Middle Managers Wear Many Hats (Part 1)

Being in the middle of an organization is a lot like being the middle child in a family. These leaders have to learn to get along with everybody around them and survive the various family dynamics: following, leading, cajoling, appeasing, and partnering as needed. It’s not an easy task. So what are the leaders in the middle of an organization to do when they are required to wear many hats but have only one head? Here are a few guidelines: 1. Remember that the hat sets the context when interacting with others. Every role or hat you are asked to wear has its own responsibilities and objectives. If you change hats, keep in mind that the context changes. You wouldn’t interact in the same way with your spouse, your children, your boss, and your employees, would you? The goal often determines the role and the approach to take. 2. Don’t use one hat to accomplish a task required for another hat. Consider an executive assistant. They constantly attend meetings for their boss when he is out of town. They do so that they can keep their boss up to date on strategy and important changes that are occurring. When working in that capacity, they have to be careful not to abuse their communication link to get their own way. They must be careful when to claim they are “speaking for the boss.” Their words carry great weight. Likewise, after they attend a meeting and are filling their boss in on what happened, they must be careful to represent the opinions of the people in the meeting fairly and accurately. They have to be an expert in knowing what hat to where in any given situation, and they may be required to change hats in an instant. They have a very powerful position, but they never use one hat to accomplish the tasks that may be required in another capacity. They must take the time to cultivate each working relationship on its own term, and act accordingly. It’s often a balancing act. To be continued... Are you struggling to know which hat to wear and when? Truth@Life can help. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a FREE consultation. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/