How Effective MIDDLE MANAGERS Get People onto the SAME PAGE

expla ainsextrem melywella acommon andcha allengingd difficulty...

LesDakens retiredSVP PHR,CNRail, ,Montreal,Canada

John Kuypers
Anew wleader rshiptoo olfortheTough hestRol tminm le managem ment!

w www.performa anceshift.com

Th 7Per man Driv : he7 rform nceD vers

HowEffe ectiveMiddleManager rs Get tPeop pleontothe eSamePage
byJohnKuypers
This sarticleintrodu ucesanewlead dershiptoolfor rhelpingmidle evelmanagerssucceedatthe etoughestroleinmanagemen ntthemeat inth hesandwicht thathastodel liverresultswit thlimitedcont troloverhowt togetthosere esults.The7P PerformanceDriversclarifies how wdefiningdecis sionmakingauthorityupfron ntgetseveryon neontothesa amepagewithoutbeingthebadguy.John nKuypersisa mid dlevelorganiza ationbuilderan ndleadershipc coach.Heisa formerexecut tiveinconsume erproductsand dinvestmentb bankingandis theauthorofthree ebooksonlead dershipandself fdevelopment t,includingWh hosTheDriverA Anyway,publis shedbyCarsw well.

1. TheRoleo ofaMiddleM Manager

Sue the middle manager wa waiting ex e as xpectantly for a r report to be co ompleted. At the appointed time, her A h bordinate kno ocked on her door. My report will be r y sub dela ayed, hesaid Bob asked me towork on getting him d. d info ormationforh hisboardmeetingsoIhadt tosetitaside. Sue sighed. Bob was her boss, the genera manager. He e b al was known to st in withou warning. Okay, when do s tep ut you uthinkyoullb beabletogetittome? Sueasked.By Frid day,camethe eresponse. Frid day, she thou ught with ex xasperation. That leaves me T m wor rking on the weekend if I want to get my presentation w w m don in time for Tuesdays management meeting. I ju ne r m ust wish Bob would talk to me fir before he goes changing rst, e mypeople! theprioritiesofm Suc chislifeforth hemiddlema anagerthet toughestrolein management. This level of manager is th meat in the T m he t company,his or sandwichoftheorganization.Inalargerc anslate senior managemen strategy in r nt nto her role is to tra exe ecutional exce ellence with the layers that report in. Sen managers want goals and plans ac nior s chieved. Junior leve elscontrolhow wwellthatha appens. For entrepreneurs and leader of smaller businesses and rs notforprofits, the challenge is similar bu with one key t ut k ference.Thes seleadersare boththemidandthesenior diff

s nization. This puts these leaders in the s e levels in the organ mfortable pos ng or o sition of bein the senio leader who uncom make sthefinalcal llbutstillhasthemidleve elchallengeof f ng execute plans with passion n gettin people to buy in and e andh ighqualityres sults.Thiscan nbetoughforowners. great French military leade Napoleon Bonaparte is er, s The g repute to have s ed said, The ro of a leade is to define ole er e reality yandgivehop pe.Formiddlemanagers,theirroleisto o juggle eseniorexecu utivehopesw withjuniorleve elrealities.In n other words, they need to get everyone on the same t nto e page. Thistoughjobismucheas sieriftheycan ndoitwithout t xplainsawaytodothat. being thebadguy.Thisarticleex

PEOPLEMAN NAGEMENTCHA ALLENGESAREOFTEN THETOUGHESTATTHE3RDLEVEL

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The 7 Performan Drivers (T 7PDs) is a collaborati e nce The ive lead dership tool that addresse the root cause of midd t es c dle managementdif fficulties:Whogetstodecid de?The7PDs sis ationbook,W WhosTheDriv ver thebasisoftheteamcollabora Any yway? Mak king the Shif To A Colla ft aborative Tea am Cult ture. The are countless tools to help leaders make the rig ere ght dec cision. Survey the customer, test mark the product, y ket ana alyzethedata a,measurethe eresults,get expertopinio ons all of these lea to making the right decision. In the ad g d t d, omeone has to authorize the decision for t f end however, so imp plementation.Untiladecisionisapprov ved,worksto ops dea adinitstracks s.Furthermore,manyrigh htdecisionsg get ove erruled by w who gets to decide. The 7 Performan nce Driv vers is a leade ership tool th addresses this underlying hat que estion. Inm myearly30s,I experienced thisinamajorway.Iwast the dire ector of mark keting with a major bevera company in age Can nada. It was a thirdleve position re s el eporting to the t gen neral manager. I was facin a major ch ng hange. I had to beg working collaboratively with our US head office to gin y S crea ateanewadv vertisingcampaign,rather rthandoingo our own nmadeinCa anadacomme ercials.Thisshiftindecisio on making authority did not sit well with me even though I y e derstood the costsaving reasons behin the decisio r nd on. und My acceptance of the decisio was tempered by feeling on thre eatenedbyth hechangeand dbymysuspic cionthatpolitics was sasmucham motiveasanyth hingelse. Afte much colla er aboration upf front, includin a Canada vs. ng v USadagencyco ompetition,ou urwinningNe ewYorkagen ncy proposed a wild creative idea that captured my US U roval. It was an idea whic struck me as ch colleagues appr f ew outlandish and doomed to failure. I kne it would be iticallyriskyto osayso,and Iknewmymotiveswould be poli que estioned.How wever,myinn nerconviction nscouldnotli ive with any other choice. I voiced my disagreement as h v care efullyandclea arlyasIcould d.Outofresp pectforbuilding cros ssborder co ooperation and my rep a putation as a stra ategist, my bo osss boss, the North American president, flew wmeintoNew wYorktoexpl lainmyobject tions.

I felt nervous as I walked into the 45th floo boardroom or m filledwithtwentyp peopleincludingtheheadoftheagency y itself.ThereIwasgivenmyopp portunitytom makemycase. Idids soasbestasIcouldbutthe eywerenotco onvinced.The e top b brass decided to proceed with testing the new ad d g d camp aign. A mon later, we reassemble in an even nth e ed n r m he results. An n larger board room to hear th research r accou unt person from the Los Angelesba s ased research h agenc spelled ou the results. The test c cy ut campaign had d achiev vedthelowes stscoresofan nycampaigntheyhadever tested d.Theroomw wassilentasthepresentationcontinued. To my surprise, no one said a w y o word to me a we left the as e meetiing.Isaidnot thingeither,k knowingthisw wasnotimeto o say, Itoldyouso, thatwasforsure!

M IDLEVELMAN NAGEMENTCAN BEAFRUSTRA N ATINGROLE

When nyouareamiddlemanager,youmaybe erightabouta a decisi on, but you usually do n get to m not make the final bility to unde erstand this, accept it and d decisi on. Your ab thedecisionm makingpoweryoudohave e makethemostoft will m make or brea your care ak eer. If you are a senior r mana ger, your ab bility to help your midd managers p dle s rstandthisrea alityofmiddlemanageme entlifeisvital. under If you succeed, yo will get th u ou hem to support your final decisi onsandleadtheirpeopletoexecuteyo ourstrategies s passionandsu uccess. withp There earethreeles ssonsformid levelmanage ersofanysize e organ nizationinthis sstory.First,youmustbeawareofhow w shared decisionm d making is malf functioning. Second, you u
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mustmakeashiftinwhohas whatlevelof fpowerinord der getalignment tandaction. Third,youmu ustactwisely to tog liftt theperformanceofthosey youlead.Thesethreelesso ons make up the three steps of applying The 7 Performan e nce vers in order to effectively get people onto the sam y me Driv pag gewithoutbei ingthebadg guy. 2.W WhatareThe e7Performan nceDrivers? The 7 Performan Drivers is a leadership program th e nce s p hat makesclearwho ogetstodecid deandtowha atdegreeothe ers ve ow nly hav a say in ho work gets done by whom. By open disc cussingthisupfront,people enotonlyget tontothesam me pag ge,theybuyin nandcommit ttothefinald decision,even nif itis sadecisionwithwhichthey ydontagree. .Thisisthek key tos succeedingatandenjoying gthejobofm managingpeop ple from mamidlevel position. The 7 Performan Drivers is based on a decisionmaking e nce d authority scale. It clarifies upfront who has decisio o on efore any fin nal making power and to what degree, be cisions are made. I call it The deci m ision before the t dec dec cision.Insertingthisonee extrastepinto ohowdecisio ons mpts future conflicts and resolves curre c r ent get made preem con nflicts.Itseffe ectissimilart tohowweac ccepttheresu ults ofa anelection.W Weknowina advancehowt thewinnerge ets dec cided. Then we accept the outcome, even if we dont w e e like it. This clarity resolves many comm e munication and attitudeproblem ms. ddle manager leadership success must begin with a r h Mid min shift. Middle managers manag people and nd M ge pro ocesses but not tasks. Like a sports coach, a good n L mid ddle manager does not par r rticipate on th playing fie he eld. For many high achievers, this is a major letdown. You Y succeededatwo orkbecauseit twassatisfyin ngtogetthin ngs ne.Suddenly,othersaredo oingthefunth hingswhileyo our don job is to help them succeed. You get bud dgets for them. You uhirepeople forthem.Yo ouimprovesys stemsforthem. You ucheckqualit tyforthem.Y Yourjobistoensurethey do the erightthingsright.Insteadofappreciatingthat,th hey wan to do things their own way imagine that! Their nt resi istancetoyou urexperience andtheirrep peatedmistak kes are tough to dig gest. There is a loss of co ontrol that go oes with hbecomingamidlevelma anagerthathu urts.

The 7 Performance Driversis a le eadership too designed to ol o help m make this tra ansition. The 7PDs provide a common es n langu age and a framework that clarifies how much s h vement the performer should expect from his or her r involv superv rvisorwhenat task,assignm mentorproject tisdelegated. The 7 7PDs achieve this using a simple yet powerful es g metap phor:Whost thedriver? Many yleadershipt troublestrace etoalackofclarityabout t who i the real ow is wner or driv of the wo ver ork. William m Oncke encapturedt thisrealitybri illiantlyinhis1974Harvard d Busin ess Review a article, Who Got The M s Monkey? His s equent1984b book,Managin ngManagementTimeisone e subse efunniestand dmostinsight tfulbooksIve eeverreadon n ofthe thisto opic.Whatsd differentabou utThe7PDsis sthatitaddsa a secon important player the passenger a it defines nd and s each persons limits and obligations for ge etting a task, projec orassignm ct ment done. Af all, no wo gets done fter ork e witho outa100%com mmitteddecis sionbehindit t! When you assign work, you ar making tha person the n re at e drive erofthewor rk.Sheisthe edoerthep performer.By y defau ultthen,youa arenot.Ifsheisthedriver,youarethe e takeholder. A passenger h a stake in A has n passe nger the st well ver ffected if she e how w the driv performs. You are af crashe es!Forthisre eason,passen ngersretainacertainshare e of aut thority in how the driver d w drives, often u unconsciously y and o of habit. This is a root cause of power struggles out t s andle eadershipprob blems.

This driverpassen nger metaph hor for sharing decision makin authority is central to The 7 Perform ng mance Drivers s leade rship method. Like driv ving a car, a lost driver a eciatesapassengerwhoca angiveadvice eonwhereto o appre
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go. His advice gives him a share of respo g s onsibility in the t acti ionsofthedr river.Similarly,adriverwh hoknowswhe ere she is going, do not appr oes reciate an ov verlycontrolling ssengertelling gherhowtod drive!Thisref flectsanoverlap pas authority,with hbothparties swantingcon ntroloverwhe ere ina or how to driv This mis ve. smatch in decisionmaking d authoritycanlea adtheperform mertorebel,r resentordeta ach mbeingcomm mittedtodeliv veringgreatre esultsacent tral from causeofperform manceproblem msformiddle managers. thThe7PDs,t thereareseve entypesofdri iversthatfollo ow Wit asc caledlevelof decisionmak kingauthority ythataddup to 100 between them. The numbers belo indicate the 0% t n ow t driv vers relative share of authority com a mpared to the t pas ssengerateac chlevel,asfoll lows:

thosearoundyou.Thereareno oissuesabout twhogetsto o decide e?Thingsget tdealtwith,re esolvedandim mplemented. You c recognize the seven driver types by how they can e y ask th superviso (or others) for help. Lo for these heir or ) ook e telltallesigns: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. oloDriver: Idont tneedanyone eshelp. So Se elfdirectedDr river:Ineedaresourcefro omyou. Inf formativeDriv ver: LookatwhatIvedone Co onsultativeDr river:Canyo ougivemesom meadvice? Pe ermissionDriv ver: MayIdoitthisway y? Co ompliantDrive er: Justte ellmewhatto odo. Tra ansferDriver: : Willyo outakeoverforme?

T HE 7 P ERFORM H MANCE D RIVE ERS D ECISION A UT THORITY S CAL LE

Peoplle perform in a more com n mmitted and positive way y at f when they drive their job responsibilities a the level of decisi onmakingau uthoritythatfitsthem.U Understanding g and skilfully g getting agree ement about this is what t this a make s good middle managers successful. Junior people e ute ide. Middle managers are e execu and senior people deci the lin The follo nk. owing chart shows the sev passenger ven r levels sthatfitThe e7Performanc ceDrivers.Th hingsprogress s thly when ea level is in alignment, adding up to ach n o smoot 100%committedd decisions. Figure e1:DriverPa assengerarealignedat10 00%

3.T ThreeStagestoGettingPeopleonthe SamePage The secret to getting people onto the sa e e ame page is to inco orporate the three stages of The 7 Perfo t formance Drive ers into your daily le o eadership pra actices Awar reness, Attitude and Action. Ste I: The Rift is to notice what is causing d ep t wor rktobeofftherailsbetwee endriversandpassengersin na give situation. One plainasday clue is when you fe en eel irrit tated by wha others are doing. Th is the cle at e hat ear evid dence that so omeone is making a decis sion with whi ich you disagree. On the other hand, if thing are humming u O h gs for you at work, it means yo are on the same page as , ou e

Step I of The 7 Pe erformance Dr rivers middle management t mteacheslead dershowtore ecognizewhat t leade rshipprogram using perform mance to brea down with one or more ak e is cau memb bersofthetea am. The s second step in applying Th 7 Performa n he ance Drivers is s t. s w a Step 2: The Shift The 7PDs explains how to make a powe rshiftandwh hypeopledev velopabada attitudeifitis s
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not done well. Like a solved mystery this provid y, des dershipinsigh htsforeffectiv vemiddleman nagers. lead In t theory, each of us is ca apable of op perating at any a perf formance driv level. If your boss wan you to be a ver y nts e Per rmission 40: driver, then st asking for permission! If d tart you uwantyoursu ubordinateto beaSelfdire ected80:driver, just ttellherand letherrunw withit.Howc complicatedc can this be? In practice, however, we have comfort zone s es. Whenpeopleare epushedouts sidetheirperf formancedriv ver mfort zone, th feel risk and they rea usually by hey act com bein ngunhappyo orstressedout.Ifyoudon tdealwithth his, you wont succe u essfully get people to buy in or perform p y well.Thatsomeo onecouldeve enbeyou. oplegetupset twhentheau uthoritylevelt theywantisn not Peo give to them. The main re en eason is RISK In my earlier K. adv vertising exam mple, letting other people produce my TV o T com mmercialsfeltthreateningt tomysuccess s.Mydriverro ole was taken away from me an I became a passenger. I s y nd wou have then liked :60 Approve autho uld n A ority so I cou uld veto any decisio o ons. Instead, I had :50 Ad dvise authority, whi ichlimitedme etovoicingm myviews.The ebenefitofT The 7PD is people know they ha done the most they can Ds k ave c with their limits and obliga hin ations. Stage II helps the e em acceptthatrealit tyandgetbac cktoapositive eattitude. econdreason npeoplesatt titudegetsne egativeiswhen Ase the accepted decisionmak e d king norms get shifted or g revised after th fact. For example, you recommend a he e u d nattheexpec ctedPermissio on40:driverlevel.Yourbo oss plan dec cidesnottoapproveit.Later,yourperf formancerating is lo owered becau you didnt get something done whi use t ich requiredakeystepthatyouw werentpermit ttedtodoint the first pla ace! This is where the upfro ont anding is so understa importan nt to pre empting glaterproblem ms. Attitude is the one o of our o aspect ork performance at wo t y als. that is entirely controlled by each of us as individua Disa agreements about who ge to decide and how mu a ets uch

say w get is the root cause. A person who dislikes we e s decisi ons being made by other can becom critical and rs me d tive, go aroun the middle manager to subvert their nd e negat autho ority, show up late orbe absent,do a b p bareminimum m level of quality, o put a half or truth spin on what really n y happe ened.Theym mayuseinflam mmatorylanguage,express s a sens of outrage over the dec se e cision, or they may quietly y y retrea into sulle complian at en nce while se eeking other emplo oyment opt tions. Mut tual respect plummets. t Emot ional and ph hysical stress symptoms o often surface. e e There may even be personal reasons behind attitude proble emsthatareu unrelatedtow work,addingc complications s tobei ngeffectivew withsomeone e. esymptomsm makeithardto ogetpeopleo ontothesame e These page. Deeply held beliefs and values trigg emotional d ger respo nsesthatareanchoredinculturalnorm msofhowwe e here.Apowe erplaymays setinthatcan n doth ingsaroundh omplex and demoralizing. Most imp portantly, the e be co origin core issue at stake ofte gets lost a people feel nal en as disres spectedandoffended,beco omingdisenga aged. Effect tive midleve managers need to und el derstand this s dynam micandwhattodo.Gallup presearchonUSemployee e engag gement with over one million surveys reveals that s t only 26% of emp ployees feel fully engage 55% are ed. e comp pliant while 1 19% are actively disenga aged. The 7 7 rmanceDriver rsexplainswh hyandwhatto odo.Attitude e Perfor proble ems are cau used by a driverpasseng mismatch ger h about twhogetstod decide.Thefo ollowingchart tsrevealwhy: Figure e2:Driveran ndPassengerareinconflic ctat>100%

Figure e3:Driveran ndPassengerarestuckat< <100%

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issues and not tak things pers s ke sonally. In so ome cases, no o resolu utionmaybepossible.De ecisionsthatc conflictwitha a perso ns core value and belief or do not fit into either es fs, y ding the work relationship. k partys plans, may result in end Nothi ng lasts fo orever and c coming to an amicable e ementtopartmaybeawise echoiceforal llinvolved. agree rmance Drive provides a ers a Most importantly, The 7 Perfor mean s to resolve d differences, g on the same page and get d things done. For middle managers sandwiched s d get t betwe a rock and a hard place, it define reality and een es d giveshopeforthet toughestroleinmanageme ent.
***** ************* ************ ******** John Kuypers is a culture shif expert a ft ng grow to the n next level. helpin companies g He is the founder of Performance Shift ulting. John i the author of three is Consu p al books on leadership and persona change ding Whos The Driver Anyway? includ carswell.com J John lives hed publish by www.c inBurl rlington,Canad da.

Figu 2 shows an authority overlap where the driver and ure a o e thepassengerbo othwantahighlevelofcontrol.Resistan nce is s sure to follow. Figure 3 shows a decisionmaking 3 d vacuum where no one wants to decide. No action is the n N t dence that things are stuck, causing frustration for f evid eve eryoneinvolve ed. The e7PDshelpsm middlemanag gersunderstan ndwhytheya are stru ugglingtoget tonthesame pagewithsomeoneatwork. Wit thonlyoneco orrectmatchingpassenger rforeachdriv ver type, there is an 86% probab n bility of confl in any wo lict ork ationship. No wonder managing peo N m ople can be so rela diff ficult! Com mmittingtoanewagreeduponpowerr ratiosetsupt the lead derforStepIII:TheLift.T Thisiswheree effectivemidd dle managerstakea actiontoalign neveryone,th hatis,getthe em page.Actionm meansdoingt thehundreds of ontothesamep greatleaders sdotoencou urage,reinforc ce, littlethingsthat pportanddevelopnewbeh havioursands skillsvitaltot the sup teamssuccess. WhosTheD DriverAnyway yprovidesthirty s ques for influencing behav viour change in tips and techniq others. It also provides a to for analyzing and solving p ool Thistooliscal lledW.I.N.Att titude. attitudeissues.T e nger for mid ddle managers is to get g The great dan side etracked by the many red herrings arising out of r attitude problems. After thirty year in busine rs ess t management, I believe that unless you get people to d y ons accept their decisionmaking authority expectatio front,theyare enotlikelyto acceptit.Th hisisthereason upfr manymiddlema anagersquito orarefired,a atahighcost to n e the organization and even to their own careers. The 7 Perf rformance Dri ivers provides a means to resolve co s t ore

The com mpany offe fers several collaborativ ve leadershi ip programs. Elementsin nclude:

T Training:av varietyofprog gressiveprog grams C Coaching:D Develophighperformance eleaders Q QualityImpr rovement:Betterprocess sesandtools T TeamRespon nsibilities:R Roles,account tabilities C CultureShift t:Buildacollaborativetea amculture K KeynoteSpe eeches:Form meetings&co onferences T Book: W The Whos The Dr river Anyway? Making The e S ShiftToACol llaborativeTe eamCulture(c chapters.ca) Conta actJohnat:jo ohnk@perfor rmanceshift.c com www .performance eshift.com www .whosthedriv veranyway.co om

e7Performanc ceDrivers:HowEffectiveMi iddleManagersGetPeopleo ontotheSamePageJohn nKuypers20 009 The

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