Empowering change: how pro-active middle leaders make a difference that is valued

Empowering change: how pro-active middle leaders make a difference that is valued... lessons from a client

➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️ TRUST and COMMUNICATION

Over the years, Company B has maintained an organization-wide bonus scheme, where meeting overall targets results in a bonus payment for everyone.

But then, middle managers in departments that were always doing well, started to get complaints from their teams about an apparent unfairness.
⚠️ And their anger was obvious.

The accusation was that while most departments consistently exceeded expectations, one department consistently lagged behind.
In effect, the outstanding performance of the majority compensated for the underperformance of this particular team.

👉It is useful to note here that the frontline workers felt able to approach their middle leaders. This is an important feature.👈

Recognizing these concerns had merit, the middle leaders compiled data to present to senior management. They all agreed to defuse a potentially hostile atmosphere by being calm and factual (from experience they knew that going in with 'guns blazing' was a waste of time).

The senior management team could see the point and took action to revise the bonus scheme. Rewards are now allocated based on performance.

The constructive dialogue initiated by middle leaders had a huge impact. The way they went about explaining the issue effectively played a key part in initiating the change.

➡️ They: Listened to their teams
➡️ They: Knew how to approach the senior management

However, an important question still remains: Why is there a significant performance gap between departments?

Another task for pro-active middle leaders to carry out.