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I think the issue is that middle management does not yet have "true" leadership ability. Rather than getting people to do what they want, they are trying to bui

I think the issue is that middle management does not yet have "true" leadership ability. Rather than getting people to do what they want, they are trying to build systems to achieve the same. Too bad they don't understand you can't force people to do things. Not knowing how to actually manage at larger scale, they are trying to solve the problem the same way that worked for them at small scale and just scale it up. The issue with the place I worked and described was the director tried to build systems to "ensure" everything was organised. He could not conceive this could actually be bad. That his job was actually to focus on building environment, making sure lower levels have everything they need to be able to build more efficient systems at small scale. He was a low level manager promoted too fast and missed the fact that his job changed.

cdavid 4y ago
One issue is visibility. If things are perceived as not going as well as they should, and there is no visibility, it is extremely difficult for any leader to defend their group. To focus on building the environment, there are broadly two situations that can happen. 1. your director has broadly speaking total support from his leadership, and the leadership will be "patient" and trust the director to do things. 2. there is no such support, you better deliver on your KPI or you're next. In most cases, it is in between 1 and 2 of course. If it is not mostly 1., there the director will not be able to do much without understanding the delivery. If your director needs to "push back" to help foster a good environment, they will need some ammunitions, which will likely require commitments (in time, KPI, etc.). To be honest, it is really hard. I myself recently became director, taking over teams that were self-organized but had high attrition. "Do I enforce too much / not enough process" is a question I ask myself very regularly.

cdavid 4y ago

One issue is visibility. If things are perceived as not going as well as they should, and there is no visibility, it is extremely difficult for any leader to defend their group. To focus on building the environment, there are broadly two situations that can happen. 1. your director has broadly speaking total support from his leadership, and the leadership will be "patient" and trust the director to do things. 2. there is no such support, you better deliver on your KPI or you're next. In most cases, it is in between 1 and 2 of course. If it is not mostly 1., there the director will not be able to do much without understanding the delivery. If your director needs to "push back" to help foster a good environment, they will need some ammunitions, which will likely require commitments (in time, KPI, etc.). To be honest, it is really hard. I myself recently became director, taking over teams that were self-organized but had high attrition. "Do I enforce too much / not enough process" is a question I ask myself very regularly.