Liberating the Mighty Middle

Liberating the Mighty Middle with Achieve Breakthrough

“Here’s the new strategy, make it operational in record time!” “We’re cutting your budget but expect to see revenue growth by year end!” “You need to take more risks but we can’t afford mistakes!” ” You must empower your teams to become high performing!” “Be more innovative and think outside the box!” Sound familiar? For middle managers around the globe this barrage of demands is a seemingly permanent reality. The general expectation is that they will deliver more with less whilst maintaining confidence from above and commitment from below in a climate of increasing career aspiration.
The question is how much power do mid-level managers really have and what difference does it make?

The positioning of the middle management is something of a double edged sword. With 360° visibility of the organisation, they are ideally placed to act as a hypothetical thermometer, instinctively gauging staff morale and business health. They arguably know better than anyone whether strategic targets are going to be met just through their conversations with colleagues’ throughout the organisation. This unique perspective informs what changes and initiatives are really required to drive commercial excellence and secure future prosperity. However, middle managers rarely take the bold action necessary as guided by these valuable insights. Their own perceived lack of power prevents them from taking control and instead they assume a role of chief fire-fighter, responsible for delivery but lacking in influence.

It is one view that the middle management act as a ceiling to an organisations potential. How possible or achievable they believe something is, directly correlates to the actions they take, and in turn determines how successful they are. This relationship between belief and action exists in all areas of the business; however it is the involvement in day to day activity as well as high level strategy that makes it particularly relevant to middle managers when they believe they have no or little control. In short, if they have already decided they have no power, they are unlikely to act in a powerful way.

To break out of this deadlock and deliver really extraordinary and unpredictable results, a very real and substantial shift needs to occur in the mind-set of the middle management. This is predominantly in the hands of themselves but also lies in the hands of their senior leaders, who can enable their freedom and capacity to change. This shift is made up of a series of steps which start to unleash a new sense of ownership and possibility. The first is a realisation that they are in a vicious cycle of behaviour and have already decided that “it’ll never work because we tried it before and failed.” In essence, they are stuck in their past experiences which are shaping their future actions rather than focusing and acting upon what they really want to make happen. The second is to conceive that there is another way and that only they can take their own permission to act. The third is to make a bold commitment to deliver the new strategy or future regardless of the present circumstances and to position that outcome as the driver for all their actions. Once these realisations and shifts have occurred, the next step is to develop skills for engaging others so that their commitments become a new, shared reality.

If the middle management can successfully create this new reality, directed by their commitment to a defined goal, the actions required will become streamlined and obvious. In turn, the organisation will experience a shift in the speed and clarity with which decisions are made and how easily those decisions are converted into tangible results.

Leaders can kick-start this process of transformation by first learning and understanding the way that their middle managers perceive themselves and what they believe to be possible. By uncovering their limiting beliefs, leaders can begin to effectively challenge the foundations of their mind-set. Leaders have often mistaken a shift in mind-set for ‘blue sky thinking’, believing that a positive attitude alone will lead to success. To the contrary, leaders must be aware that self-limiting beliefs are usually based on rationale and past experience, not negativity. One’s interaction with their past and their interpretation of events shape their mind-set, becoming aware of the difference between interpretation and fact is therefore critical to changing it. Leaders can enable middle managers to create a new future for their organisation just by understanding the way they see themselves and the organisation and by loosening the powerful grip of their past experiences.

A truly enabled and powerful middle management that sees no limit to what is possible and acts according to commitments rather than circumstances makes for an extraordinary organisation. It can make its own rules and set goals that defy the market conditions because it is not held back by past failings or outdated methods for success.

In reality, middle managers have as much power as they perceive themselves to have, their ability to harness their power and take permission to act will define how much impact they can really make. If you really want to fulfil your organisations true potential, unleash your middle managers and enable them to stand in a future where almost anything is possible.

If you'd like to find out more about how to empower your middle management through change to deliver transformational results feel free to contact us and explore the possibilities further for your organisation: Contact: isabel.elvery@achievebreakthrough.com or 01225 852863.