The potential of the middle manager

‘Middle level managers tend to have a wealth of experience in handling day to day management and are ready for far greater challenges.’ This was stated by Paul Gauci, Executive Training at Bank of Valletta during ‘Think: Leadership’, an event organised by the Malta Institute of Management as part of an Erasmus+ project entitled Leadership for Mid-level Managers (LMM)- No2018KA204-049325.

The LMM project is a consortium of Romanian, Polish, Italian and Maltese entities whereby its key objective is to develop a best practice approach on the profession of Mid-level Management.

‘Making up the largest managerial layer in an organisation, the middle manager is crucial in the smooth operations of the company,’ continued Mr Gauci during his presentation to the multi-national audience. ‘They are the contact points between top management and the heart of the company and are committed to the goals of the organisation and understand how to effectively lead their teams to reach and also exceed these goals.’

In his delivery, Paul Gauci covered key aspects of managing change commencing with the challenges of working in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. He focused on attitudes to change and presented approaches on how to enable people overcome resistance to change.

Demonstrating the personal process of change mastery through participative exercises, he highlighted how this is critical to enhance organisational change. Finally he emphasised the role of middle managers to act as change catalysts - enabling and leading change through role modelling.

Bank of Valletta’s Training Centre provides bespoke and specialised training programmes to the bank’s staff and regularly shares its expertise with other organisations that are seeking continuous development by providing the necessary training to enhance performance within an ethics-driven culture.