you’re the kind of leader who worries that perhaps your managers act more like individual contributors and don’t do nearly enough to maximize the results of their team members, I’m going to give you some solid executable ideas to get some traction for your managers.
If instead, you feel as though your managers are proficient, I’ll show you how you can build on that so they become high achievers, superstars who can drive even more performance.
Or if you feel that you were already doing great at getting your managers to manage and you have a fire in your belly to always take it up several notches to be the best of the best, you’re going to love this. Sounds strange, but it isn’t easy to get managers to manage effectively, there are some predictable challenges.
First, they often don’t have street smart tools to manage people, situations or processes, causing them to feel inept. As a result, they often gravitate back to doing the technical parts of their individual contributors’ roles where they can enjoy feelings of success.
Second, they quickly learned that not everyone wants to take their coaching. When a manager runs into those who don’t benefit from strong self esteem, they deflect or become defensive when coached on the performance, that manager quickly learns not to put their hand on the hot stove ever again. They’re trained to not manage by the very people who most need to be managed.
Third, because they are managers and not leaders, many lack the “why”; distinctions of what you are asking for as an executive. They put people under them into the mode of doing without the why. And as a result, things scurry really fast.
Seems like these things happen in almost all management teams in some way, shape or form.
I’m now going to share three steps to help you have a breakthrough in whatever level of middle management breakdown that you’re experiencing so that you can rapidly get everyone and everything aligned to exceed your strategic plan.
Step one – Unlike so many management theories and training processes based on conventional wisdom, your managers need to have some basic knowledge of psychology and how that applies to changing behavior. They need to learn how to take the complex and make it simple, breaking everything down into the simplest steps so that people can execute quickly and effectively to get results and feel the joy of daily progress.
Step two – One of the most meaningless tools ever developed in the workplace for improving performance is giving people a job description. Instead, managers need to communicate to their team what the real purpose of the job is, if they are performing as a top 5% performer, they must know what the metrics are performance, and what the key roles, tasks and responsibilities are of high performers so that it is clear what good performance looks like.
Step three – Teach managers how to align each person to what we discussed in step two, as well as the new quarterly key initiatives of the strategic plan. Let’s face it, if you can get people doing the behaviors of a top 5% performer, they will certainly increase performance for everyone who has that job.
The skills to coach, celebrate, do one on one’s, and conduct quarterly performance reviews that tie to this strategic plan will transform your performance. So follow these three steps:
One, help create simplicity from the complexity, so people know how to win.
Step two, make it clear exactly what extraordinary performance looks like.
Step three, get everyone aligned with the metrics, key roles and responsibilities and how they fit with a strategic plan.
By solving the middle management breakdown for good, you can reap the benefits of consistently having each team member hit every goal and metric. You know that you can hit all of your goals and metrics and receive all the praise and personal satisfaction that comes with a job well done.