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Are middle managers just puppets on a string?
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Middle managers:
“Do you feel like a puppet on a string trying to balance the day to day challenges of your department with achieving the long term strategic objectives of your organisation?”
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CEO’s/Senior managers:
“Do your middle managers do what you ask them, but you feel they could more actively own, and contribute to, the achievement of your strategic objectives?
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Middle management: A sure-fire recipe for frustration?
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Is this the lot of middle management? Senior managers feeling frustrated their middle managers don’t contribute more to achieving their organisation’s strategic objectives and middle managers feeling torn between meeting their customer’s expectations and achieving their leader’s long term objectives?
Is this the natural state of middle management?
The role of middle management
Middle managers must manage the day to day operations of their department in a way that meets their customer’s expectations and the strategic objectives of their organisation.
That sounds simple enough, so why is it so hard?
The unique challenges of middle management
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Are middle managers really just puppets on a string or can they contribute so much more to your organisation?
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There are two things that make middle management challenging:
1. Working within considerable pre-defined parameters, yet being expected to apply your own talents to achieve results
There is an expectation that middle managers have significant autonomy to go along with their responsibilities. This is true, however depending on the nature of their organisation, they are also working within a number of rules, guidelines and constraints. For example, policies, procedures, budgets, systems, politics, agendas; the middle manager has to navigate a very complex internal environment. This is certainly not impossible, but it adds another layer of complexity to what a middle manager has to understand and manage.
2. Being responsible for managing a part of the organization whose individual performance is influenced by the whole organisation.
Organisations are like living things. All parts are interrelated. For example, it is not easy to chop off an arm and carry on like normal. If something is going on in one part of the body, it usually affects the rest of the body. Middle managers are not working in isolation. An Operations department is significantly affected by the Sales, Finance, Human Resource and IT. This is a key element to effective middle management – the ability to be able to manage your part in a way that brings success to the whole organisation. This requires a sophisticated level of understanding and management.
And to make matters worse…
And to make things harder, most management literature is written for senior managers. Managers who are responsible for the whole organisation. Managers who get to set the majority of rules and objectives.
So where does the middle manager find practical guidance on how to deal with their issues of predefined parameters and interrelatedness?
The solution
For the last 12 years the EMA have been running the Strategic Management for Middle Managers Certificate Course which addresses these unique challenges of middle management.
This comprehensive course provides a clear, flexible framework for middle managers to successfully manage their day to day responsibilities and achieve their organisation’s long term objectives.
It’s about alignment.
Successful middle management is about alignment.
• Alignment of personal talent with predefined parameters
• Alignment of the day to day with the long term.
• Alignment of the individual department with the whole organisation.
Business Unit Management participants learn a practical middle management framework plus a range of relevant management skills to apply the framework effectively in their own organisation.
To find out more about our Strategic Management for Middle Managers course click here
To find out more about our Corporate Strategic Management Programme click here
Management and Leadership Tools
River Empowerment Ltd provide the following Management and Leadership tools, training and consulting services:
Consulting
Consulting Programmes
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Consulting Services
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Training
Training Programmes
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1 Day Workshops
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Speaking & Presenting
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Tools
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