Inspiring leadership is like a great rhythm to a song; we barely notice it when it’s working properly. On the other hand, poor senior management is much more apparent, causing many areas of an organisation to break down, and cuts to profits or morale.
Middle management is the connective tissue between the top and lower tiers of a hierarchy. We want to point out how it may fail, and the consequences that follow.
SPE Connect look for those who are the antithesis to these qualities, but it’s worth saying what could happen if you find the wrong people instead.
Middle managers should know exactly who can perform what task to the best of their ability, and how to get the best out of their colleagues. Whether you’re searching for senior hospitality roles, retail managers or any other figurehead, this rule doesn’t waver. Asking staff to do something they aren’t comfortable with, or don’t particularly like, is going to waste your money and time. More than that, it’ll probably drive poor engagement and almost certainly lead to higher churn rates.
Some people are better with people; others prefer back-of-house activity, or using IT software. It’s imperative to realise where specialisms align to make a team function well on a busy shift. We have often heard of candidates who have gone from hero to zero (or vice versa) – surely the question needs to be asked why, in both cases.
We might liken middle management to a ladder between those who make the biggest decisions in a company and the workers who carry them out.
But when management fails to listen to either side, there’s a problem. Those guiding messages won’t trickle down – communication both ways is critical. Likewise, colleagues can’t rely on their feedback being heard, which punctures the belief they have in their influence and value as they deal with customers.
Feedback becomes useless as it’s never addressed in a meaningful way. Core attributes of what the brand means, and what it represents, never get through to a target market. The organisation may stumble on, wounded, even though neither level of the hierarchy knows why.
As much as a middle manager may have to track stock, enquiries or adherence to health and safety standards, there’s a much more elusive metric at play – how well an employee is doing from week to week, or month to month.
Constant, glowing customer ratings must lead to something. That’s also true of the amount of orders a person takes, or the meals and drinks they serve in record time. If none of that matters, there’s no reason why an employee should put in the extra effort.
Night shifts, long hours, coming in early to prepare for seasonal events… It all seems pointless if the results go by unnoticed. As a result, the workforce will do less with the manpower it possesses.
In so many ways, the line of communication is very fine, and cannot be snapped in two by poor middle management. But to bolster your business, we always focus on those who have a proven history of doing amazing work with their team and associated brands.
SPE have risen to be one of the top middle management search firms in the UK for a reason – we find the people you’ve been waiting for within a network that’s extremely rare and diverse. Contact us to use a mid-tier search like no other, in service to a watertight business structure.