developing engineers as leaders: middle management · of middle managers companies struggle to...
TRANSCRIPT
Developing Engineers as Leaders: Middle Management
Jose Luis Arevalo
2/18
Executive Summary
Introduction – What do we call “Middle Management”
The role of the middle managers
Required skills for middle managers
Which are the challenges they face?
The shortage of Middle Management
Conditions for success of a middle manager
Improving the capacity of the middle manager
Internal promotion vs external talent
Conclusions Jose Luis Arévalo
MSc. Civil Engineer MSc. Tunnelling
Dep. Int’l Managing Director [email protected]
3/18
What do we call Middle Management?
Project managers
Report to Senior Management
White-collar, knowledge workers
Act as a buffer between the senior management and non-management staff
Middle managers are in charge of turning the strategic
vision and decisions of the senior management into action
and reality.
Supervisors
Implement top management’s policies
4/18
The role of middle managers
Keep the organization moving forward
Mantaining teams productivity
Mantaining employee satisfaction
Help employees understand their job
responsibilities
Communication with the technical staff
Communication with the senior management
Keep the organization moving forward
Mantaining teams productivity
Mantaining employee satisfaction
Help employees understand their job
responsibilities
Communication with the technical staff
Communication with the senior management
5/18
The role of middle managers
Technical Management -
Production
General Management -
Commercial
6/18
Required skills for a middle manager
Middle managers are in charge of
turning the strategic vision and
decisions of the senior management
into action and reality.
Middle managers handle information
both upwards and downwards. They
are responsible for creating the
conditions to achieve the goals.
Communication
• Being able to inform effectively
• Listening to others
Negotiation
• Negotiation skills with clients and providers
• Internal negotiation
Motivation
• Encouraging and motivating employees
• Helping employees share the company’s goals
Setting priorities
• To others and also to themselves
• Managing resources
7/18
Required skills for a middle manager
Managing Differences
• Regional and language differences
• Personal differences among the staff
Managing change
• Reframing work
• Clarifying roles
Leadership
• To be respected among the employees
• Strenght to navigate through change and tough times
Strategic vision
• Looking forward not focusing on past events
• Creating a vision, but also being able to articulate it
Decisiveness
• Not taking decissions frustrate the employees
• Not taking a decission is worse than taking a bad one
8/18
??
Challenges faced by middle managers
Middle managers handle the flow of information both
upwards and downwards.
Being able to translate the directives from the senior managers
into clear tasks that can be assumed and executed by the
technical staff is one of their most challenging tasks.
How is that information processed by the technical staff depends
on both the communication and the leadership skills.
Information works both ways: if the senior managers don’t listen to the middle
manager, the latter will never succeed.
A study by the universities of Manchester and Liverpool has found that those in the
middle hierarchy suffer the most stress. They face conflict from those below and
above.
9/18
Challenges faced by middle managers
Technical Management -
Production
General Management -
Commercial
Some middle managers who are very involved in technical issues neglect the
management tasks – soft skills.
Others have a tendency to understimate the technical side of the new contracts.
10/18
Challenges faced by middle managers
Serve many leaders
Assessed by leaders they don’t report to
Oversee projects not from their teams
Face demands and challenges coming up
from the ranks
Compete with their peers for resources and projects
Middle manager: middle squish. Always trying to please their bosses, interpret
their messages and convey them to the staff, meet financial targets, give
consistently tricky performance reviews, and wrestle with ever-changing goals.
Serve many leaders
Assessed by leaders they don’t report to
Oversee projects not from their teams
Face demands and challenges coming up
from the ranks
Compete with their peers for resources and projects
11/18
Shortage of middle management
Shortage of middle
managers will last at least
5 more years
Employers concerns: lack
of talented middle
management
More than half admitted
having a critical shortage
of middle managers
Companies struggle to
identify, hire and develop
mid-managers
To overcome the problem of the shortage of middle management, considering
its importance, a good strategy to recruit is required, but also a strategy to
develop those professionals.
Engaging the middle managers and gaining their loyalty becomes more
important: personal development and training can be more effective than salary.
Talented middle managers are scarce: they account for the largest share of the
variation in revenue among companies, and they are required to grow
12/18
Conditions for success of a middle manager
48% said their inmediate manager didn’t
have enough time to handle their
responsibilities or possess the right skills
to improve poor performers.
Offstage management
Provide clear goals and priorities
Motivate and develop your
staff. Learn to delegate
Providing autonomy,
but also support
Establish close relationships
with your peers
Learn to manage and
deal with conflict
Brand yourself in and
out of the company
13/18
Improving the capacity of the middle manager
Middle management is the pool in which the next generation of leaders will be
identified.
Importance of senior management nurturing
Talent management takes
fom 20 to up to 50% of the
CEO’s time
Good talent
management strategy
Identification of leadership
potential
Performance evaluations
Targeted development
activities
Job experience
Taking tough decissions
14/18
Improving the capacity of the middle manager
Middle managers in our firms are, more often than not, former technical experts and
technical managers… Do all of them possess the required skills for management?
Many of the soft skills we’ve talked about can not be taught, but they can definitely
be improved by training and education:
Strategy Negotiation
skills
Managing people and resources
Dealing with
conflict
Mentoring by the senior management is probably the most effective tool to improve
the middle managers capacity
15/18
Improving the capacity of the middle manager
Who speaks the most?
Are your questions open or closed?
Do they inspire solutions? Do you wait for an answer?
Do you help your middle managers reach a
solution or do you just give them an answer?
16/18
Internal promotion vs external talent
Internal promotion External talent
A great engineer does not necessarily make a good manager.
New ideas that help the company move forward
Has proven management capabilities
A reward to someone who has earned the respect of his peers
New ideas too often create conflicts
Promoted staff understand the strengths and weakness of the firm
Internal promotion is less risky, but external talent create also the conditions that
allow the company to move forward
Internal promotion External talent
17/18
Conclusions
Middle managers are an essential part of an organization
Soft skills are required to become a good middle manager
They are a buffer between the Senior Management and the non-management staff
The shortage of good middle managers becomes a bottle neck for any firm
Companies should invest in improving the capacity of their middle managers,
especially in the soft skills arena
Promoting our engineers into new middle managers is usually less risky but has its
drawbacks. An adequate balance into internal promotion and external talent is
desirable.
18/18