With the recognition of professional managers by the whole society, middle managers in enterprises are paid more and more attention by enterprises. The middle managers of enterprises are both leaders and executors, and they are the bridge between the top and the grassroots. In order to reduce the adverse impact of middle managers' career plateau cognition, we should change and guide them from various aspects such as incentive mode and horizontal career development to stimulate their work enthusiasm.
According to a survey data published by the American "Manager" magazine from 65438 to 0998, more than 40% of enterprise presidents think that the most capable and contributing group in their organization is middle managers. Because the middle layer is the link between top managers and grass-roots employees, the manager of daily work and the organizer of production activities. From the perspective of career, middle managers are an important growth ladder, which is the high point of career for most people and a new starting point for a few people. However, because most companies are pyramid structures, the higher the level, the fewer jobs they can provide, the fiercer the competition, and the higher the quality requirements for middle managers. In big companies, those employees who are impatient may become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses. Others simply accept this reality, adjust their life and career goals, and strive to meet personal growth needs such as a sense of accomplishment and self-awareness outside work.
First, the role cognition of middle managers
In enterprise organizations, middle managers are the key link between organizational strategy and specific employees and actions. They are a group of people in the middle of the company. It is they who guard and manage all the components of the company and make it run normally. Lisa Hannibal believes that the main problems that excellent middle managers can solve include: establishing the best working mode that is conducive to task execution and goal realization; Cultivate a cooperative atmosphere that promotes efficiency and achieves goals; Determine the performance of the team; Deal with daily obstacles that are not conducive to the ultimate goal; Eliminate the factors that hinder the full completion of the work; Time management; Learning process coordination skills; Exercise middle management skills and seek career development. Nowadays, the development of enterprise management and organizational change have also changed the role orientation of middle managers. Middle managers should spend most of their time managing and promoting other people's work. If a middle manager can't realize the significance and importance of his work, it will be difficult to serve the enterprise and achieve his goals. The roles that middle managers in enterprises should usually play are as follows:
1. The main executor of the team. Every department is a team, each team has a leader, and middle managers are the main executors of the team. The realization of enterprise strategy and goal depends on firm implementation. Effective implementation is crucial to the survival of enterprises, which is the primary task of middle managers. The book "Execution" written by Larribau Sidi and Ramcharan summarizes two characteristics of the middle management behavior of change:
(1) fully invested. Middle-level managers should enthusiastically participate in the company's reform and deeply understand the implementation skills, which can not only enable them to ask correct questions and establish correct processes, but also make wise decisions, build trust with employees and achieve the predetermined goals of the enterprise.
(2) Alliance. In order to set goals, middle managers should closely link manpower, strategy and operation, let employees develop their strengths and establish a clear blueprint, which covers strategic planning, specific task decomposition and how to guide employees around strategy.
2. the builder. The middle management is under the top management, and many people think that it is passive execution of orders. In fact, both the reform of enterprises and the development of enterprise management require the middle level to undertake more decision-making and contingency responsibilities. Every middle-level manager should understand the mission and strategy of the enterprise, become the think tank of the upper management, and become the planner and builder of the competent field.
3. Communication Coordinator. In any organizational system, middle managers bear the responsibility of connecting the preceding with the following and coordinating all parties. Their job is characterized by communication. They will spend a lot of time to clarify the confusion caused by communication problems, or make up for the emotional harm caused by communication problems, especially when the enterprise is changing, their role as communicators will increase significantly. Middle-level managers should not only transmit information, but also cultivate a habit, spread and carry forward corporate culture, corporate goals and visions, actively solicit opinions and suggestions from internal and external organizations in major decisions, establish processes, and promote high-level and grassroots enterprises.
The collection of opinions will integrate and feed back valuable information, and finally realize the harmonious development between enterprises and the public and among various groups within enterprises.
Second, the challenges and opportunities for the career development of middle managers
It is more and more common for middle-level managers to enter a platform period in their career development. American psychologist Feather put forward the concept of "career plateau" from the perspective of career management. He believes that career plateau means that employees are unlikely to get further promotion at a certain stage of their career. Career plateau is considered as the peak of personal career, the relative termination of work responsibilities and challenges in upward movement, and a kind of "stagnation period" in personal career. Generally used in the same job for 5 ~6 years, and then determine whether to enter the career platform period. The obvious characteristics of flat organizational structure are: using information technology and network technology to realize the directness of information transmission by compressing the middle management level; Enhance the participation of ordinary employees in decision-making by increasing authorization. As a result of the flattening of organizational structure, the contradiction between the increase in the supply of high-quality and high-skilled employees and the limited promotion opportunities has become increasingly prominent. Middle-level managers generally feel that employment pressure will increase in the future, and career development generally presents the characteristics of "platform period". Psychologist Bardwick pointed out that the probability of each employee reaching the top of the organization through vertical promotion channels is only 65,438+0%, and predicted that career plateau is a widespread phenomenon at a certain stage of career development, and this phenomenon will continue. In this case, the limited constraints of middle managers' own career development are constantly strengthened, so they basically become more angry, depressed, irritable, stagnant and unfocused, and their work performance declines, thus reducing the performance of their departments and organizations. Commitment to promotion, one of the most inspiring means, is no longer an obvious means to motivate performance. It should be noted that the loss of career development opportunities is a common mental stress in organizations at present.
Middle managers are "susceptible groups" of job burnout. According to the survey data of more than 30,000 people with different occupations by Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006, the job stress ranking of middle managers in enterprises is 1. Therefore, it is an important means for enterprises to analyze the causes of job burnout of middle-level managers and take targeted intervention measures to reduce the turnover rate of middle-level backbone and maintain their high job performance.
However, we should also see the opportunities for career development of middle managers. The role of middle managers in enterprises is changing. Rosabeth Moss Kanter pointed out: "In traditional organizations, middle managers are gatekeepers, transmitters of information and interpreters of organizational policies. In this process, middle managers can not only increase value, but also cause value loss. Because in this process, it may cause distortion of information transmission. " In modern society, a lot of work embodies the value of knowledge, and knowledge becomes the basis of work. The assumption in the traditional management concept that workers have no skills and need to issue orders and controls to work hard has gradually been abandoned by people, and management has undergone major changes in essence. The most significant change is the change of managers from the original expert to all-round management activities; The transformation from individual management to team management mode; Middle managers have changed from passive and operational roles under the traditional hierarchical structure to active and decision-making roles; From traditional hierarchical information transmitters to decision makers, authorizers, creators, trainers and coaches, middle managers become real leaders of enterprises. Compared with top managers, middle managers have more advantages. For example, middle managers can get the information they need more accurately if they have the first-hand information about production, customers and employees. Have a wider social network and be able to communicate with employees better; Have rich working experience and professional knowledge. This also indicates that the status of middle managers has not declined, but has become an advantageous resource for enterprises to gain competition.
Third, the individual coping strategies of middle managers.
1. Change the professional concept.
The traditional concept of career development generally believes that the only sign of an individual's growth and success in an organization lies in the continuous improvement of his position at the organizational level, and middle managers will naturally take promotion as a commitment to recognize his contribution value. This narrow and traditional concept of career development, under the impact of the flat wave of organizational structure, makes middle managers the first victims, which is the main incentive for them to be pessimistic in the face of career development difficulties. In order to get rid of the predicament, middle managers must change their concept of career development and take whether the work is challenging as the standard to measure success. Derr( 1986) divides occupations into internal occupations and external occupations. External occupation refers to the opportunities and constraints existing in the organization. Internal occupation refers to the personal career planning of employees. Therefore, from the perspective of foreign occupation, organizational environment is the basic condition and external driving force of personal career development; From the perspective of internal career, the decisive factor that determines the success of individual career development lies in the size of individual's ability to recognize and control career development. In the modern economic environment, personal career development is too dependent on the organizational environment, which often puts itself in a passive position. To be the master of one's own career development, one must throw away the shackles of organizational environment and get rid of excessive dependence on the organization for career planning. Middle managers should establish practical personal career development goals on the basis of making a correct evaluation of themselves.
2. Strengthen self-study and enhance employability.
Global competition and the development of information technology require organizations to have the ability to quickly respond to changes, which requires organizations to delegate more control rights and give employees more decision-making power. For middle managers, we should actively learn how to maintain good cooperation with team members and cultivate teamwork spirit; Master brand-new management skills and methods; Master strategies that can actively change employees' work behavior; We should have the innovative spirit of breaking the routine and establishing a new management model; Grasp the trend of the times and shoulder more important responsibilities. Therefore, for middle managers, the focus of personal ability development should be changed from "expert" under the traditional functional mode to "all-rounder" under the modern production mode in order to enhance their employability.
3. Seek help from headhunting companies.
Headhunting companies allocate the resources of the whole society, regardless of enterprises or talents, without geographical restrictions. For middle managers, by keeping in touch with headhunters, they can keep abreast of job vacancies in other parts of China and even abroad, provide quick information for their career choices, and get career development advice and help from headhunters in time. However, middle managers should carefully choose headhunting consultants. A high-quality headhunting consultant should first be a qualified career development consultant, who can give substantive career help to middle managers.
Fourth, the enterprise level provides help for middle managers.
Tan and salomon put forward that the phenomenon of career plateau is not only a concern of employees, but also a concern of organizations. They believe that organizations can solve the negative impact of career plateau from human resources management measures such as job redesign, job enrichment, work plan, job rotation and paid vacation. Ivancevith and Defrank believe that organizations can take psychological counseling and other measures, and use specific strategies such as career counseling, relaxation skills training and stress management seminars to help employees at the career plateau.
1. Flexible choice of incentives. First, the combination of material incentives and spiritual incentives; Second, the combination of short-term incentives and long-term incentives; The third is psychological motivation; Fourth, knowledge motivation; Fifth, career development incentives. Special emphasis is placed on career development incentives. Career development incentives are based on the self-management of middle managers. Enterprises help middle managers to make reasonable development plans, so that middle managers can maintain a high output level and stimulate middle managers to be promoted to higher positions. If enterprises want to retain middle-level managers, they must maintain their own personalized development, let them know their career prospects and use careers to motivate talents. Career development incentive is an important measure to retain talents, and the commonly used means are:
(1) Collaborative target management, that is, through career development planning, make the personal goals of middle managers combine and coordinate with the long-term goals of enterprises, understand their career interests, and guide them to develop in the direction that enterprises need.
(2) Participate in management, that is, let middle managers participate in enterprise management, encourage them to put forward original and valuable suggestions, and let their potential be brought into play.
(3) Decentralized participation. The main career goal of middle managers is to gain more sense of accomplishment and desire to enter the decision-making level of the company, and delegate some decision-making power that originally belonged to the top to the middle. On the one hand, it satisfies the psychological needs of the middle class, enhances their sense of participation, and makes them feel satisfied and self-improved; On the other hand, for the company, the task is decentralized without increasing any cost, which improves the efficiency of top managers, and at the same time, it has done some exploration and experimental work for selecting top managers from the middle level. In addition, shifting the focus of decision-making down will be beneficial to the democratic management of the company and win the hearts of more employees.
2. Lateral career development can alleviate the "career plateau" crisis of middle managers. Horizontal career development path is an effective measure to alleviate the contradiction of vertical promotion. There are mainly job rotation and job enrichment. The implementation of job rotation can make middle managers become generalists and generalists. Job rotation does not change the nature of work, that is, changing employees from one job to another after a certain period of time. Through diversified professional activities, we can improve employees' work freshness and avoid boredom caused by job specialization. Proper job rotation can keep employees' sensitivity and creativity. In addition, some employees realize that they have the potential to engage in other jobs after encountering the career plateau, and job rotation can provide these employees with opportunities to develop their potential. In addition, job rotation enhances the adaptability of employees to the environment during the career platform period, cultivates employees' various abilities, and finally enhances employees' value. It should be said that these benefits brought by rotation are irreplaceable by promotion and money. Therefore, in order to make the effect of job rotation more obvious, we should pay attention to the following issues in the process of implementing job rotation:
(1) Job rotation must be based on voluntary selection;
(2) The salary and work should be consistent with the position before the rotation;
(3) Enterprises should allow mistakes in job rotation;
(4) Pay attention to the summary and feedback of rotation results. This will give them the opportunity to master new skills, stimulate their freshness and interest again, and stimulate their work vitality and enthusiasm, thus making greater contributions to the organization.
3. Guide middle managers to become mentors for young employees.
For middle-level managers who are on the career plateau and are older, due to the decline of their work initiative and sense of participation, enterprises should take appropriate measures to guide them to become formal or informal mentors for young employees in order to obtain the best enterprise benefits.
4. Build a salary system based on skills, knowledge and ability.
The salary system based on SKC pays more attention to the ability of individuals than the work they undertake. Salary should be based on the growth of personal performance and skills, and help middle managers gain the value of successful career development by constantly increasing their job responsibilities. This salary system makes employees pay more attention to the improvement of their own quality and ability. Although the positions may not change, they can also get higher returns. Through this salary system, middle managers can be rewarded for learning different breadth, depth and types of knowledge and skills, and they can use these knowledge and skills to improve labor productivity.
5. Design a variety of long-term training "menu".
In addition to autonomous learning, enterprises should also provide diversified training for middle managers to meet their different development needs. In order to improve the training effect, we should first change the cognitive attitude of middle managers to training, encourage middle managers to actively participate in the analysis of training needs and the formulation of training plans, and achieve the training purpose of "teaching students in accordance with their aptitude"; Secondly, on the one hand, we should pay attention to the learning of new management concepts and theoretical knowledge, on the other hand, we should adopt diversified training methods, such as case analysis, scenario simulation, leaderless group discussion, role-playing and teamwork, so as to greatly improve their management ability. Through training, on the one hand, the knowledge and skills of middle managers are improved, on the other hand, they feel that they are valued and see the prospect of career development, which also helps middle managers to identify with corporate culture, improve their commitment to the enterprise and stimulate their enthusiasm for work.
Expansion: how to become a middle-level manager
A "missionary" loyal to his faith
Every enterprise has its own corporate vision and values. As a middle-level manager, you need to understand and promote the company's values and spread them to every employee to be a "preacher"
As a leading Internet company in China, Alibaba has successfully established its own corporate culture. Middle managers have played a very important role.
All employees of Taobao should learn to stand upside down. The purpose of doing this is to let employees learn to think reversely at work. For example, when middle managers find that employees encounter problems at work and can't figure it out, middle managers will take the initiative to find employees and let them stand upside down. Then, they will discuss with employees how to solve this problem and find the root cause. They don't just do handstands and let employees solve their own problems, but combine handstands with problem solving.
The communication between corporate vision and values needs to form a certain communication mechanism within the company. Therefore, middle managers should become the "preachers" of the company. For example, the new employees of Alibaba don't agree with the corporate culture, and the middle managers will not directly criticize them, but will lead the new employees to visit the company and tell them stories about Ali and other employees.
Ali has established many mechanisms to spread corporate culture, but no matter which mechanism, middle managers have played a very important role.
Why should middle managers play the role of "preacher"? How should we know the role of "preacher"?
1. Middle managers are closer to employees.
Compared with company executives, middle managers have more opportunities to get in touch with ordinary employees and get to know them better. Middle-level managers of enterprises often start from front-line employees, and they know more about their psychological state and working state.
Because middle managers are closer to employees, enterprises hope that middle managers can publicize and spread the company's vision and values, so as to enhance the centripetal force of enterprises.
2. How do middle managers identify "preachers"
For enterprises, it is very important for employees to identify with the values and vision of the enterprise. And some middle managers often don't know what to do when facing such an important responsibility, which leads to disappointment of superiors and boredom of employees.
So how do we play the role of "preacher"? First of all, we should have a clear and objective understanding of this role.
1. Loyalty: Be clear about your responsibilities and obligations and be loyal to the organization.
2. Execution: We are spreading the values of the enterprise, and our vision is fast, timely and effective.
3. Ways and means: In the process of communication, we should pay attention to ways and means, and do it in a way that employees can easily understand and like, instead of preaching.
A loyal minister who knows the limits.
What are the emperors in the history of China afraid of? It's the captaincy who support soldiers and respect themselves. Similarly, in an enterprise, executives are also afraid of such subordinates. Once the middle-level managers are labeled as self-respecting by their superiors, what may be waiting for you is "a glass of wine to relieve the soldiers."
The functional rights given to us by enterprises are to enable us to better manage departments and ensure the stability of the enterprise. If middle managers want to gain the trust of their superiors, they must make themselves a loyal minister who knows how to measure.
Xiao Wang of our company has done a good job in this respect. In order to open the international market, the company put Xiao Wang in charge of a very important project. However, Xiao Wang did not get carried away by his own rights. He thinks that when he has the power, he can dominate and decide everything in this project. When he meets something that he can make a decision, he makes his own decision and asks for instructions from his superiors when he meets major problems. Without asking for instructions, without arrogance or rashness, Xiao Wang perfectly played the role of a loyal minister who knew the limits.
So, how should middle managers become a loyal minister who knows the limits?
1. Don't feel good about yourself.
In practical work, some managers pay special attention to their own level and like to show their superiority in front of employees. Moreover, they usually feel good about themselves, feel that they are very capable and change their superiors' decisions without authorization. Excellent middle managers should not only be close to subordinates, but also conscientiously implement the work arrangements of superiors, and ask for instructions and report in time when encountering problems.
2. Don't care about your treatment
There are also many middle managers who think that "I am a manager and my salary should reach a certain level". Before asking for welfare benefits, we should ask ourselves whether we can do a good job at this level.
Don't think that you are the only professional.
Some middle managers have excellent working ability, and always think that no one in this department is more professional than me, so don't tell me what to do if my superiors don't know anything. This arrogant attitude is a taboo in the workplace. Always keep an empty cup mentality, learn with an open mind and improve yourself.
Flexible "admonishing ministers"
In enterprises, middle managers still have a lot of work to be responsible for. If they want to carry out these tasks smoothly, they must get the support and help from their superiors. Therefore, middle managers must make suggestions to their superiors in time in their work, so that they can agree with our ideas.
Our company produces thermal imaging products. At one time, we launched several products at the same time. I found that the sales situation and customer feedback of two products were not good, which increased the workload of technicians. At the same time, the service quality of the company's flagship products has also been affected. I think the company should do a good job of flagship products, and other products can be suspended. After careful consideration, I adopted the form of a written report to report the reasons and data to the leaders. Finally, my suggestion was adopted by the company. Therefore, when companies make wrong decisions, middle managers should bravely put forward their own ideas and suggestions. However, when we report our work, we should pay attention to the methods. We can report our work according to the following three tips.
1. Choose the right time: The choice of reporting time is very important. If we choose the right time, we can successfully achieve our reporting purpose. On the contrary, it will not only fail to achieve our reporting purpose, but also leave a negative impression on the leaders.
2. Choose the right way: First of all, we must understand the boss's personality, whether he is grumpy or gentle, and whether his communication tendency is reading or listening. If he is reading, we will take the form of a written report; if he is listening, we will take the form of an oral report.
3. Choose an appropriate method: when reporting, you should be concise, clear-headed, use more data and facts, and don't hide or make false statements.
Balanced "microphone"
Enterprises endow middle managers with management functions because their superiors trust us and believe that we can bear relevant responsibilities and share their worries. But in practical work, some middle managers always stand on the opposite side of their superiors and are euphemistically called representatives of employees' public opinion. When senior leaders make new policies or plans, they always jump out to object and declare, "I am talking about the voice of employees."
This is a common problem of many middle-level leaders. We ignore that our position is appointed by superiors, not elected by employees. The purpose of middle managers should be to solve problems for their superiors, not to cause trouble.
Liu fired an executive at an executive meeting on the grounds that "I asked you to solve my problem instead of questioning my decision."
So, how can middle managers not only solve problems for their superiors, but also win the support and love of their subordinates?
First of all, from the enterprise's point of view, middle managers should first stand in the enterprise's point of view, answer questions for subordinates, guide subordinates to put themselves in their shoes and consider the interests of enterprises.
2. Modify the system flow: When subordinates raise questions, carefully review the system questioned by subordinates to see if there is any need to modify it, and then report to the leader in the preparation plan.
A model of self-discipline
Middle managers should not only perform management duties, but also perform specific work affairs in their work. Therefore, middle managers must work hard to show the boss that we are a hard-working and capable role model and can play a leading role in the team. Understand that the leadership style of a team often determines the style of the whole department. If the leader is careless and doesn't know how to be self-disciplined, then the following people will follow suit. Therefore, if you want your superiors to recognize you and believe that you can manage the department for him, you must set an example of being strict with yourself.
To do this role well, middle managers should do the following three things.
1. Learn to use time: Middle managers should learn to use scattered time and concentrate on their work, or adopt 28-hour working method, pomodoro technique and other effective time management methods to improve work efficiency.
2. Good at decision-making: Middle managers should be good at finding out the boundary conditions of problems, analyzing the essence of problems, finding out the root causes and making effective decisions and plans.
3. Result-oriented: Middle managers should be result-oriented and pay attention to results, not processes.
As a middle-level manager with the dual identities of manager and managed, we often have to constantly change our roles in our work, so we are required to recognize our role orientation and the functions and functions of the changed roles. Only in this way can we successfully wander between roles.
Summary:
If middle managers want to succeed in their careers, love their subordinates and be appreciated by their superiors, they must learn to manage their superiors well. The first step in managing their superiors is to know clearly what role we are going to play in front of them. Having a clear and objective role orientation for ourselves is the first and very important step for us to enter the workplace. Only by clarifying your role orientation can you switch between different roles perfectly.