MIDDLE MANAGERS DETERMINE YOUR SUCCESS

The need for someone to ‘do the job’ can be your greatest enemy. In many organizations that have grown beyond owning a single outlet, one of the biggest challenges operators face is finding good managers. Hospitality Master Trainer Mark Dickinson, focuse

Middle managers are the most likely subject of quick hires and are often on-boarded or promoted without in-depth research. One thing is certain; no matter how these middle managers get to their positions, they remain pivotal to your success in building an excellent organization. They may be the deciding factor between your success and failure, and yet senior management continue to give minimal attention to hiring personnel for these positions.

Who do we mean when we talk about middle managers?

• Team leaders, shift leaders, supervisors and assistant managers

Why are middle managers so important?

• Because they actually lead the employees

in your team • Because their influence can lead to

powerful results or mediocrity

How did many of them become a middle manager?

• The majority of middle managers were promoted from within the ranks

How much focus is on middle managers in organizational thinking?

• Generally not very much. Top management have a lot to do and these folks are expeditors of policy, therefore organizations rarely engage such employees at an important decisionmaking level

What are the challenges that middle managers face?

• They have a junior position and are seldom invited to meet with senior management, therefore their opinions languish or fester • ‘No one listens to me’ is their frequent

complaint • They are expected to work longer hours as

a sign of their commitment and loyalty

Who hires them?

• Anyone can hire a middle manager. They don’t need much in the way of approval because a middle manager’s salary is relatively affordable. They are a cog in the system

Buried treasure

These people are your treasure. They can be harnessed to deliver outstanding results for your organization, but there is one essential ingredient required to make this happen: Education. You need to have an unparalleled passion for ensuring that these individuals get the best information and growth opportunities that you can reasonably provide. They need to be engaged within your organization and given responsibilities that allow them to shine.

Give them significance

When middle managers are empowered through praise, recognition and affirmation, they begin to deliver at much higher levels. This is great and gets a lot of people really excited; namely the middle managers and the people that work under their supervision. However, we also discovered that this spurt in growth frequently created instant resistance from a surprising quarter: their managers. Yes, that’s right. The managers of the middle managers become highly insecure once the middle managers start to grow. You may ask yourself, ‘Why?’, as we did, and then dig a little deeper. What we discovered is that as soon as the middle managers start to grow, those ruling them felt pressure from a newly empowered junior employee, who now aspires to experience managing an operation on his or her own. The effect was most noticeable on managers who had held their position for over two years.

How was the resistance characterized?

There was an increase in squeaky wheels. A squeaky wheel is that insidious act of undermining others without actually appearing to say anything bad, such as

dropping hints about poor performance and naming non-producers. We actually discovered managers criticizing juniors for attending training and not working. This effectively put the brakes on the rising star, with the objective of proving to those that will listen why the manager is more important than the middle manager.

We also undertook some tests (management exercises), including one where we asked organizations to get their management team to draft the best possible company structure they could think of, without imposing any limits, for their businesses. Through this exercise we found that the teams always eliminated many management positions that would result in making their company simpler to run. Wherever the teams were empowered to implement the plan they had created, it led to an in-to-out change that was self-inspired and therefore highly effective.

We developed the study a bit further and suggested that some senior managers go on vacation for extended periods, ostensibly to clear vacations, but in reality to see what would happen to their division/department’s performance in their absence. The results were again quite surprising. Rather like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne, all the good stuff in the bottle was now accessible, and the middle managers began to shine. With no manager impeding their progress, change was rapid.

Now there were some organizations where we discovered highly-engaged seniors and great juniors working together in harmony. The result? A supercharged business. Here we studied why they were able to work together and what made them different. Two key things stood out above all else. In the highly successful business, the teams were humble and grateful. Humility gave them the power to listen and to respect one another, even when they did not agree. Gratitude bound them like glue. Everyone had a feeling of thankfulness for their work and the company.