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McKinsey March 2023
As I looked deeper into McKinsey & Co's research on middle managers, this came up: Only 20% of respondents agreed that their organisation gave them any help to be successful people managers, with a disturbing 42% disagreeing. I expect that senior managers think they are giving middle layer colleagues the right tools to do the job well. But I wager that this is about templates of tick-lists with little to go about how to go about using them. 'Yes, I carried out that performance review to the letter! I ticked all the boxes, asked all the listed questions - in the right order! I might have come across as an ignorant, ill-informed bully but there isn't a box to discourage that.' This is what we are about. It is to do with getting hold of those KPI checklists and OKR status reviews and acting on them professionally. As a middle leader, you will find yourself having to deal with a lot more people than before - a whole new group. More clients, more stakeholders. And a different level of contact with senior managers.
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Middle leaders are an essential part of organisation upskilling.
The best middle leaders drive workplace performance by helping improve how things are done. One area where they have impact is developing the culture of being a learning organisation. This is increasingly important. Gianpiero Petriglieri makes this very clear in MIT Sloan Management Review (Winter 2020) where he says that learning is an imperative and without it "companies fail and careers derail". He cites the 2016 Gallup report 'How Millennials Want to Work and Live' where nearly 60% of job seekers from that demographic identify 'opportunities to learn and grow' as a significant reason for wanting join. It's in the top five, along with having a good manager. That's you! But what really makes this significant is how important learning and development is for retention of your best people. LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report states that in places where employees have had a chance to learn whilst on the job, the retention rate is 7% higher (after 3 years) than places where this doesn't happen. All very easy? No. Often we encounter senior executives who are not on board. And often you can see why - cost. This is why middle leaders need to have a plan to get their team the training they need, want and deserve . Some things to try ⚠️ Make sure that any training you suggest is in line with your organisations development plan. ⚠️ Make the benefits crystal clear and remind senior managers of the pain-points caused by lack of specific skills. ⚠️ Encourage the cost to be seen as an investment. ⚠️ Provide specific evidence of the impact of the training by looking for successes. ⚠️ Look for cost-effective approaches such as internal developmental opportunities. Job shadowing is an example, or the chance to work in a different department for a while. Structured mentoring works well too. |
AuthorBill Lowe. Leadership and learning researcher, author and trainer. Archives
November 2023
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