{"id":1207,"date":"2011-12-17T19:18:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T19:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2011-12-17T19:18:22","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T19:18:22","slug":"leading-from-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"Leading from the Middle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cuthbert Simpson\u00a0is reputed to be the first person\u00a0to be “stretched” during the reign of Mary I –\u00a0pulled in\u00a0more than one direction at the same time while trying, in vain,\u00a0to satisfy the simultaneous demands\u00a0of his three interrogators.<\/p>\n

Being a middle manager in a large organisation feels rather\u00a0like this – pulled in many directions trying to satisfy the insatiable appetites for improvement\u00a0of\u00a0Governance (quality), Operations (delivery)\u00a0and Finance (productivity).<\/p>\n

The critical-to-survival skill\u00a0for the over-stretched middle manager is the ability to influence others\u00a0– or\u00a0rather\u00a0three complementary influencing styles.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0dimension is\u00a0vertical and strategic-tactical and requires using\u00a0the organisational strategy to influence operational tactics; and to use\u00a0front line feedback to influence\u00a0future strategic decisions.\u00a0This\u00a0influencing dimension requires two complementary styles of behaviour: followership and leadership.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One dimension is horizontal and operational\u00a0and requires influencing peer-middle-managers in other departpments. This requires\u00a0yet a different style of leadership: collaboration.<\/p>\n

The successful middle manager is able to switch influencing\u00a0style as effortlessly as changing gear when driving. Select the wrong style at the wrong time and there is an unpleasant grating of teeth\u00a0and possibly a painful\u00a0career-grinding-to-a-halt experience.<\/p>\n

So what do these\u00a0three styles\u00a0have to do with Improvement Science?<\/p>\n

Taking the\u00a0last point first.\u00a0\u00a0Middle managers are the lynch-pin on which whole system improvement depends.\u00a0 Whole system improvement is impossible\u00a0without their commitment – just as a car without a working gearbox is just a heap of near useless junk.\u00a0 Whole system improvement needs middle managers who are\u00a0skilled in\u00a0the three styles of behaviour.<\/p>\n

The most important style is collaboration – the ability to influence peers\u00a0– because that is the key to the other two.\u00a0 Let us consider a small socioeconomic system that we all have experience of – the family. How difficult is it to manage children when the parent-figures do not get on with each other and who broadcast\u00a0confusingly mixed messages? Almost impossible. The children learn quickly to play one off against the other and sit back and enjoy the spectacle.\u00a0 And as a child how difficult it is to manage the parent-figures when you are always fighting and arguing with your siblings and peers and competing with each other for\u00a0attention? Almost impossible again.\u00a0Children are much more effective in getting what they want when they learn how to work together.<\/p>\n

The same is true in organisations.\u00a0When influencing from-middle-to-strategic it is more effective to influence your peers and then work together to make\u00a0the collective case; and when influencing from-middle-to-tactical it is more effective to influence your peers and then\u00a0work together to set\u00a0a clear and unambiguous\u00a0expectations.<\/p>\n

The key survival skill is the ability to influence your peers effectively and that means respect for their\u00a0opinion, their knowledge, their skill and their time – and setting the same expectation of them. Collaboration requires trust; and trust requires respect; and respect is earned by example.<\/p>\n

PS. It also helps a lot to be able to answer the question “Can you show\u00a0us how?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuthbert Simpson\u00a0is reputed to be the first person\u00a0to be “stretched” during the reign of Mary I –\u00a0pulled in\u00a0more than one direction at the same time while trying, in vain,\u00a0to satisfy the simultaneous demands\u00a0of his three interrogators. Being a middle manager in a large organisation feels rather\u00a0like this – pulled in many directions trying to satisfy … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Leading from the Middle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,35,42,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-productivity","category-reflections","category-how","category-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}