The Player vs. Coach Tension
How to Ensure Middle Manager Success
The Impactful Executive: Weekly Brief Article
Read time: 2 min
The Player vs. Coach Tension: How to Ensure Middle Manager Success
Beyond Administrivia: How Middle Managers Reshape Team Performance
According to McKinsey, the book Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work highlights the contribution of middle managers to an organization’s health, performance, and productivity.
Middle management is a conduit layer to transmit and implement an organization’s top-down vision. One of the core roles of a manager is being a people leader. They are talent magnets who attract high performers and further develop their talents.
“Middle managers are at their best when they are empowered to lead and drive impact. They can take a vision from a leader and make it a reality.”
“Managers who succeed are those who reasonably respond to the reality of the people they lead.”
Challenges arise when strategic planning and administrative tasks detract from focusing on employee development. Becoming bogged down in “administrivia” and making plans to make plans.
“[Administrivia is]...too much process, too much paperwork, too many meetings, too much performance by attendance. The common denominator is it just takes time and attention. They’re feeding the beast way more than they’re developing their employees.”
In a player-coach model, managers must balance responsibilities towards team leadership and individual contributor responsibilities (player vs. coach). While effective in small teams with deep expertise, it becomes counterproductive when a manager’s “player” responsibilities (i.e. individual contributions) account for over half their time, especially when they must coach up to a dozen or more direct reports and team members.
Here are three ways to optimize middle management flow:
Dual promotional tracks: those promoted for their expertise and those promoted for their people management skills. Before placing someone in a leadership role, providing them with early development and exposure allows you to determine their fit and willingness.
Effective communication: initiate an assembly line of crystal-clear communication between senior leadership and middle management. Clearly define what problem is being solved for, align and structure it together, and hold regular check-ins to receive input, tweak, upgrade, and review progress. Empower management to follow through on leadership visions.
Provide feedback: managers must work with their employees to remove roadblocks, challenge them to achieve more, and provide honest feedback. Knowing how to give feedback positively and non-confrontationally and receive feedback, in turn, is essential.
“Managers are critical for providing feedback, making sure new hires are holding true to the original mission, and they’re also enabling the creativity that’s required to hit that S-curve in growth.”
McKinsey’s OILS feedback framework emphasizes Observation, Impact, Listening, and Solutions plus Strategy. Observe and state the facts of a potentially problematic feedback point and its direct impact on a situation, listen to the response, and determine the solution and strategy to overcome the issue.
A shift in perspective within leadership is needed to empower middle managers and drive organizational change and development.
So What: How are managers balancing their player vs. coach time to succeed best through their teams?
Source:
Field, E., Hancock, B., & Schaninger, B. (2023, Aug 1). Are middle managers your next ace in the hole? [Web article, Podcast]. McKinsey & Company. (Link)
