Developing Engineers as Leaders: Middle Management Jose Luis Arevalo

Transcription

1 Developing Engineers as Leaders: Middle Management Jose Luis Arevalo

2 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 jlarevalo@typsa.com 2/18

3 What do we call Middle Management? Project managers Supervisors Implement top management s policies Report to Senior Management Act as a buffer between the senior management and non-management staff White-collar, knowledge workers Middle managers are in charge of turning the strategic vision and decisions of the senior management into action and reality. 3/18

4 The role of middle managers Keep the organization moving forward Communication with the senior management Mantaining teams productivity Communication with the technical staff Mantaining employee satisfaction Help employees understand their job responsibilities 4/18

5 The role of middle managers Technical Management - Production General Management - Commercial 5/18

6 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 6/18

7 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 7/18

8 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. 8/18

9 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. 9/18

10 Challenges faced by middle managers Oversee projects not from their teams Assessed by leaders they don t report to Face demands and challenges coming up from the ranks Serve many leaders 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. 10/18

11 Shortage of middle management Shortage of middle managers will last at least 5 more years More than half admitted having a critical shortage of middle managers Companies struggle to identify, hire and develop mid-managers Employers concerns: lack of talented middle management Talented middle managers are scarce: they account for the largest share of the variation in revenue among companies, and they are required to grow 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. 11/18

12 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 Establish close relationships with your peers Provide clear goals and priorities Motivate and develop your staff. Learn to delegate Learn to manage and deal with conflict Brand yourself in and out of the company Providing autonomy, but also support 12/18

13 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 13/18

14 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 14/18

15 Improving the capacity of the middle manager Are your questions open or closed? Do they inspire solutions? Do you wait for an answer? Who speaks the most? Do you help your middle managers reach a solution or do you just give them an answer? 15/18

16 Internal promotion vs external talent Internal promotion External talent Promoted staff understand the strengths and weakness of the firm Has proven management capabilities New ideas too often create conflicts New ideas that help the company move forward A reward to someone who has earned the respect of his peers A great engineer does not necessarily make a good manager. Internal promotion is less risky, but external talent create also the conditions that allow the company to move forward 16/18

17 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 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. Companies should invest in improving the capacity of their middle managers, especially in the soft skills arena 17/18

18 18/18