How to Tell If You’re a Middle Leader: Hallmark #3

• March 2019
  • Mar 4, 2019 Leadership Beats Pizza 2 to 1! Mar 4, 2019
  • Mar 11, 2019 How to Tell If You're a Middle Leader: Hallmark #1 Mar 11, 2019
  • Mar 18, 2019 How to Tell If You're A Middle Leader: Hallmark # 2 Mar 18, 2019
  • Mar 25, 2019 How to Tell If You’re a Middle Leader: Hallmark #3 Mar 25, 2019
• April 2019
  • Apr 1, 2019 Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey: The Unexpected Middle Leader Apr 1, 2019
  • Apr 8, 2019 Decision Time: Don't Panic! Apr 8, 2019
  • Apr 15, 2019 When the Phone Stops Ringing! A Lesson About Status from a Great Leader Apr 15, 2019
  • Apr 22, 2019 I'd Rather Be Fishing: 3 Ideas for Transformational Isolation Apr 22, 2019
  • Apr 29, 2019 Should a Leader Be a Follower? What’s a Middle Leader to do? Apr 29, 2019
• May 2019
  • May 6, 2019 Serious Miscalculations That Can Cost You Your Leadership! #1 May 6, 2019
  • May 15, 2019 Serious Miscalculations That Can Cost You Your Leadership: #2 and # 3 May 15, 2019
• June 2019
  • Jun 3, 2019 Observing Organizational Culture: The Advantage Goes to the Middle Leader Jun 3, 2019
  • Jun 17, 2019 The Shadow of Power and the Place of Influence Jun 17, 2019
  • Jun 24, 2019 To Decide or Not to Decide? That is the Question. Jun 24, 2019
• July 2019
  • Jul 1, 2019 3 Ways that Making Pizza is A Lot like Middle Leadership Jul 1, 2019
  • Jul 8, 2019 Middle Leadership: A Lesson from Homer Smith Jul 8, 2019
  • Jul 15, 2019 When Talking to Yourself is Not Such a Bad Idea Jul 15, 2019
  • Jul 29, 2019 What would your organization be without you? Jul 29, 2019
• August 2019
  • Aug 26, 2019 Exhaustion Can Spread Through Organizations Like a Fungus! Aug 26, 2019
• September 2019
  • Sep 3, 2019 3 Simple Habits that can Help you Survive Organizational Ambiguity.   Sep 3, 2019
  • Sep 16, 2019 Leading in Ambiguity? Ask "How" instead of "Why." Sep 16, 2019
• October 2019
  • Oct 21, 2019 Leading in Ambiguity? Observe the Physicist: Seek Out New Perspectives! Oct 21, 2019
• February 2020
  • Feb 6, 2020 Leading in Ambiguity? Learn to See Systems and Observe How They Function—Seek a Wider View. Feb 6, 2020
• April 2020
  • Apr 24, 2020 I'm Working From Home. Why Can't I Get More Done? Apr 24, 2020

Blog RSS

This is the final post in a series of three posts on how to tell if you’re a middle leader.

For those who have not read parts one and two, here are the main points. Hallmark #1: You can tell you’re a middle leader when you have people who look to you for leadership and you are located in the middle of the organization’s structure. Hallmark #2: You can tell you’re a middle leader when you find that you have to be both follower and leader.

And now to the 3rd and final hallmark of a middle leader.

Hallmark #3: You know you’re a middle leader if you have a responsibility both upward and downward in the organization.

The middle leader has a responsibility upward to those they follow, and downward to those they lead. It’s a balancing act! On one side of the responsibility-scale is the duty to be an organizational agent with an eye toward the growth and forward movement of the organization. On the other side of the responsibility-scale is the commitment to help the people you lead to grow and develop.

In this way the middle leader is the link between the expectations of the organization and the day to day carrying out of those expectations. More specifically, you are the link between the hopes, dreams, and mission of an organization and the day to day carrying out of those hopes, dreams, and mission.

Being in the middle is not an easy place to be. There is an expression that describes the discomfort: “it’s like being between a rock and a hard place.” Or as the inimitable Margaret Thatcher is quoted as saying: “Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.” Her message is, “make a choice.” I’m saying, as a middle leader you don’t have a choice; you’re positioned right in the middle of the organization, so be careful. Expectations are high and so are the stakes.

When you’re a middle leader, there are a lot of people to please, and that’s never an easy thing. Think of it! You are positioned in the middle of the organization, which means that you are surrounded not only by people but by the organization’s mission and culture. You are both follower and leader—more people to please. You have a responsibility both upward and downward in the organization —more people again. At this point I think you might be getting the point. Leading in the middle is more about being able to navigate relationships than it is managing resources, following policy and procedure, or even—believe it or not—leading! Of course it’s about leading, but effective leading in the middle can seldom take place without relationships.

Here’s the key: anyone whose position is located in the middle of an organization, who is both follower and leader and has a responsibility both upward and downward in the organization, can be considered a middle leader. But the great middle leader is one who knows how to navigate relationships. Work on gaining the tools necessary to better navigate relationships, use those tools properly and you become a top leader in the middle! There it is, that people thing again!

The more you know about people, the more your want people to succeed, the more you work on earning the respect of the people who lead you and the people you lead, the greater the middle leader you will become. The story of leadership is after all a human story, played out in real time, with real people. It’s not rocket science, it’s people!

And so we end the series with a quick recap:

• Hallmark #1: You know you’re a middle leader when you are positioned in the middle of an organizational structure.

• Hallmark #2: You know you’re a middle leader when you must be both leader and follower.

• Hallmark #3: You know you’re a middle leader when you have a responsibility both upward and downward in the organization.

If this is you, welcome to middle leadership!

In case you still think that middle leaders can’t make a difference, in my next post I’m going to tell the story of Dr. Francis Oldham Kelsey, the unexpected middle leader. Looking forward to talk with you then.