living the world of hers; contradictions

Stuck in the Middle

The task of a first-level supervisor is one of the most difficult in the world. As middle management, you're stuck between your former co-workers and the higher-level managers. You're in the awkward position of having to get your friends to follow orders. Your former peers begin to view you with suspicion and your bosses expect you to carry out managerial directives, no questions asked.

In order to get unstuck, you must first understand that while your friendship, and maybe even loyalties might be with your friends and ex-co-workers, you are now part of management. Your primary responsibility is to ensure that whatever policies or orders trickling down your way, get implemented to the best of your team's abilities. In a sense, it's a mindset change. You must come to think of yourself differently. After all, expectations of you have changed. It isn't enough to simply know how everything works anymore. Now you have to deal with sometimes conflicting interests. So how do you manage the middle ground once you recognize that's where you are?

Communication is key. Understand the principle of getting what you want done by getting people to want the same thing. To do this, you have to first make people feel important. Everybody likes to be valued, and if you can convince people that you think they're important, they'll be more responsive towards you.

The skills involved here are to listen skilfully, compliment frequently, call people by name, pause before answering, use "you" and "your" more than "I" and "me" and attend to every individual in a group.

Agree with people. Subordinates generally expect opposition from their supervisors and when you align yourself with their suggestions, they are remarkably impressed. However, this does not mean blindly accepting everything being offered to you. You can be agreeable without fully complying. As author Les Giblin once said, "As long as you live, never forget that any fool can disagree with people and that it takes a wise man, a shrewd man, a big man to agree - particularly when the other person is wrong."

These skills involve focusing on being in an agreeable frame of mind. Be open in your agreement; when you agree with someone tell them. Unless absolutely necessary, do not publicly disagree with someone. Avoid arguments. By the same reasoning, when you are wrong, verbalize your mistake - own it.

By practicing and becoming skilful in these steps, you will feel less like you're stuck in the middle, and more like you're at the centre of a cohesive and dynamic team.

posted by JL @ 11:47 PM