Strengthen Your Core

Do mid-level managers receive the support they need to help them optimise their potential and also develop leadership behaviours?

- Muniinder K Anand

Mid-level managers are typically defined as ‘manager of managers’ and are seen to be holding the titles of vice president, director, and regional managers. They could be leading functions, geographies, or a division. These middle managers are what comprise the backbone of the organisation. The work ethic and future readiness of these people is what differentiates the successful organisations from the unsuccessful ones.

Yet, organisations choose to focus most of their succession planning and development efforts on senior leadership and/or new supervisors, with the middle layer largely being ignored. However, trends indicate that, over the next ten years, organisations will grapple with increasing retirement rates thereby creating a crisis in succession due to the ensuing vacuum in the ranks of middle management.

The importance of middle managers cannot be stressed enough—they are the ones responsible for delivering organisational results. They not only drive senior management’s strategic initiatives but also manage people, budgets, and operational processes. Due to their varied roles, they face unique challenges and responsibilities such as:

Workforce—skills and training may not be aligned with the strategic goals and objectives

Process—expecting different outcomes while sticking to same processes and existing technology

Strategic goals that sometimes seem to contradict one another—for example, ‘cut overhead costs’ and ‘reduce turnover of high performers’

In recent times, most organisations have witnessed a flattening of structure to optimise operations, which has resulted in middle managers seeing their job profile change in terms of:

Jobs being enlarged

Wider responsibilities areas

Increased intensity and the pace of work

Longer and unrelenting working hours

Greater emphasis on performance parameters