Master Delegation in Executive Leadership Meetings
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The following is an excerpt from our April 2024 issue of Hey Leader.
Hey Leader, crafted with thought & care by The Perk, is a monthly email series all with the intention to help you lead better. You belong here!
Hey, Leader —
According to Josh Bersin, one of our favorite HR thought leaders, there are plenty of trends to watch out for when it comes to employee experience this year:
✔️Continued labor shortages in many industries
✔️The staying power of hybrid work
✔️White-collar automation (repetitive administrative tasks being increasingly handled by AI)
✔️The fact that many companies are shifting their hiring mindset from “hire to grow” to focusing on productivity & redesign
The TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) of all of that? It’s a LOT of change, & it’s happening FAST.
While these changes affect everyone in your organization in one way or another, here’s who they REALLY affect: your middle managers.
Being a middle manager is harder than it’s ever been, & we’ve got the stats to prove it. A recent survey of middle managers from The Predictive Index reveals:
58% of them aren’t confident that their concerns are being heard, especially when approaching company leaders about important issues
7% (only SEVEN PERCENT) of them say they have total authority over the areas they manage
8 out of 10 are at risk of burnout from the stress of managing their teams
55% say heavy workloads are the biggest hurdle in keeping them from being more productive
At the same time, leaders in the middle are SUPER important. The Predictive Index report says it best: “Given middle management acts as the link between early talent & executives, their productivity is crucial to every company’s operations & should be prioritized.”
(Yeah. What they said.)
All kidding aside, how can we empower our middle managers, despite all these trends and challenges? It starts by giving them the tools to manage up & manage across.
First, let’s talk about managing up. This is where middle managers:
Build a relationship with their boss or team lead
Cultivate a productive working rapport
Understand their management, leadership, & communication styles
Increase their awareness of their leaders’ management style
Adapt & align leadership styles to maximize productivity, enjoyment, & engagement
Here’s what “managing up” isn’t:
Supervising or overseeing your boss
Going above your boss's head to have your voice be heard
Judging your boss's management style
Evaluating your boss's performance
Leading a mutiny or a coup
Hey, I’m serious about that last one!
Similarly, managing across is all about cross-functional collaboration. It’s about building peer relationships through lateral influence by overcoming silos, building strategic alignment, & navigating power dynamics.
And, spoiler alert…the foundation of both of these actions is building trusting relationships—whether it’s with leaders or peers.
Self-Reflection for Leading From the Middle
You know we’re all about self-reflection here at The Perk, & we’ve created a short list of self-reflection questions specifically for middle managers. As you’re considering how to build more trust with your peers or leader, it might help to ask yourself these questions as a starting point:
Who cares most about your career?
Who cares the most about your job satisfaction?
Who does your job satisfaction impact the most?
Who does your career development impact the most?
What would strong upward management bring to you?
What would strong peer relationships and lateral influence mean to you?
Take a moment to write down your answers to these questions—& let us know how this self-reflection helped you gain clarity!
What's The Perk saying?
Our media selections this month focus on how you can build trust (& your own confidence) while navigating relationships across your organization.
15 min read
13 min watch
7 min read
What's our community saying?
We’re always soaking in the latest news & insights on culture, organizational development, & leadership. This month’s resources focus on building influence & collaboration without formal authority.
10 min read
67 min listen
4 min watch
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The skills your leaders need today are very different from the ones they needed 5 years ago. We equip leaders with the skills they need to confidently & effectively lead their teams now & going forward.
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