Every business will face a a crisis from time to time. This is not unique to any industry, it is just the price of doing business. Some of it is a result of poor planning and other times it can be from factors outside of management’s control. The bottom line: middle managers are essential during a crisis.
There are probably many front line managers who are holding their second cup of coffee reading this and thinking, “Of course I can handle emergencies better! The big boss only knows how to schedule meetings!” Here are some of the reasons why middle managers are essential during a crisis and a list of leadership traits that will help guide you through uncertain times.
Crisis Management studies – only on the big boss?
There have been a large number of studies that focused on the role of upper management in this crisis or change management. The role of direct supervisors may be overlooked during organizational change as few studies have focused on them.
Organizational change comes in two forms: planned and emergency. Planned change management typically comes from the top down, in planning sessions.
During a crisis that was unforeseen – like a pandemic – it is middle management at the front and center using their operational leadership skills that makes a difference.
When things fall apart, organizations rely on the middle manager’s familiarity with the processes and experience as leaders to get them through. According to this study, transformational leaders are the most effective at creating change that employees are willing to follow.
Transformational leaders are the ones that lead by example: they are the ones in the trenches doing the work side by side and are getting feedback from their subordinates on how to do it better. This is a crisis – it’s all hands on deck!
They know the processes better than anyone
Chances are the middle manager had the biggest hand in writing all of the policies, so they are essential during crisis mode. Although senior management will hand them the framework, middle managers must put it in to action and will know all of the details intimately. When something goes wrong, they are quick to figure out both where and what happened.
Have spent time contingency planning
When emergencies occur, senior management has probably not made a decision making matrix for all possible scenarios – if at all. Middle managers are closer to the action and have likely seen many things almost occur. A supervisor worth their stuff should have come up with a few back up plans. Did the essential piece of equipment go down or is a key employee unavailable for a length of time? It doesn’t matter, the supervisor has it covered.
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Less bureaucracy
There is less decision making bureaucracy as a middle manager if a decision must be made quickly.
Organizations can be risk averse in nature, tending to centralize decision making at the top. This makes for change that is slow and cumbersome. It’s difficult to hold a meeting with potentially many stakeholders during an emergency. A middle manager must take action and be decisive to avoid fallout from lost revenue or upset clientele.
Rapport
Implementation of a change ultimately depends on the willingness and support of the employees.
Generally a middle manager will have a good relationship with their direct reports and have already developed a system of trust. This is essential for their willingness and attitude towards change during the crisis. The middle manager knows each team member’s strength, weaknesses, and motivations. Senior managers are better suited to planned organizational change that require high level planning and execution.
A supervisor will also be able to identify when a team is no longer progressing together and there is resistance to the change. They will usually have an idea exactly who or what is driving this resistance and are able to follow-up accordingly.
A middle manager essential crisis check list:
Here are the leadership traits that are essential during a crisis. When you master these, you will be able to handle any problem that comes your way.
- Becoming the policy guru. You know all processes and where to access them
- Having back ups! Distribute key tasks or training. No process should only have one person who can do it. Create your redundancies!
- Becoming the plan B (or D!) master. Identify essential pieces of equipment or vulnerable areas of your processes. Have an alternate idea on how to temporarily keep things running. You can’t solve everything and think of every scenario, but this could keep problems from becoming a crisis.
- Communicating along the way. Give updates on the situation to both your upper management and direct reports. They will be more confident in your leadership.
- Developing and keeping a good working relationship with your direct reports. They need to be able to trust and depend on you. If they don’t trust, they won’t follow.
- Identifying any resistors to the change. Have one-on-one conversations with them to manage this behavior. Identify if there is a particular element of the change that there is resistance to and address it. If they continue, move them to an area of lower impact on the other workers. Ensure that it does not appear that others can “get out of work” by pulling similar behaviors.
- Being confident. Subordinates can tell if you are not being authentic during a crisis and may lose confidence in their abilities as well.
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Remember, it’s the employees that are going to be adopting the new processes, behaviors, and expectations of the changes. Upper management can take the long road and plan out expected changes. But a manager gets to be the leader during an emergency. Take the opportunity to shine as a leader, it will make you more credible and strengthen your team’s resilience.