Middle management pivot

You have been promoted because you were good at the technical stuff but now you are no longer doing the technical stuff.

Someone else is.

Now you have to sit between senior management and your team.

From this point I see a fork in the road.

You could merely act as a messenger simply forwarding on requests from senior management to your team and collect your paycheck every month.

Or, if you wanted to be a great middle manager, and add as much value as possible, then I think you have to invest in the soft skills.

It’s an ambiguous and tricky balancing act to keep both those above you and those below you happy.

Can you find a way to deal with the pressure from the president for results while not pushing your team too hard?

Can you resolve the tensions between Breda and Toby?

Can you manage expectations while your team are under staffed?

Can you turn the board’s highly critical and not constructive at all rant into lessons for your team to work on?

Can you make the tough decision of picking someone to let go?

It’s all soft skills!

If you want to stay technical then don’t worry about this but if you want to be a manager then I reckon you have to invest in your emotional intelligence.