Defense Business May-July 2018 Issue

June/July 2018 Defence Business
33
Middle Management Questions
By James O'Hanlon, Heterodox Solutions
I am often asked questions by business owners about how they maximise the
effectiveness of their middle managers and supervisors to support their vision and
business goals, both short and long term. I have collated some of the more frequently
asked questions below to give an insight into this critical but often overlooked part of
business success.
WHAT DOES A SUPERIOR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TEAM GIVE A BUSINESS?
A middle management team's performance will determine whether a
business succeeds or fails. Additionally, if the middle management team is a high
performing team, the managers will subconsciously generate the right motivation and
communication to their teams. They will continuously look to improve efficiency and
productivity during implementation of strategic initiatives. Harvard Business School
lecturers described a symptom known as “the frozen middle” whereby whatever
initiative executive management decided an automobile company would pursue, it
would be slowed to a standstill by the unwillingness and inability of the company's
middle management team to carry it out. Ultimately, this company lost enormous
market share to foreign competitors, and even now struggles to recover.
WHAT MIDDLE MANAGEMENT TRENDS ARE PREVALENT IN THE AUSTRALIAN
CONTEXT?
The ‘Management Matters in Australia- just how effective are we?’ report
commissioned by the Australian Government in 2009 stated that “...Australian
management practices are not in the top rank of performance worldwide...They
currently rate as only moderately above average when benchmarked globally, leaving
significant scope for consistent and sustained improvement across key areas.”
Australian business has a habit of encouraging a junior employee through the
workplace via courses and limited professional development but then leaves them to
wilt on the vine once they reach the supervisor or middle management stream. You
may ask why. Because, traditional thinking sees many businesses stop training their
most valuable and knowledgeable staff because they believe time and experience has
given these middle managers everything they need. Conversely, this is just the time to
harness the tremendous potential of these people and invest in them.
WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO GOOD MANAGEMENT TEAM?
Most management skills are related to five fundamental functions: planning,
organising, coordinating, directing, and oversight. Planning - Individual managers
may or may not be personally involved in drafting company policy and strategy, but
even those who aren’t still must be able to plan short term projects and activities.
Organising - Organising generally means creating structures to support or accomplish
a plan. An effective manager should be comfortable designing a new layout for office
area, planning how to move through a project and how to measure performance
milestones. Coordinating - Managers must know what is happening, what needs to
happen, and who and what are available to accomplish deliverable tasks. Coordinating
is the skill that lets the organisation act as a smooth machine. Directing - Directing
is the part where you tell people what to do, otherwise known as delegating, giving
orders, and decision making. The credibility and communication skills of a manager
play a vital part in getting things done on time and on budget. Oversight - Oversight,
the maintenance phase of management, means keeping track of what’s going on
and setting right anything that gets out of place. It may include tasks such as tracking
project resource use or producing stage completion reports for higher management. If
your firm is separating its management program into three distinct, but related areas
of management - operations management, performance management, and people
management you can be confident you have a sound platform to start from.
1. Operations Management incorporates the firm's implementation of modern
manufacturing techniques and management systems designed to not only increase
efficiency and reduce waste, but also to create and deliver value to overall business
objectives
2. Performance Management encompasses the firms’ processes around setting
goals and targets, where good management requires these goals and targets to not
merely be operationally or financially oriented but to be more holistic and interlinked,
leading to sustainable value creation.
3. People management involves enhancing the firm’s human performance and
productivity and cannot be over emphasised. It is the area where many businesses
struggle to leverage their most valuable intangible asset – human capital – for a
sustained competitive advantage.
WHAT IS MY ROLE AS A BUSINESS OWNER IN GROWING MY MANAGERS?
Firstly, encourage a culture of learning in your business. By doing this you create
managers in your business who aren’t satisfied unless they are pushing themselves
and seeking new challenges. Managers should have a bent toward learning, always
wanting to find the best technology or processes to improve your business. Secondly,
remind your managers they are valued and critical to the success of your business. If
you invest in their development with genuine interest and publicly acknowledge their
successes you are building workforce morale and lessening the chance of losing your
best and brightest talent. Lastly, a great quote by American businessman Clayton
Christensen that should be referred to frequently to remind us of what good middle
management does best. Management is the opportunity to help people become better
people. Practiced that way, it's a magnificent profession.
Helping people work across cultures
Building intercultural capability in your organisation
• Tailored workshops … Developing capability to
function effectively across various cultures - leading,
building trust, negotiating, agreeing, disagreeing etc
• Intercultural Coaching/Mentoring
• CQ (Cultural Intelligence) Assessments,
Personalised Reports, Personal Cultural Profile
and Intercultural Capability Development Plan
Organisations prioritising the development of CQ are experiencing
significant outcomes including greater cross-cultural adaptability, enhanced
job performance, better decision making, improved personal well-being and a
correlation with increased profi tability
Pamela Murphy
Advanced CQ Professional
Director
Intercultural Tailored Solutions
Level 30 Westpac House
91 King William Street, Adelaide South Australia 5000
+61 432 333 688
pamela@interculturaltailoredsolutions.com
www.interculturaltailoredsolutions.com