Middle Management: Lead from the Middle

Lead from the Middle

A good manager or team leader makes a difference. The article “Lead from the Middle”, discusses four points on partnering with other areas of the organization. These points are: 1.) knowing what other departments do 2.) Expand your team’s horizontal view 3.) Make a vertical connection and 4.) represent your best talent.

I agree with the first point that it is crucial to know what other departments do, for a couple of reasons. First, it will help you to be able to know who you can go to if you need help. Second, you know what other departments expect from you and your department or team. I, like many others, have worked my way up through my organization to become a manager. I started as a delivery driver and now have become the manager of the warehouse. After driving, I did shipping and receiving. During this time I learned what our accounting department requires from us in order to keep good and accurate records. By providing them with what they need, without them needing to ask me for it, I have made part of my job and theirs more efficient.

We used to not include our sales or service departments when we trained our drivers. There was a mental separation between the three departments. The sales department was complaining that the drivers weren’t doing “extra” things to help the customer. The warehouse was complaining that the sales department didn’t give us enough information or instruction as to what they needed or wanted. We decided to meet with the sales team and discuss some of the issues that were going on. Through the meeting we were able to come up with some procedures that best benefited both departments and more importantly our customers.

Communicating your departments’ missions and goals to your team is very important. If your crew doesn’t know what they need to do or why their job is important, it could be bad for the organization as a whole. The employee needs to feel like they matter or count. If not, they...