Planning for the new year, you may have already noticed that a good bit of your time will be consumed in meetings. Nothing wrong here, we’re talking about one of the well-know daily duty of any respectable middle-manager. In an ideal world though, you may want these meetings to be as enjoyable as possible. Unfortunately, out of the lot, many are not giving you satisfaction, well… at least not enough to your taste.
And who could blame you for that? Stale, quiet, the only voice that these meetings can hear is often and only yours. Participants present in the room are just passive, absent, not “there” or pretending to be. Each meeting is a repetition of one-another, with a feeling of “deja-vu”, nothing new, nothing refreshing, no place for creativity… ideas! What’s wrong? You’re feeling the legitimate need to find out It may be time to get back to the basics.
Continue reading Meeting Management “Kills” Creativity
What middle-management Is…
“I think about middle-management (…) as the engine of the organization. Middle management does not need to be synonymous with drudgery, dead end jobs, and bureaucratic inefficiency (…) I encourage both high-level executives and middle managers to take a fresh look at middle management.”
…and what middle-management is Not
“Middle-management is a layer of management in an organization whose primary job responsibility is to monitor activities of subordinates and to generate reports for upper-management.”
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.
Continue reading Don’t be in a hurry to move on to “upper” management, yet.
So this is it, “Innovation” is on the Agenda of your company. You’re told by your Manager that in today’s competitive world, it’s often about the survival of the fittest. Inspirational speeches are made by the highest executives of your organization in order to energize the troops. No… it’s no joke… it’s innovation-time. You smiled looking at this sudden surge of ‘tracts’ saying “I Want Your Ideas!”, but not for long…
Continue reading I don’t “do” innovation…
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