Don’t be in a hurry to move on to “upper” management, yet.

There are many jobs on this planet that you would dread spending the rest of your career in, but middle-management is simply not one of them.

In a very unfortunate post, Steve writes on AssociatedContent about avoiding “Getting Stuck in Middle Management“; an overall paper that gives you a true reflection of the dreadful reputation given for the past 15 years to what is probably one of the most exciting jobs around: middle-manager.

Think of it. What a nice way to describe your job… a “transitional” job, unwanted by most, looked-down by an all-mighty “upper” management layer. An executant’s job, without any prospect but getting promoted to the layer above… that the most zealous will fly-away from and the field-experts will desert… leaving mediocre, non-performers in the space. Wow… that’s not really exciting is it?

So let’s make it right straight-away. If you’re starting your management career as a middle-manager, you’ve got the right job. In a near past, some old-school executives disliked thinking of themselves as middle-managers but they were just wrong and they know it. Modern executives now like to think as themselves being middle-managers.

Middle-managers are now seen as the “real” thing. Middle-managers know. They are pragmatic, close to the Business getting done on the ground. They’re close to their People and see them in action. There’s less and less management jobs where getting “abstract” from the real business undertook by your company pays-off.

Take Akof’s word on it, a WORLD of opportunities exist between the lines of our dear executives and beloved field-experts. Your career will spawn from there. In this space, your creativity will make a difference.

So don’t be in a hurry to move-on to “upper” management yet. You might regret it bitterly. Yes, there may be recipes and “survival checklists” getting you to move up the management chain very fast, but middle-management is becoming the new breath of any organization. Some organizations understood it already and are shaping themselves in consequence, but not all of them; so pick the right one. Eventually, things WILL shift for a vast majority of companies. It’ll take pioneers to get there, and some of these may be you.

Middle-management is and will always be the job of the New generations. A job where the last thing expected from you is the brainless execution of old rules. Management and leadership are disciplines in constant evolution. Just look at the controversy surrounding it. Just look at all the literature on new Leadership and Management practices… all the white papers written on dysfunctional Corporations.

Middle-management is a territory for the youth, a forbidden territory to old-school thinkers that have “seen it all”. Look their desperation and search for direction. Look at the booming of the coaching industry. Look at the controversy surrounding 21st century management practices.

Now is the time where middle-management injects Entrepreneurship in Companies and Corporations of all sizes. This is precisely because such outdated posts are nowadays a “non-sense” that you, dear middle-manager and Akof reader, must learn how to recognize them… in order to better avoid them.

It is time to dump your copy of Jeffrey Y. Fox’s “How to become a CEO” to the profit of a copy of “Re-imagine” from Tom Peters. It is time to stimulate your creativity and play the elbows. You’re in the right job for that. Oh… there are certainly many generation clashes and challenges on the way, but pioneers like you know that already .