Have a boss?
Have employees?
Welcome to the “Leader in the middle”
-Nathan Jamail, Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author
No ones likes to be called a middle manager, yet over 99% of all leaders are leading from the middle. I wrote an entire book on this topic, and it is one of the best I have read if I don’t say so myself. So let’s take a broad look at how to do it right.
The key to being a great LIM (Leader in the middle) is about understanding the difference between Engagement and Awareness and knowing that what (and how) we communicate up and down our org charts determines our success.
These key factors are important no matter if you are a leader of leaders or leaders of individual contributors; engagement, awareness and communication effects your leadership success. And many fail at it. This is because most leaders get these the key factors backwards and ultimately struggle as leaders. The scariest part is more often than not they are unaware that their struggles are self-inflicted.
In short, as Leaders in the middle, how we believe, how we communicate and how we engage will determine our success and the overall team’s success.
Engagement vs Awareness:
Engagement requires one’s effort while awareness requires clear expectations and consistent communication from both directions.
- The boss must be engaged through clear expectations and inspection of expectations
- The boss’s boss must be aware through clear and consistent communications
When it comes to engagement vs awareness there are a couple misleading situations or behaviors/beliefs that can get us into sticky situations.
Lack of delegation trap: When Leaders of other leaders are engaged more than aware, they tend to “not” delegate; they become the fixer and ultimately find themselves doing everybody else’s job instead of their own.
Lack of understanding trap: When an employee or manager does not understand the need for their boss to be aware, they may view reports or daily/weekly updates to their boss as being micro-managed, or feel like they do not have the power to make decisions or lead their team.
How to avoid the traps:
The key is based on clear communication. We must be a part of the team and most importantly we must be seen as a part of
the team. The managers are in charge of running the daily activities and making decisions. The managers should also see the need in keeping their leader informed and not fear the leader’s involvement, or fear being seen as failing. There is a balance between our employee’s striving to be their best, while also seeing our leadership role as their mentor/coach.
The employee/Manager reporting up:
Reporting up: Our job as an employee or a leader below another leader is to keep our boss informed and aware. The more we keep our boss informed, the more they can coach us, help us or spend less time working on our own job expectations.
This does not mean overwhelm them with every detail of our day, or produce a report to “CYA”. It means keeping them in the loop. Most importantly it means proactively sending information and proactive communication versus waiting till they ask for information.
The uncomfortable relationship of boss & employee:
As a leader, when we have to always call or ask for information from our teams, it feels like we are only getting part of the story, and there is usually a sense of tension on these calls.
Most of you know this feeling from either the boss’s perspective or the employee’s perspective. From both perspectives the feeling sucks.
This is a self-inflicted pain. As the leader we must explain the value and the need of staying aware, so you don’t have to be engaged. Remember the delegation trap from above? When a boss is informed, there is no reason for them to be as engaged- they feel comfortable delegating or allowing a team to do what is needed because they are fully informed, and are able to coach/mentor vs doing the actual job.
If you are the follower, stop being reactive and be pro-active, but do it with the right intent- to inform; learn, get direction and ask for help. Don’t do it because you have to; remember how we think determines how we behave, so do it because it is a key component of success.
Final Thought:
As a leader of leaders I used to tell my managers that I was like a head coach on a football team. I want a headset, but I don’t need a microphone. I want to be aware of what is going on with your team, but you don’t need my permission to lead and coach your team. We lead together with the common goal to perform better every day. This means when I see a problem, I will call you, not to get on to you, but to be another set of eyes. None of us want our boss’s to see all of our mistakes or our team’s mistakes, yet this is exactly how we grow and gain the success we are looking for. And through this process, we improve so that we make new mistakes or experience new problems, so that we are not making the same ones over and over again (mistakes and problems are what creates success and growth by the way).
As leaders we must balance our engagement and awareness and it is ongoing, changing with circumstances. And through it all, building the greatest organization means having true communication alignment from top to bottom.
