Move away from ‘fire focus’ by nurturing ‘the right stuff’ in middle managers
The skills mid-level leaders need will be unique and are ideally documented in a leadership development plan.
Consider this simple, common example of how middle managers’ skills, traits and orientation are shaped: A tactical need arises, and a senior executive makes a request of the manager, who executes on that request. Check the box. Project completed.
Then another tactical need comes up, but this time, it is defined more as a problem. The executive’s request to fix the problem is laced with a greater sense of urgency, causing the manager to deprioritize other projects and “put out the fire.” Another box checked. Good job.
This pattern tends to accelerate and be repeated week in and week out, so that teams often end up complaining, “We’re so busy, running 100 mph getting things done.” In DDJ Myers’ organizational development work, executive teams are often surprised to discover how much time they spend in this reactive mode.
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