Author Talks: What does it mean to be a good middle manager?
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Author Talks: What does it mean to be a good middle manager?

Emily Field, Bryan Hancock, Bill Schaninger and Lucia Rahilly
McKinsey, 2023
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In this McKinsey “Author Talks” video, partners Bill Schaninger, Emily Field and Bryan Hancock discuss their book, Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work with moderator Lucia Rahilly. They explain why firms should change how they treat and assign middle managers. Often, companies promote technically gifted staffers to “player-coach” roles with no training and without relieving them of skilled work responsibilities or bureaucratic chores. As a result, required “administrivia” tasks often eat up their coaching and leadership time. To solve this, firms should create separate well-defined career paths for great managers and individual “rock stars.”

Summary

Good managers create value and help companies make profits.

Middle managers, those below the executive level, but higher in rank than frontline employees, can create value in a company as it automates more tasks. Unfortunately, companies tend to promote people into middle management because of their excellent technical skills, not their ability to lead.

Instead of promoting the most techy employees into management roles, those jobs should go to great people managers. But, an organization also needs ways to reward those who have outstanding skills, but “shouldn’t be managers.”

The “player-coach” model splits middle managers’ time.

Companies have embraced a “player-coach model,” compelling middle managers to spend more than 50% of their time working as “players,” thus leaving them little time to manage their teams and putting them at risk of burnout.

A McKinsey survey showed that in the past 20 years companies have come...

About the Speakers

McKinsey & Company Senior Partner Bill Schaninger and McKinsey Partners Emily Field and Bryan Hancock are the authors of Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work.

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