TIME TO RECOGNIZE THE OVERWORKED & UNDERAPPRECIATED MIDDLE MANAGER

Middle management seems to be the only work group these days that gets ZERO love! Executives are lauded for their vision and entry level/hourly employees are mentioned as critical "boots on the ground" in customer facing roles. The forgotten person in all of this is the superstar middle manager. I want to take brief moment to recognize them.

The majority of organizations would implode if it wasn't for a group of highly talented middle managers that hold it all together. Unfortunately, these key individuals are also "dumped on" the most and seem to be the least recognized for the value they bring.

So why are they so critical to organizational success?

They:

·       understand the big picture.

·       have to translate the vision and strategy into reality.

·       understand the details of how work gets done.

·       also do real work that benefits the end customer.

·       manage up, down and sideways.

·       tend to be sucked into every meeting and discussion because of their knowledge. This usually results in extra things added to their plate.

·       have to work extra hours to do real work since they were sucked into meetings all day.

·       care about their people.

·       understand the impact of high level decisions and the impact on employees and customers.

·       get $h!t done because somebody has to!

·       tend to get blamed when things go wrong and don't receive as much credit when things go right.

If you are an executive, I encourage you to recognize and reward the superstar middle managers that hold together your operation. If you don't, you may find out real quick just how valuable they are .......... after they are gone!!