Not the top, not the bottom: the third strategy for middle management

The Third Strategy
Still another way of developing the middle is through the establishment of a middle management development and training program. What this does is either bring in talented new hires or promote key employees into a rotation of positions throughout the company. Rotations can last from six months to a year, and the entire program can last up to two years.

At one company I worked with, the underwriting manager became the claims manager, and the claims manager became the underwriting manager. What was great was that the employees of each department stepped up to support and train their new managers. This had some positive results. By teaching their new bosses, the employees better learned their own disciplines and roles. They also gained experience in managing up and supporting a manager to win. Meanwhile, the new managers got trained in an aspect of the business with which they were unfamiliar. They became better-rounded executives.

At another company, managers formally rotated to sales and production management positions before being eligible to be plant and territory general managers. This type of initiative provides a training and development course that allows employees to experience and learn about the different facets and aspects of the firm. This makes them more valuable as future leaders of the company.

To learn more about CMI's strategic development programs click here.

Not the top, not the bottom: the second strategy for middle management

The Second Strategy
Another way to support the growth and development of the middle is to form a group of middle managers from various companies. Participants are leaders from different departments: sales executives give input to production and human resource department heads, and so on. There is learning and sharing of different views that goes on during the group sessions, which I also recommend being led by an outside facilitator.

I have led such a middle manager key-employee group. We met for each session at different companies, which allowed participants to see the different facets of participating organizations. This key middle management group also gained perspective by reading a different book for each session. Members coached one another on issues and concerns brought to the meetings. The coaching model we followed goes like this:

1. A participant presents a problem with which he or she wants coaching and counseling. This is something challenging that they want their peers’ perspectives on.

2. In “round robin” style, everyone asks questions about the issue. You are only allowed to ask one question at a time. Once the question is asked, the person presenting the issue responds with an answer. Then the next person asks a question. Once all questions are asked and responded to, it is assumed that everyone understands the issue.

3. Participants then give coaching and feedback to the person presenting the issue. The participants, in effect, become one another’s board of advisors.  
For more information on CMI's leadership development programs click here.

Not the top, not the bottom: the first strategy for middle management

The First Strategy
Hire people in the middle who have aspirations, who want to grow and develop and are mobile. Thus you have leaders who are eager for opportunity. They are attracted to moving and working in a new location is attractive for them, and they are excited about establishing a new beachhead for the company.

Create a process in which, as one of its yearly goals and objectives, top leadership has to develop and take courses. In one company I worked with, if you could not demonstrate to the CEO that you had improved your skill set and thinking abilities in the last year, you were not eligible for a raise no matter how well you had performed. In another company, if you aspired to be a director, you had to get an MBA. These policies can supported a company in dramatically growing both revenue and profits.

For more information about CMI's process for improving your leadership team click here.

Not the top, not the bottom: 3 strategies for middle management

I have never been a lover of the sandwich. It sounds un-American and un-manly. However, my lack of interest comes from the bread - the sandwich’s top and bottom. What’s the purpose? However, I am wildly attracted to the middle of the sandwich. Whether the sandwich is ham and provolone, chicken and mustard, or peanut butter and jelly, for me it is always the middle that dictates how much a sandwich is enjoyed and appreciated.

I can imagine that you think an ode to the middle of sandwiches cannot in any way be related to a series of blog posts about successfully growing an organization. Stay put and hang in there, as I am truly a genius; here comes the transition.
Not the Top, Not the Bottom


In privately held companies after a certain size (50-500 employees), it is the middle—as in management—that is a critical element of a company. We are talking about the layer of leadership and coordination between the top strategic leadership and the front line. It is this middle that will help dictate the firm’s long-term success.

This assertion flies in the face of what most business commentators offer. These talking heads focus on the importance of the top of the company—the Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, and Ken Leahy CEOs are all, according to the pundits, apparently single-handedly responsible for the success or demise of their organizations.

Typically, companies of about 50-500 employees or more, have a “middle” as in management. ” These key employees are important to the success of the overall organization. These key employees, now called managers and/or team leaders, become crucial in leading and developing different sectors of the company.

So, what should be done? How is it that a company dealing with today’s myriad challenges can also develop a strong middle that aspires to leadership? How is a cast of characters like this developed? In the next few weeks I will outline three strategies that I have seen utilized in successful companies.

Interested in learning more about CMI's strategic leadership development programs?  Click here.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Concluding Thoughts

For companies of all sizes, greatness is difficult to obtain. And once there, it is easy to lose the distinction of “great”. However, the journey to greatness is more important than the destination. In my experience, aspiring to being a great company is where the true value lies.

How many of these components of greatness does your company possess?  More important, what would your customers and employees say about your firm in relation to this G.R.E.A.T. standard?

Let us know your thoughts, leave your comments below or visit the CMI website.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Components of a G.R.E.A.T. Company V
T: Teamwork and Transformation. Great companies are not groups of individual agents with everyone doing their own thing. Instead, they are focused places where collaboration and involvement are the currency. Employees know that customers experience the company as a whole and that any negative experience from anywhere in the company can sour the relationship. It takes a whole company to make a customer wildly loyal.

Transformation means that the company touches its employees in meaningful ways. People see themselves differently due to their relationship with the company. Employees are committed for having worked there, customers are loyal for having bought there, and owners are invested for having generated a company that makes a difference. Great companies do more than just provide a service and generate a product. There is clearly a much bigger game that molds, impacts and transforms the lives that they touch.

Want to create a collaborative and transformational work culture?  Visit the CMI website.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Components of Great Companies II

R: Revenue and Reflection. Revenues are central to any business. The reason great companies stand out is they generate a lot more revenue than their competition. Revenue can also mean (although not necessarily) that they generate profit. For many growing companies, profit can be elusive during the times when revenue must be put back into infrastructure and additional resources in order to grow. In great companies, revenue is understood by everyone, not just the top executives. All employees understand how revenue is generated and consumed. More important, each individual understands how he or she can increase and impact revenue.
Reflection is the planning piece. In great companies, long-term success is supported by some sort of disciplined business planning process that engages the leadership group. The leadership group regularly assesses where the company stands and what future they want to design. The leadership also provides an organized and focused way for problem solving and lessening the pain of growth. Early on, great companies establish and implement a formal annual planning process from which to design their growth. In other words, Reflection can lead to Revenue and long term success.

Want to create a wise and profitable culture in your company? Visit the CMI website to learn more.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Components of Great Companies
Now that we have defined a great middle market company, what components make up greatness? They can simply be found in the acronym G.R.E.A.T.

G: Generous and Growth. The dictionary defines generous as “liberal in giving or sharing; not petty or mean; magnanimous; abundant and ample”. These are also apt descriptions of a great company’s culture. Great companies provide space for people to grow and develop. They accept human foibles and allow mistakes to be made. Great companies are not mean-spirited or punitive. They have rules, but only a few. They are willing to give and bend, and they come from a mindset of abundance while avoiding notions of scarcity.

Generosity enables Growth. Growth causes all the progress and wealth of a company but it also causes all the problems and pain. Without growth, a company stagnates and becomes internally focused. Great companies use growth as the engine for their internal and external development.  
Want to create a generous and profitable work culture at your company?  Visit the CMI website.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Defining a Great Company
In the article “Good to Great,” Jim Collins defined a great company in the following manner: "The good-to-great examples that made the final cut into the study attained extraordinary results; averaging cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the general market in the fifteen years following their transition points. These are remarkable numbers, made all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that they came from companies that had previously been so utterly unremarkable.”

This is a fine definition for companies which are large enough for you and me to know about and be their customers; but what about small- to mid-size companies? For this market, I would add to Collins’ definition by saying that great small to mid-size companies are also defined by LOVE, a term I do not use lightly.

In small to mid-size companies, the primary stakeholders LOVE a great company. The owners LOVE the company because of superior financial performance and because they see their firms as their life’s work. The CEOs LOVE the company because it enables them to make a difference in the world and leave a powerful and potent legacy. The customers LOVE a great company because it provides superior service. And the employees LOVE a great company, as demonstrated by the performance of the company and employee retention.

Interested in learning more about my small business programs?  visit the CMI website.

Building a G.R.E.A.T. Company

Over the past 30 years of working with CEOs, business owners and senior executive teams, I have learned the key components to design and grow great small- to mid-sized companies. Follow my posts over the next couple weeks to learn all about how to make your company a G.R.E.A.T. one.

The fifth rule of planning

The incredible rule number five is facing the brutal facts that confront your company. This is a distinction that is given to us by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great. It means honestly confront the issues that confront your organization and truly dealing with them. Do not deny them or sugar coat them. Deal with them in an intelligent way.

Your planning team can do this by defining critical issues facing the growth of the company. These are issues that will be, or presently are, confronting the company.

“Examples puleeeees!” you demand. Coming right up.

• How is the organization going to transition from our old CD-ROM technology to the new “streaming” technology? How are we going to fund this transition?
• What new products are we bringing out in the next year?
• How are we going to grow 20% per year for the next three years? 
• What improvement do we need to make in the plant for us to reduce costs by 10%? 

Typically these types of critical issues are addressed through the writing of a white paper. “What is that?” you ask. “Good question!” I respond and if you had not brought it up I simply could not have continued to write this book, so thanks for the question.

A white paper is a three- to five-page paper that addresses the critical issue. It is written between planning sessions by the members of the leadership group that are best suited to address the problem. This group can also have members outside of the planning team who have useful knowledge and thinking to contribute .

The paper should deal directly with the issues. It is, with research and analysis, the “answer” submitted by the group. The entire planning team will read the paper prior to the subsequent session and then debate it during the session. Problem solving ensues. Everyone is invited to bring their feedback, questions and concerns to the next session. This is where the critical issues are dealt with and a direction is hammered out.

For more information about CMI visit our website: www.cmiteamwork.com

The fourth rule of planning

By far my favorite rule is el grandote numero quarto. Start big by creating a vision of the future of the company. Then narrow the focus as you get back to present and address what to do immediately and how to implement.

Establish where you want to be in the next five years. As the Bible says, “without vision the people perish” The Bible does not say that you have got to attain the vision. It is saying that people need one to live into. This is critical. When you have a vision you are creating a future for the company that the employees can live into and fulfill on.

It is important that the breakthrough guessing/planning process allows for dreaming, visioning and looking at what is needed for a bright future to be realized. Typically we do this by asking the group to go three to five years into the future and recording the results on a flip chart.

The following questions need to be asked to arrive at a future vision. If you were already standing in 2016, what would the world look like? What are the important trends affecting your industry? What is your industry dealing with and what does it look like? Once a futuristic scenario has been developed, the group then looks at what they would like the organization’s image to be.

The planning team then asks what customers are saying about the organization. Why are customers loyal in 2016? What goods, services and new products have you brought forth? The team speculates on how big the organization is and how many employees are there.

This part of planning can be used to run growth scenarios. Have at least one for aggressive, medium, sluggish and no growth. Play with the numbers and have some fun with what could be. The planning team should get familiar with the possible territories and futures.

For more information about CMI's planning process visit our website: www.cmiteamwork.com 

Who Plans on an Annual Basis?

It always shocks me how many businesses do not formally plan. Recently, at a conference, I asked a group of CEOs, “Who plans on an annual basis?” Only a quarter of them raised their hands. I was shocked. In addition, when pressed on why they did not plan they said they were too busy fighting fires to have time for that.

They then complained about low growth, no profits and blamed the economy for their problems. I felt better at that point with their clearly powerful and insightful analysis. Clearly they were Dunderheads. These CEOs did not make the connection that planning helps you deal with the economy and the issues that challenge your business. I am getting my pointed stick dipped in organic monkey dung to deal with these guys. It is organic dung because they are CEOs after all.

It is true. Many small- to mid-sized companies do not plan formally, just as many adults do not exercise. Yet we know exercise is good for you. It helps you live an improved quality of life. Routine exercise allows your body to maintain its health and vitality. Strategic breakthrough business guessing/planning works for businesses in much the same way as exercise does for the individual. It does not guarantee health, but exercise certainly dramatically increases the likelihood of having it.

For more information about CMI and Business Planning visit our Website: http://www.cmiteamwork.com.