What are the best motivations for being a middle manager, and what are the worst?
Are these reasons setting up individuals for success or failure and disappointment?
Middle management is a tricky position to navigate: you have to placate the top and bottom simultaneously. This is a challenge for even the most veteran supervisors.
Your motivations for this role are predictors for success. Here are the top reasons for becoming a middle manager:
Positive Predictors for success
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You want to cause change. Best practices excite you and implementation may be scary, but exciting too. You believe that your best work comes when you are outside of your comfort zone.
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You are enthusiastic about the subject material. Love spreadsheets almost as much as your morning coffee? Passion can be contagious to those around you which inspires everyone to bring their work to a new level.
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You want to lead people. Notice how I said lead, rather than boss around? You want to encourage others to success as a team, rather than take credit as an individual. Sometimes approving vacation requests and reviewing weekly reports can be monotonous, but there is nothing like the feeling of helping a team achieve a goal.
Negative predictors for success
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You wanted better hours. If you are only motivated by a steady schedule, you may be disappointed. Often times there is an increased workload and overtime. A manager is interrupted on a task on average every 3-5 minutes. (Emails and instant messages count too!) Although you may find yourself making the schedule, you are also often the person expected to lend a helping hand when there is a problem.
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Wanted more monetary compensation. Yes, life is expensive. Families are expensive. New toys are expensive. The problem is that if you do not have the qualities for the role that you are in – it will make you and those around you miserable. It’s only the top level executives that make the big bucks. Your new role may more of a hindrance than it’s worth when you compare it to your old salary and more carefree work life. How does that upgraded cappuccino machine feel now?
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You want to tell people what to do. Power hungry? Your subordinates will not respect you and you will not be able to get the best out of them. This will essentially double your workload, and definitely not make the above mentioned compensation worth it.
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You think you know more about a subject than others. Of course it’s a good idea to know the subject matter. However, humbleness and constant learning are essential cornerstones of a good manager. Being aware of what you don’t know is important.
Notice that I did not mention certain factors for management success like confidence and communication? This can be learned and practiced. It’s the pure motivations that should be the reason for seeking out promotion.
A Neutral Predictor
One motivational predictor that I did not touch on above: There wasn’t anyone else to do it. This can be both positive and negative.
Generally a senior manager may encourage someone to apply for an open position if there are no obvious internal candidates or interest externally. I have seen this successful… and a disaster.
Positively, it encouraged a very capable worker to take the next step in their career. They flourished once they successfully navigated a few tricky situations. Their confidence went way up and because they already had the buy in from their former coworkers, they performed admirably at their job.
An upper manager can see attributes in a potential candidate that they may not be confident in themselves.
The danger of promoting from within due to lack of interested candidates is that they are talked in to something out of obligation, rather than just needing encouragement in a small interest.
The obligated staff member may never develop their confidence and may not have the respect of their former coworkers.
I have seen someone become incredibly condescending because she did not have the confidence at encouraging others. They felt the position title was enough to demand respect that they had not earned. Morale and productivity slumped and senior management had to step in and reassign that person to their previous position on another team having alienated everyone on the current team.
That individual was great as a worker, but management did not take in to account their lack of social skills when they convinced them to take over the middle management role. The best workers are not always the best managers.
So what can a middle manager learn from this?
The motivations behind the WHY for middle management are paramount. If you have a genuine love of leading and getting the best out of people than you will be successful.
There are always challenges and bad days, but overall you will feel like this role is worth it for you.
Photo Credit:
Kyle Glenn