Leading from the Middle. Scott Mautz

Jack Welch Management Institute, told me, “Middle managers are like the middle child of an organization, often neglected by senior managers and blamed by their reports. However, they're still expected to be as charming as the youngest and simultaneously as responsible as the oldest. We end up with middle child syndrome, enshrouded in conflict, wanting more of a say, and not sure how they fit in.”

      Omnipotence

No one expects frontline, lower‐level employees to know everything; they're too inexperienced or too new. Senior managers are excused from this standard because they don't need to know everything, that's what they have their middle managers for. Besides, they make big bets all day, which means big mistakes, which among senior leaders are often seen as a badge of honor.

      So where does that leave those who lead from the middle? Like you're expected to know everything, like omnipotence is written into the job description. You have to keep one foot in strategy and the other in day‐to‐day operations and tactics. You should know your business inside and out and know your competitors just as well. Your market share ticked down in Peoria? You should probably know why. You have to explain the what, how, and why and decide who. You must know how to handle the changing nature of work with remote work, global conference calls at ungodly hours, and scads of contracted work the norm. You're expected to know how to grow others despite a lack of investment in you, and without time to grow yourself.

      Physical

You've probably heard the term “monkey in the middle.” Researchers from Manchester and Liverpool University studied this exact subject, spending 600 hours watching female monkeys in the middle of their hierarchy.⁷ They recorded the range of social behavior, including aggressive behavior like threats, chases, and slaps, submissive behaviors like grimacing and retreating, and nurturing behaviors like embracing and grooming. They then measured fecal matter for traces of stress hormones (I'll pass on that duty). They discovered that monkeys in the middle of their hierarchy experienced the most social and physical stress because they deal with the most conflict, you guessed it, up, down, and across their organization. This directly corresponds to what researchers find in the monkeys' slightly brighter cousins, the human beings. In fact, a study of 320,000 employees found that the bottom 5 percent in terms of engagement and happiness levels weren't the people with poor performance ratings or those so new they hadn't moved on yet from an ill‐fitting job, but five to ten‐year tenured employees in mid‐level roles with good performance ratings.⁸

In another big, multi‐industry study, researchers from Columbia University and the University of Toronto found that employees in mid‐level roles in their organization had much higher rates of depression and anxiety than employees at the top or bottom of the organizational hierarchy. In fact, 18 percent of supervisors and managers experienced symptoms of depression (40 percent said the depression derived from stress), 51 percent of managers were “constantly worried” about work, and 43 percent said the pressure they were under was excessive.⁹ Eric Anicich of the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business says the constant micro‐transitions from frequent role changes are psychologically challenging to the point of detriment.¹⁰ For example, disengaging in a high deference task to engage in a high assertiveness task leads to even more stress and anxiety, and a host of related physical problems like hypertension and heart disease.

      Emotional

Being in the messy middle means dealing with some unique emotions. It can mean a sense of alienation, isolation, and loneliness, as being in the middle makes it hard to really be a part of anyone's group. Employees can stay at arm's‐length, as can bosses, and yet the middle manager attracts and absorbs discontent from every angle, adding to the emotional toll. I've heard many of those who lead from the middle describe feelings of being overworked and underappreciated, expressing great frustration over wanting to change things around them but being unable to do so, not feeling like they can control enough of their destiny. Not to mention that middle managers are often the target of layoffs or can be displaced on the promotion path by outside hires, which can take a huge emotional toll on one's self‐esteem and sense of fairness in the world.

A Reframework

      While the scope (SCOPE) of what makes leading from the middle so messy can feel daunting, it doesn't have to. Through decades of research and experience I can share with you a framework, or actually a reframework, to help you reframe the way you see, experience, react to, and ultimately resolve each of the specific difficulties outlined. (We'll get into the overall mindset required to thrive as a leader in the middle in the next chapter.) Let's go through the SCOPE acronym again, this time armed with reorienting insights to help reframe and reshape the way you view the inherent, unique difficulties associated with leading from the middle.

      Self‐Identity

      While you're constantly switching roles and changing hats, in flux between high‐power and low‐power situations, your identity is never actually in flux, even though it might feel like it. An organization is like the human body, it needs a healthy, flexible core. If you strengthen your middle, you strengthen your entire body. If you strengthen the middle of the organization, you strengthen the entire organization. You are the core, flexible center and the center of strength for your company. Take pride in that truth.

      Here are some other reframing insights to help you fully appreciate your pivotal place in the organization.

1. You work not in an organization but an organism. And you're the lifeblood of it.

      2. You're the ultimate catalyst from which progress pulses, the amplifier. We'll cover this in depth in Chapter 3, “The Skillset for Leading Effectively from the Middle.”

      3. You're the keeper of the long and short‐term flame, working on the business and in the business. This is a unique privilege that those leading from the middle experience.

      4. You're a lighthouse and a beacon, signaling threats and drawing all toward opportunities. It's a powerful duality. For example, being in the middle means you're best suited to spot external threats from competitors and identify internally generated ideas for innovation.

      5. The micro‐transitions you're constantly making aren't segmented, they're integrated. The 100 jobs you belong to add up to one vital job you're uniquely suited to do well. Value the variety.

      6. While you might be the “middle child,” the middle child is also resourceful, creative, and independent. Galloway reminded me of this, and she's right. These are all things to take pride in.

      Conflict

Leading from the middle might be rife with tension, but it also means you're in the thick of things, where the real action is. Your job is to embrace constant contradiction, revel in it, and know that thriving in environments of natural conflict is a valued skill in and of itself. When it comes to environments of conflict, you can shirk, shrink, or shine. Choose the latter to climb the ladder.

      More reframing insights follow.

      1. You're not squeezed in the middle; you have the unique opportunity to impact in all directions. There's no position quite like it.

      2. Instead of getting frustrated that you can't specialize when you're in the middle, which makes it difficult to grow your craft, view the action in the middle as your craft. Redefine success as having mastery over nothing except