Who Wants To Become A Middle Manager?????

I guess not many of us would like to. However, the reality of managerial life is that most managers belong to middle management, whether they like it or not. Most of ous will be joining middle management . The route to top passes through the long stretch of middle management. Thats why I chose this book.

LEARNING TO LEAD
The Leadership Jounrney Of Middle Managers Author:- Anup K Singh

Middle management plays an important role in organization building. Despite a many question about the utility of middle managers, the fact of business life is that middle managers are going to stay. However, their roles have undergone changes with the changing business environment. As a middle manager, you can be a successful leader. The first requirement in this direction is that you see that despite pulls and pushes from up and down you have space to perform a leadership role. You have to also realize that leadership effectiveness in the middle requires that you manage different constituencies well. These comprise subordinates , superiors, and peers. Just being effective with subordinates will not suffice. Several people in the organization affect your success and you have to relate effectively with them. Your interaction with your subordinates may be frequent, and it may be less with the superior. However, managing your superior is as important as leading subordinates.

Reorganizing your roles is the need of the hour . You have to be an adept team player and be effective in peer relationship management . You have to hone your negotiation and team building skills. Further, there would not be many promotional opportunities. Hence., you have to work out how to live and work in a flat organization. Holistic understanding and high performance characterize the new middle manager. You have to, of course, work for your role, but at the same time also see the interrelation of your role with other roles in the organization.

CONDITIONS FOR BEING A GOOD LEADER

Communication:
When you have conceived the vision of your department or section and developed a detailed plan, you have to translate it into concrete actions. However, it cannot become a reality unless your plan is understood and accepted by your men. It is possible only through communication that bridges the gap between you and others. You need to communicate to your people on a continuous basis and understand views, ideas, difficulties, and reservations about your plans. Breakdown in communication has serious implications for your acceptance as a leader.

Caring and Coaching:

Leadership is about working effectively with people and getting the best out of them. The leader thus has to be concerned about the needs of people. What does this caring mean????

Caring is all about understands others, empathising with them, and supporting them when they are in need. It creates an emotional bond between the leader and his people, which goes much farther than the contract that exists between the organization and employees. Extra care is conducive to extra commitment from followers. In turn , extra commitment means extraordinary results.

Caring and Coaching: Leadership is about working effectively with people and
getting the best out of them. The leader thus has to be concerned about the needs and sensibilities of people. Care all about understands others, empathising with them, and supporting them when they are in need. It creates an emotional bond between the leader and his people, which goes much farther than the contract that exists between the organization and employees. Extra care results into extra commitment from followers. In turn , extra commitment means extraordinary results.

Courage:-

It is essential ingredient of effective leading. It is courage that changes the shape of things. Courage involves:1) taking risks 2) boldly facing an uncertain and unpredictable environment. The courageous leader may lose sometimes, but he never loses heart. He has will power to withstand adverse situations.

Control :-

You are basically responsible for getting jobs done through your subordinates. In other words, you have to direct their efforts in the desired direction. You must, therefore, be motivated and willing to influence, control and monitor the behaviour of your subordinates.

Competence:- Another important skill in leadership is competence without which

you would not be able to perform your role. Competence aids you in understanding your role demands, and to respond to them appropriately. It has to be continuously upgraded because of changing tasks requirements and the expanding repertoire of knowledge.

Credibility:-

A leader without credibility is like a bird without wings. You can perform various function s, but you will not have force and power in them. A credible leader wins trust and unconditional support of his subordinates, who go beyond the call of duty to do what he wants them to do.

Collectivity Management:-

You have a group of people working under you. You are a team builder. You coordinate team members efforts,. Give them direction, and also help them achieve their individual and collective goals . You relate to them on one- to-group basis as well as one to one basis. When people work in a group , it is expected that they produce synergy. You are the main source of synergy generation in a group. If you fail to do so, there is high likelihood of negative synergy, and consequently, poor results. People either go up or go down. They seldom maintain the previous pace.

ART OF MANAGING THE SUPERIORS

Effective leaders are not only successful in leading their subordinates but they are also quite adept in understanding and managing their superiors. In fact these two things of managerial behaviour are like two sides of a coin .If one side is invalid, the coin will not be accepted in the market. Your immediate superior can play a far more important role like:1) In helping you develop and unfold your potentia 2) He helps you achieve your short term objective. 3) He can also be a guide in planning your future . Now , It is up to you to decide how you utilize his resources. Therefore, before you ask whether you have a good superior ask yourself first whether you are an effective subordinate. Also performing ones role effectively is not sufficient. You need to develop personal relationship with your boss.

PEERS Relationship
The leaders not only have to maintain the relation ship with there superiors & subordinates The horizontal relationship differs from the vertical relationship in several ways . Therefore, you need to use more of your personality power with peers. In peer relationships the social aspect is equally important. As you spend a great deal of your time at the workplace, peers are an important source of emotional and tangible support . Interestingly, there is some amount of competition in the horizontal relationship which is not the part of the vertical relationship. Hence, you have to continuously strike a balance between mutuality and self goals.

In the 21st century, the horizontal relationship is likely to become more important than the vertical relationship.

Managing peers for personal success and high performance has limited options. Enduring peer relationships entail empowering as the way of managing peers .In turn, it necessitates a paradigm shift in your mind set ,i.e., from individuality to collectively, power encroachment to sharing ,disabling to enabling, and self focus to the focus on mutuality. Empowering is the sign of greater personal maturity and security. It exhibits your respect for others. Without having genuine respect for others, you cannot empower them. Self discipline is a must to resist the temptation to move away from the path of empowering. Skills to cope with monopolising and eschewing are as important as empowering. Those who are incapable of coping with and fighting back monopolizing are not rewarded with the empowering response. The willingness to empower and action to cultivate mutually satisfying relationships are the hallmarks of successful peer management.