Let’s hear it for the middle manager. This squeezed central tier of the workforce must balance the requirements of leadership with the needs and demands of employees.
Middle managers often hold management and supervisory roles. Employees answer to them, and they, in turn, report to executives who cascade down annual targets and strategic direction. Their tier pretty much covers all the managerial job positions, including store managers, branch managers and department managers.
Middle managers can have complex roles, but do they appear to get such a bad rap? How can companies change this negative image?
Why do middle managers get it in the neck?
Middle managers are often cast as villains, as this BBC article puts it.
- Middle managers must balance the expectations of the leadership and their employees.
Executive-level goals and employee needs may go in completely opposite directions. For example, the leadership may need a larger output from a burnt-out workforce that sorely needs a break. Middle managers work to create a compromise, and they’re not expected to make everyone happy in the end.
- Most middle managers are promoted without soft skills training.
Soft skills include interpersonal, listening, time-management and creative skills. While these are often learned through experience, they can be taught and middle managers pulled from the base workforce often don’t get this training. Workers – 85% of them in an SHRM survey – often blame poorly-trained managers for their stress.
- They tend to receive a high workload.
As the go-between for executives and their workers, middle managers often get their plates full. They have to do what they can to deliver what is expected from their team. At the same time, they have to make sure that they meet what their workers need to deliver on their set goals. This easily doubles the work that they need to do, and all that stress can wear their people skills.
Training and preparation are key
Good managers are not built in a day, as some office philosophers would say. They are specifically picked for the role because of their experience and skill set, which are both necessary for them to handle their own team. However, this may not be enough. Working with a team means dealing with people, and in doing so, managers will need to be armed with the necessary soft skills.
That said, companies should provide their upcoming managers with soft skills training before they take on the role. Such training should result in improved people and communication skills, as well as the ability to effectively work under pressure – such is how one comes up with an effective and well-loved manager.