Middle management. An obsolete layer?

Corporations need to adapt to survive

Personally, not all middle management is bad. I view them like my sergeants. They are supposed to be a pain in the arse and make your life miserable. The whole pain process is actually necessary to growth in character and resilience. However the good sergeants will stand up for you when time comes to shove and not throw you to the wolves to protect themselves.

Middle Management, what do they do?

From my limited years of working, I view the middle management layer’s main responsibilities as follows:

1. Rejecting ideas (good and bad)
2. Go for countless meetings and disseminate the information
3. Executing the plans of the leaders (they are the most senior and know the processes very well)

Why this was needed:

1. In the past gatekeepers were needed to prevent leaders from being inundated with requests. Stability is needed to reduce risk. Having a layer to reject new ideas would help to maintain status quo
2. Being the gatekeepers, they are responsible for information flow. Timing and amount of information released is critical. i.e Need to know basis for combatants to be fully focused on the task at hand
3. Being the folks with the most battle experience they knew the right people in the company and could get things done

Are these strengths still relevant?

1. There needs to be a better to reject ideas and not throw the baby out with the bathe water. I have had a few managers who were patient enough to guide me through how to make a good pitch and the busier managers who would reject everything by default.
   Giving good feedback can help the person to improve. All good ideas started with bad ones. And this is most likely why startups are disrupting and stealing the market share from giant corporations
2. Information should be granted free access. The restrictions and access controls are an outdated concept meant for the cold war era. In my view, if people learnt to trust, the world would be a nicer place.
   And most times, I might find documents online that were released by others. The age of shadows, cloaks and daggers should replaced with transparency. Just look at the recent release of documents from TTIP. This has caused anguish and frustrations that could have been avoided if people were part of the decision making process. To exclude others due to seniority is pure arrogance. Information asymmetry needs to be balanced for growth.
3. In an era before social media, this makes a lot of sense. Networking and connecting with people took time. These days I think it’s easier to connect and exchange favors. If you are lucky you might find a friend in the process. Friendship and relationships have changed with the communication technologies that allow us to stay online 24/ 7.
   Once again, with free flow of information and clear roles and responsibilities the Taylor management philosophy is ill suited for this decade of working.

What’s next? Fire them all?

Personally firing people is one of the worst things to do. (I’ve been on the receiving end and it’s a horrid feeling). Besides most of these folks are at the stage of their lives where they have so much financial obligations it would be inhumane to dismiss these folks (unless they are really not pulling their weight).

Managers should be renamed as coaches. They have many years of experience that can be shared and that should not go to waste. Give young folks like myself feedback as to how we can improve. Coach and guide us, do not just chase us for work. We know we need to deliver.

Be part of the team and practice servant leadership. We need leaders. It would be nice if the leaders did not solely rely on their position, but serve the folks and earn the respect. Maxwell’s 5 levels of leadership has the right framework for molding leaders.

Managers need to stay relevant and occasionally eat some humble pie. Once again it goes back to how they are being viewed as leaders. I really would not expect to go to the CEO with every little problem. But I would also like to trust the fact that my next chain in command can help solve my problem and not just say no without understanding the concepts.