We have talked a lot about the importance of effective leadership in recent articles, but you must make sure that you don’t forget your middle management team. Yes, leaders bring inspiration, innovation and vision, but these qualities count for nothing without the efficient implementation by good managers. And as we have mentioned before, not every manager is necessarily a leader. A business needs both the run effectively.
If you’re just starting out or are a more mature SME, it’s important you recruit an effective set of middle managers, which, with the right training and development can grow into effective leaders. And so, you can see the importance of focussing on your middle managers. In essence, this set of individuals are focussed on core operations driving forward many of your deliverables. So why is this so important?
Customer satisfaction
This is course, is the responsibility of each and every individual. However, it is the manager’s responsibility to ensure the job is carried out correctly utilising their teams effectively. Customer satisfaction is the key to success for any business and will lead to further sales, increased sales and recommendations.
Employee wellbeing
Your middle managers are those most frequently in contact with their immediate teams and therefore have a responsibility for those reporting into them. As mentioned in a previous blog, the CIPD comments ‘depression is the largest cause of disability across the world, so it’s in employers’ best interests to monitor and manage it in the workplace. Line Managers supported by HR Professionals play a key role in promoting good mental and physical wellbeing and ensuring that employees are getting the support they need, as well as supporting those who may be struggling.’
Of course if your managers are unhappy this can have a knock-on effect to the wider team and so it’s important there is a focus on the mental health of these employees, not just their employees. The competence or incompetence of a manager can have a huge impact on the happiness and motivation of employees and so behind each happy and content worker, is a competent, happy and motivated manager.
Retention
Heavily linked to the above, if your employees aren’t happy then it’s highly likely they will begin the search for a new position. There are billions of employment opportunities open to each and every individual and much evidence cites the issues we have retaining talent. One of the major reasons for an individual leaving a business is because of their immediate boss and so making sure that person, i.e. your middle manager is competent and happy is key to keeping your wider team happy and preventing them for searching elsewhere for alternative employment. Your middle managers are the ones supporting your workplace culture.
Business growth
Business growth is closely linked to effective leadership, but this is also achieved through effective management. And so, the key for company growth is down to the collaboration of these two sets of employees. It’s important to have good performance management processes in place as well as learning and development plans, succession planning, mentoring, as well as reward and recognition initiatives to ensure your management continue to feel valued and invested in.
The opportunity to become a leader
When it comes to recruiting talent, a huge amount of companies struggle to fill key roles and this therefore puts rather a constraint on company growth. Hiring from within should actually be your first port of call as this will save you a vast amount of money, because as we all know, recruitment is a big expense. Research shows that middle managers who reach leadership roles have a higher rate of achievement and involvement and the need to educate this person on the business isn’t required and so they will understand their duties much faster.
If you would like further guidance on effective ways to manage your employees, contact me now on 01453 297557 or email enquiries@peepshr.co.uk.
