Category: leadership

Bridge

FabrizioLeave a comment

When one gets squeezed between two opposing forces, it is quite usual to start depicting both forces as enemies.

Lousy middle management is a great representation of this.

Middle managers are at the crossroads of contrasting needs and ambitions, and the result can easily get to “management has unreasonable expectations” and “my team is lazy and ineffective“.

Of course, this is a divisive approach. Soon enough everybody hates everybody, nobody is happy, and things never get done.

Being in the middle, though, also means having the opportunity to build a bridge. To stop and sit down and listen to what those needs and ambitions are about, help each part to formulate them in a way that makes sense to the other, and finding ways to be helpful and support action in a common direction.

It takes time, energy, and a lot of confidence in ourselves and others. And it always pays off.

Extend your hand

FabrizioLeave a comment

When there is tension, when you feel those that are not on your side are simply too far away, when talking is arguing, when it seems impossible to find common ground.

Extend your hand.

A small step

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you talk about change, you might get a lot of resistance or a lot of cheering. Most likely, a mix of the two.

In both cases though, you are not one step closer to the change you are seeking.

And that is because telling about change is only one small step on a highway that also features telling about change again, finding supporters and aids, telling once more, showing what change is, buying in those who are against it, preparing everyone for change, reshaping the change story and spread it a bit farther, measuring change, following up to change, and initiating what comes after change.

A meeting or an email might be a good start, they are never the end of it. Even when everyone agrees. Particularly when everybody agrees.

Building relationships

FabrizioLeave a comment

The way you communicate reality is often more important than reality itself in building bonds. Or breaking them.

Say you have to share a decision with your team, one that is not fully fair, one you were not involved in making, one that will not make them happy.

You can state the fact, and say there is little that can be done to change reality. You can say that “little” is something your team will have to pull off, and that the deadline for it is in one week.

Or you can still state the fact, and say you are sorry for the situation. There is still something that can be done, and you will drive the effort, coordinating the work of the different team members.

Reality has not changed between option 1 and option 2.

Relationships have though.

Gripes go up

FabrizioLeave a comment

If you are in a position of power, be mindful not to complain to people who report to you.

Work is probably tougher, you are asked to juggle a load of different tasks, you are supposed to find time to talk to people, you negotiate, compromise, often work after hours, and I am sure at times it feels like simply too much to handle.

Yet, no one has forced that position onto you. You have a role that reflects the additional burdens, and most likely a salary that does that too. And if people who report to you can find the empathy to appreciate your difficulties, you are certainly more equipped (or you should be) to find the empathy to not push your frustration down the ranks.

Your organization might be flat, your management style open, friendly, and transparent.

But gripes go up.

That’s the only way you can affect change.

Private Reiben: Hey, so, Captain, what about you? I mean, you don’t gripe at all?

Captain Miller: I don’t gripe to you, Reiben. I’m a captain. There’s a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up. You gripe to me, I gripe to my superior officer, so on, so on, and so on. I don’t gripe to you. I don’t gripe in front of you.

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