The book, Power To The Middle, shows how managers are the crucial link between a company’s ground floor and top brass. “Too often company leaders view middle managers in a negative light as expendable employees who can slow down productivity and overall strategy,” explain the book’s authors and McKinsey partners Bill Schaninger, Bryan Hancock, and Emily Field.
“However, new KcKinsey research reveals that this outdated perspective needs to change and that well-developed managers are the strategy that companies must prioritize to succeed today,” they add.
Most importantly, by the end of their book, the authors sum up their insights and provide a playbook that will help senior leaders let go of the command-and-control mindset that has hobbled their managers for so long.
The authors define middle managers as the people who are at least once removed from the front line and at least a layer below the senior leadership. From this pivotal position, a middle manager’s job is to bring out the best in their people, and in that way bring out the best in their organizations.
“With the right training and practice, middle managers are in the best position to evaluate employee performance and provide feedback that’s continuous rather than just a pro forma yearly review meant to create a paper trail,” share the authors.
Further, middle managers manage both up and down, and serve as critical translators in both directions.
“Only managers can offer the day-to-day sense of purpose, belonging, and identify that many workers crave,” claim the authors. “And, only those managers can craft the types of tailored—as opposed to one-size-fits-all—working arrangements that will aid in both recruitment and retention.”
To get the most from middle managers, the authors advise positioning and preparing them to:
- Be the face of an organization’s war for talent with vital people skills to both attract and retain top performers.
- Build their organization’s knowledge and realign it with shifts from digital disruption.
- Pivot from enforcing antiquated, inefficient organizational rules to challenging them.
- Advance in title and compensation but not be promoted outside of any manager role, where they’ll make the most impact.
- Focus on people rather than procedures.
- Clarify each team member’s goals with a deep understanding of how their unique skills and strengths can contribute to the company’s long-term goals.
- Provide frequent and nonjudgmental feedback to help each team member achieve their best performance.
Bryan Hancock
Bill Schaninger
The authors share these additional insights with us:
Question: Why are middle managers uniquely positioned to impact an organization’s daily performance and overall strategic success?
The Authors: Middle managers are the vital link between senior leaders and those on the frontline. They are in an ideal place to see how an organization’s purpose, strategy, and culture are trickling down into the organization and whether they’re actually working. They can inform all three in return.
Managers are also the most important guides needed to help teams and organizations navigate the seismic challenges in today’s world of work, including automation, hybrid work, and skill shortages. They are also best positioned to forge the day-to-day human connections that so many workers crave, and critical to improving DE&I, retaining and developing talent, and more.
Question: For companies to succeed in this new world of work, what responsibilities and authority should managers be given?
The Authors: Middle managers can only perform their roles well if they are set up to succeed—which means giving them the space and training they need to excel as people managers. Too often, they find themselves drowning in administrative work or extra tasks requested by more senior leaders. Indeed, a recent McKinsey survey found that middle managers are, on average, spending almost three-quarters of their time on tasks other than managing their teams.
If senior leaders can free managers to focus primarily on their people, however, the organization will reap the benefits. Successful middle managers create strong human connections within their organizations and ensure all team members have the resources they need. As the filter between senior leadership and the front line, the modern middle manager should be a coach, connector, talent manager, and strategist.
Question: You say it’s crucial that managers be rewarded for their work but not promoted out of their positions. How can companies achieve this?
The Authors: Promotion is a lever companies can pull to reward middle managers, but it’s not the only one. Because of their ability to foster talent and connect people across teams, many of the best middle managers are most fulfilled and valuable at the center of the action.
Senior leaders should do everything they can to reward and retain great middle managers in their current roles, including providing additional flexibility, better salaries and bonuses, ambitious and purposeful assignments, continuous learning and development opportunities and training, recognition and gratitude, etc.
By contrast, not everyone is well-suited to be a middle manager. Companies should offer expert tracks for those employees who want to go deep into content and subject matter expertise as opposed to leading people. Both paths should be recognized as critical to the organization as they perform necessary, but different, functions.
Question: What are the four modern roles for senior leaders in today’s workplace and how do they help managers succeed?
The Authors: The success of business leadership has typically been viewed through the lens of shareholders, but now, the list of stakeholders has expanded to encompass employees, customers, suppliers, partners, and more. This evolution has led to the creation of what we consider the four modern leadership roles: Visionary, Architect, Coach, and Catalyst.
These four roles complement each other and create a new organizational dynamic where leaders’ power is shared with managers, who in turn share it with their reports. With the traditional “command-and-control” style of leadership replaced by a mindset focused on talent management, senior leaders’ personal success is often driven by the success of those below them.
Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.
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