Leading from the middle has its own unique challenges. It requires dealing with diverse stakeholders with differing interests and priorities. The upper management expects midlevel managers to have the big picture, sell change agendas, and make decisions expediently, sometimes, without giving them enough info and time. On the other hand, those who report to these midlevel managers expect the latter to meet their needs immediately and help them overcome the challenges they are facing in the now. As a result, midlevel managers find themselves sandwiched in the middle with so many constraints and moving targets.

Unfortunately, regardless of the crucial bridging role they play, new midlevel managers are ill-equipped to lead from the middle successfully. Though they are backbones and indispensable for the success of any organization, they were raised through ranks without been given the proper tools and leadership support system to succeed. Gallup’s 2016 poll revealed that 82% of managers aren’t very good at leading people. Because of this lack of leadership capability of midlevel managers, the US corporations alone are losing up to $550 billion every year.

Directly or indirectly, managers are responsible for most of the troubles in many organizations such as conflicts, low morale, and high turnover. A survey of over 1 million employees in the U.S. revealed that the top reason people leave their jobs is because of their manager. This shows how people leave managers, not organizations.

Thus, this program equips first-time midlevel managers to excel in leading from the middle effectively. It empowers them to develop the essential competencies they need to handle multiple priorities and lead multiple projects and teams successfully from the get-go.

Who: Supervisors aspiring to become managers, recently promoted managers, and experienced midlevel managers.

Learning Objectives:

The main goal of this program is to empower new mid-level managers to succeed in leading multiple teams and projects to enhance organizational effectiveness by leading from the middle effectively right away. Below are some of the specific objectives of the program:

• To understand why leading from the middle matters, and recognize the challenges of leading from the middle,
• To recognize the importance of managing multiple priorities and competing interests,
• To acknowledge leadership skills necessary to succeed in leading from the middle and begin developing these mandatory competencies to meet their respective team’s goals, and also contribute toward accomplishing the mission of the department/organization.
• To learn how to influence their superiors, bust silos, create coalitions with peers, and other stakeholders to excel in leading from the middle out of the gate, and
• To get the latest insights, workable models, useful tools, templates, practical approaches, strategies, and tactics to succeed in leading from the middle.

Format: 30 – 90 minutes keynote (in person or virtually)

Note:

1. The recently published book “Overcoming 1st Timer Syndrome”, Amazon’s #1 Best Seller, will be given to participants as a bonus.
2. As a follow-up to this keynote, we can customize and deliver our 12 sessions Middle Leaders leadership development program for your first-timers.
3. You can also request the Middle Leaders program to be given to your middle leaders in the form of group coaching.
4. Participants will be given a soft copy of the upcoming book on the same theme as soon as it is published.