65: LEADING FROM

OUTLINE Middle managers play difficult—but key—roles in every organization. A great middle manager is a translator, a coach, and a scorekeeper.

• Translator. A middle manager translates the organizational vision into achievable steps and systems that accomplish the desired results. • Coach. A middle manager coaches by recruiting, training, empowering, and releases team members. • Scorekeeper. A middle manager constantly measures effective execution against defined objectives.

SUMMARY Thank you for joining the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast! If you’re reading this, you’re a leader! But you may not necessarily be leading from the top of your organization. You may be in a middle management position, meaning you both lead a team and answer to leaders above you in your organization.

It can be hard to be in the middle, and middle managers sometimes get a bad rap. Middle managers often get blame from all directions—from those who report to them and from those above them. Middle managers are often given seemingly conflicting objectives, like “keep expenses down but improve results.”

When you’re leading from the middle, you deal with high expectations from senior management while still needing to get results from those under you who may not understand the full perspective. A middle manager usually has the full responsibility for achieving results but not full authority to make decisions and influence direction.

Here are the qualities of people who lead strong from the middle:

1. Translator

Typically, senior managers, owners, or CEOs and other chief officers set the tone, direction, and vision in organizations. As a middle manager, your job is to translate that organizational vision down into your team. Your job is to explain what management wants, why it’s important, and why your team is uniquely suited to hit that target.

In some organizations, this translator component is broken or missing completely. In that case, upper management has expectations that teams further down think are unreasonable. There is a gap. As the translator, you close that gap! You remind your team why you’re doing what you’re doing and translate the objective into doable steps.

While you’re translating vision from senior leaders down into the team, you’re also translating back up to your leaders. Leaders at the top may be disengaged, spread too thin, or simply flying at a high altitude. As a great middle manager, help your boss understand what your team is facing, what is realistic, what morale is like, and anything else they may not understand. A translator promotes understanding both up and down in the organization.

(For more on how to have influence in your organization when you’re not in a typical position of leadership, check out past episodes called “Leading Up” in the Podcast Resources section below.)

2. Coach

A middle manager can sometimes be the stereotypical gray-haired bureaucrat. But as you’re working to be a great middle manager, try to instead see yourself as a coach, as one who’s played the game. Now, you have the honor of helping others succeed.

• A boss wants people to accomplish what the boss cares about. • A coach wants to help players succeed and help the whole team win.

Coaches recruit talent, build teams, develop people, and release leaders. And as with the translator role, as a coach you have the ability to influence the leaders above you. Not everyone in your organization has access to leadership—but you do. And not everyone in your organization is rooting for leadership, serving them and helping them—but you are.

“One of the biggest gifts you can offer your boss or leader is honesty.” –@craiggroeschel

The higher someone rises in leadership, the harder it is for them to find people who will tell them the truth. As a leader who takes their middle-manager position seriously, bring the gift of well-intentioned honesty and feedback to your leader.

3. Scorekeeper

Finally, you’re a scorekeeper. Senior management needs to see results. On the other hand, your team is usually bent more toward themselves than achieving the mission. So again, it’s up to you. Close the gap.

Create the systems, structure, processes, lines of communication, morale, and accountability that maximize everyone’s gifts toward the mission, and then measure the outcomes. Measuring, reporting, analyzing—these help you know if you’re winning.

• Constantly measure effective execution against the defined objectives. Are we winning? • Build helpful accountability into the daily workflow.

“The only reason you wouldn’t keep score is if you’re not playing to win.” –@craiggroeschel

A Word About Attitude

You attitude through all this matters more than you can imagine. When you’re translating, when you’re coaching, when you’re keeping score, your tone and mood impact everything. Remember, you are representing senior management to your team; what you say and how you say it affects how they see the mission and the organization.

Being a great middle manager is not easy. Focus on creating culture, building morale, and getting results. Keep communication flowing upward to your leaders and downward into your team. Help resolve conflicts. Be honest. And be prepared to not get the credit you deserve—at least, at first. As you focus on lightening your leader’s load, bringing understanding, translating, coaching, and keeping score, eventually you’ll be recognized for what you are, a great leader.

“Your biggest win isn’t getting recognized. Your biggest win is getting results.” –@craiggroeschel

Remember, you don’t have to know it all to be a great leader! Be yourself. People would rather follow a leader who is always real than one who is always right.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Here's an exercise you can do to grow as a leader—ask yourself and your team these questions:

1. Of the three metaphors (translator, coach and scorekeeper), which one is your greatest strength? Which one needs the most development? 2. What would your leader and your direct reports say about how your attitude, mood, and tone is impacting the organization? Is your leader’s opinion of you different than your direct reports’ opinions?

PODCAST RESOURCES • More from Craig: www.craiggroeschel.com • Download Leader Guides: www.life.church/leadershippodcast • Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: www.go2.lc/cglpitunes • Subscribe on Google Play: www.go2.lc/cglpgoogle • Free Church Resources & Tools: www.life.church/churches • Related Episodes: o “Leading Up, Part 1”: www.go2.lc/leadingup o “Leading Up, Part 2”: www.go2.lc/leadinguppt2

CONNECT WITH CRAIG • Ask questions: www.craiggroeschel.com/connect • Facebook: www.facebook.com/craiggroeschel • Twitter: @craiggroeschel • Instagram: @craiggroeschel

THREE KEYS TO SHARPEN YOUR LEADERSHIP Craig hand-picked three episodes designed to help you build a strong leadership foundation. You'll learn practical ways to influence your leaders, manage your time wisely, and improve how you communicate. Head to www.go2.lc/threekeys to get the episodes and leader guides sent right to your inbox.

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