April 8, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode, I dive into the critical yet often overlooked role of mid-level leaders. Learn why they’re the backbone of your organization and how you can empower them with 8 practical strategies, from clear expectations to leadership development and career pathways. Transform your mid-level leaders, and watch your leadership team—and company—thrive.
Thanks for listening! Connect with us at mike-goldman.com/blog and on Instagram@mikegoldmancoach and on YouTube @Mikegoldmancoach
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Goldman (00:02):
Now, the CEO or the senior leadership team could
get up in front of everybody andtalk about how important culture
is, but the way.
Your individual team membersknow you are serious is by how
your mid-level leaders act.
(00:22):
And if your mid-level leadersare not acting in a way that's
consistent with your culture,consistent with your core
values, those team members juststart to believe it's all BS You
(00:45):
made it to the better leadershipteam show, the place where you
learn how to surround yourselfwith the right people, doing the
right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
(01:05):
world by building a betterleadership team.
All right, let's go.
On this show, I focus everyepisode on how to create a great
leadership team.
(01:27):
But what I wanna do a littledifferently today is to focus a
level down from that.
One of the best ways to create agreat leadership team is to make
sure that you're taking care ofthose mid-level leaders.
Your mid-level leaders, yourmiddle managers, if you want to
(01:50):
call them that, and I'd rathercall them mid-level leaders,
those folks are the lifeline ofyour organization.
Without them doing their job atthe highest level, you can't do
your job at the highest level.
They are the connectors betweenthe strategy you work on as a
(02:14):
senior leader.
And frontline execution.
Strengthening mid-level leadersstrengthens the entire
organization.
In fact, I would say that ifthey're weak, everyone in the
company, including you, is doingthe job of someone one level
(02:34):
below them.
Now, what do I mean by that?
And I was just having aconversation with a client last
week on this.
Very specifically in thisscenario, there was a vice
president of service whocouldn't do the job as vice
(02:58):
president of service because hisdirectors, the four directors
that worked for him were notreally doing their job.
The reason they weren't doingtheir job is because the
customer service team membersweren't doing their job.
So, so picture this is that ifthe frontline individuals aren't
(03:22):
doing their job, and then you'vegot the folks that are
supervising them, well, thefolks that are supervising them,
as opposed to doing what they'resupposed to do, they have to
actually jump in and do the jobof.
The customer service teammembers, and if they're jumping
in and doing the job of thecustomer service team members,
(03:43):
if the directors are doing thejob of the customer service team
members, well, who's doing thejob of the director?
Well, the VP of service has todo that.
So who's doing the job of the VPof service?
Nobody.
or, and, or the CEO needs tojump in, and that's not gonna
(04:06):
work for very long.
But if that, if those directorsare doing their job coaching and
mentoring the team members, sothey do their job.
It impacts the whole company ina positive way.
Now, in addition to.
(04:27):
Productivity measures that areimpacted, those mid-level
leaders influence culture asmuch or more sometimes than the
senior leaders do.
They tend to see more of theorganization.
(04:48):
From day to day, they're workingwith the rank and file
employees, and as a seniorleader, you may not be every
day, depending on the size ofyour company.
Now, the CEO or the seniorleadership team could get up in
front of everybody and talkabout how important culture is,
(05:10):
but the way.
Your individual team membersknow you are serious is by how
your mid-level leaders act.
And if your mid-level leadersare not acting in a way that's
consistent with your culture,consistent with your core
values, those team members juststart to believe it's all BS
(05:38):
now.
the mid-level leaders are alsoin a unique position because
unlike senior leaders un, unlikeA CEO, unlike rank and file team
members, those mid-level leadersneed to manage both up and down.
(06:00):
Of course, they need to lead andmanage their direct reports.
But they also need to manage up,communicate up, sometimes even
lead up, and that puts them in avery difficult position of
feeling like they've gotta takeone side or the other.
(06:23):
Are they taking the side oftheir team members and looking
like they're protecting them inthe eyes of senior leaders?
Which can make them look weak orare they consistently taking the
side of senior leaders and theirteam members believe they don't
(06:43):
really have their backs.
it's a really, the mid-levelleader position is a really
difficult position.
And on top of it just being adifficult position, there are a
number of challenges they facewhen that mid-level leader
position is not focused on inthe right way.
(07:06):
And I see time and time again,mid-level leaders became
mid-level leaders because theywere really good at what they
did.
They were really good.
Salespeople.
So they became a sales manager,or they were really good, you
know, on the factory floor.
So they became a operationsmanager.
And not only does being good atthe day to day, not always mean,
(07:30):
you could be great at leadingand managing people.
That's true.
But let's even put that aside.
What I see time and time againin small and mid-size companies,
the larger companies might do alittle better job of this
because they have the manpowerand the dollars to put behind
it, and they have so manymid-level leaders that they put
(07:52):
formal programs in place.
But at the small and mid-sizecompany level, these folks get
promoted to those positionswithout any real training,
coaching, or mentoring.
they're left to, to navigatetheir new leadership
responsibilities without a guideor a compass on how to do that.
(08:13):
They also, more so than anyother part of the organization,
they need to balance thestrategic nature of the business
along with the operationaldemands of the business.
And that's really hard to do.
It's really hard to focus onstrategy and vision when you're
(08:37):
dealing with the, you know,production line that broke down
today, or you're dealing withthe, the client that, that's
complaining, you, you tend todive in and roll up your sleeves
as a mid-level leader into thedetails at the same time, you've
gotta keep strategy and visionin mind.
(08:58):
So it's a very difficultposition, and if your company is
not growing significantly, it'salso a position where people
really talented, mid-levelleaders could feel stuck without
opportunities for any upwardmobility.
(09:18):
And unless you have some kind ofprogram in place or you're doing
a good job coaching them, andwe'll talk about all that,
they're stuck with thatopportunities for upward
mobility, but they're also stuckwithout any opportunities for
skill building'cause they're sobusy rolling up their sleeves
and diving in to the day to day.
So I wanna talk about some ways,eight ways to develop mid-level
(09:46):
leaders.
And the first is not specific tomid-level leaders, but it's
super important.
Number one is to set crystalclear expectations for those
leaders.
Crystal clear expectations onwhat productivity you expect
(10:08):
from their team, what it meansto be a culture fit, how.
They and their team need to livecore values, but on top of that,
those are expectations you needto set with everyone, team
members, mid-level leaders,senior leaders.
And the CEO, those expectationsneed to be there for everyone.
(10:32):
But with mid-level leaders,especially those that are new to
leadership, you need to setspecific expectations for what
it means to be a leader, whatthey should be doing to hold
their people accountable, togive their people feedback, to
coach them, develop them, retainthem.
(10:55):
So setting those expectations iskey.
that's number one.
And it's gotta start there.
Number two is you've gotta modelthe way you can't expect your
mid-level leaders to be betterleaders than you if you are a
senior leader.
And I've seen in the past, CEOsand VPs of HR say, we need our
(11:17):
mid-level leaders to bestronger.
We need stronger middlemanagement.
and they bring people in to dothese leadership development
programs, these trainers to comein and do leadership development
programs.
They do them for the middlemanagers, and yet the senior
leaders aren't doing that stuff.
So the middle managers learnthings that aren't reinforced.
(11:39):
And all that money and all thattime goes to waste.
So you've got to model the way.
As a leader, if you want yourfolks to coach and hold people
accountable and give peoplefeedback and have the difficult
discussions, and hire in theright way and coach people out
of the organization and ifthat's what's important to, to
(12:03):
have one-on-ones in the rightway.
You need to model the way and dothat as a senior leader, it's
gotta start there because theywill follow you.
That's number.
Two is modeling.
The way number three is startwith your high performing team
members, and even morespecifically those high
(12:24):
potential folks who might besitting around the leadership
table one day.
If there's work you wanna do, ifyou wanna dive in and be a
better coach, be a bettermentor, put in place some
leadership development.
Don't necessarily look at allyour mid-level leaders, put them
all in a bucket and say, what dowe need to do for all of them?
(12:46):
Your mid-level leaders may be atdifferent way different levels
of maturity and performance, andyou're gonna get your greatest
ROI by starting, by focusing onyour best people, partially
because they could be great rolemodels.
For everyone else, partiallybecause like strength finder and
(13:08):
positive psychology.
The whole idea of spending moretime leveraging your strengths
than fixing your weaknesses, areal is a really important idea,
and it doesn't just work for youas an individual.
Works for your team.
Most leaders overinvest in theirunderperformers and underinvest
in their high performers.
(13:29):
Don't do that.
Start with your high performers.
Start with your high potentials.
What could you do to help them?
Step four.
Once you understand who thosefolks are, challenge them.
Raise the bar.
Set higher productivity goals.
Set higher expectations aroundliving the culture.
(13:53):
Increase their responsibility,especially if you are stretched
too thin.
Give them projects to do.
Don't think you need to take allof that on as a CEO or as a
senior leader.
Give your mid-level leadersprojects to do either as
individuals or get a bunch ofhigh potential mid-level leaders
(14:13):
together and have them tackle abroken process or a new, or a
new way to, to handle gettinginto a new market or developing
a new project or figuring out anew strategy.
So challenge them.
(14:35):
and by the way, I've seen moresuperstars leave out of boredom
than anything else.
So challenge them to do more, bemore, become more.
So that's step four.
so far set crystal clearexpectations.
Model the way.
(14:56):
Start with your high performers,high potentials.
Challenge them as number four.
Number five is implement sometraining.
A, call it a leadershipdevelopment program, but when I
say that, I cringe a little bitbecause I've seen too many
organizations spend months andmonths developing these all
(15:19):
encompassing leadershipdevelopment programs, and
they're crap and they don'twork.
they're either not done well orthey're done well, but.
but the time is not invested inmaking sure people are going
through those programs andgetting value out of it.
Sometimes the senior leaderssay, yeah, I know you've gotta
do this leadership development,but I need you to fix this
(15:40):
problem first.
They're putting every priorityover leadership development and
the biggest problem I see isleadership development is about
teaching a whole bunch ofconcepts, but.
What about actually holdingpeople accountable for executing
on it?
So there's nothing wrong andeverything right, with saying
(16:01):
what do we need to do from aleadership development
standpoint, and do we need tocreate a program and how do we
design that program?
That's all good, but mysuggestion is do it in small
chunks.
Don't create an all-encompassingleadership development program.
Start narrow not only what Isaid.
(16:22):
Before it, which is start withyour high performing folks and
your high potentials, but startnarrow.
Don't try to teach everything.
Maybe start with teaching peoplehow to have the right kind of
one-on-one weekly, one-on-oneconversation with their direct
(16:42):
reports.
Maybe start by teaching peoplehow, what coaching is all about.
Versus managing versus feedbackversus holding each other
accountable.
What does it mean to be a coach?
What does it mean to ask theright questions to help people
surface the right answer forthem versus always giving
advice?
(17:04):
So when you do this leadershipdevelopment program, think
narrow and think, not, did Icheck the box and teach people
something?
Think what value came out ofthat.
Piece of leadership developmentand as I said before, model the
way part of modeling the way isas a senior leader, you better
(17:25):
make sure you're an expert inthat first, that was step five.
Step six is if you wanna takecare of your mid-level leaders.
If you want your mid-levelleaders to perform at a high
level, you need to have theright hiring processes.
Crappy hiring processes thatcause the mid-level leaders to
(17:47):
have a bunch of lower performingfolks working for them.
I don't care what leadershipdevelopment program you put in
place, I don't care what kind ofcoaching and development
mentorship you give them,they're gonna find themselves
diving down and having to do thejob of their team members.
So you need to put in place ahiring process.
(18:08):
That focuses on hiring the best.
I love the top gradingmethodology.
Now, it's not the only one havea methodology.
And by the way, don't, I hopeBrad Smart isn't listening to
this.
Don't read the book Top Grading.
I much prefer the book his son,Jeff Smart wrote called Who the
A method for hiring, but youneed to put in place a hiring
(18:30):
process and commit to hiring thebest people.
That's step six, step seven.
Create transparent careerpathways, build career
progressions to alleviate theuncertainty in people's minds
about what's next.
Mid-level leaders are gonna bemuch more excited about doing
(18:53):
what it takes to be greatmid-level leaders if they see a
career path in front of them.
Now for those of you who havecompanies that aren't growing
very much, this is a tough thingto do.
'cause you can create a careerpath on paper, but if your
company's not growing unless youretire or die, the folks working
(19:20):
for you have no way up.
So part of.
The most difficult part ofhaving a career pathway is, man,
you gotta make sure you'refiring all on all cylinders and
growing as a company, or thatstuff looks good on paper, but
it doesn't go anywhere.
but create transparent careerpathways and have discussions
(19:41):
with your mid-level leaders asto where they want to go.
When's the last time you satdown with them and said, where
do you want to go in yourcareer, and how could I help you
get there?
That's step seven careerpathways and step eight is be
willing to coach low performingfolks, whether they are low
(20:03):
producing, which in mymethodology means their
productivity is low or they'relow culture fit.
I don't care how productive theyare.
If you are not willing to coachthose people out of the
organization, you are tying thehands.
Of your mid-level leaders, notonly are you setting a bad
(20:24):
example for them, but again, youare forcing them to go down and
do lower level work becauseyou're not willing to coach the
low performing folks out,including the low performing
peers, not only allowing them tocoach their low performers out,
(20:46):
but.
If you've got someone who is asales manager, but your
operations manager and yourservice managers, those other
mid-level leaders aren't doingtheir job.
It's hard for the sales managerto do their job, so be willing
(21:06):
to model for them.
Having the difficultconversation, making the
difficult decision, andsometimes the best way to take
care of your best people is tofire your worst.
So eight steps I shared withyou.
They're not the only things, butI think they're pretty powerful
if you start there.
Step one, setting crystal clearexpectations.
(21:27):
Step two, starting.
step two is modeling the way.
step three is starting with yourhigh performing, high potential
folks.
Step four is to challenge yourmid-level leaders.
Raise the bar, increaseresponsibility.
Step five is, implement aleadership development program,
but do it in manageable chunkswith some real outcomes and
value coming out of it.
(21:49):
Step six is have hiringprocesses to hire the best.
Step seven create, clear,transparent career pathways.
Step eight, be willing to coachout your low performers.
How equipped are you?
I'm sorry.
How equipped are your mid-levelmanagers, your mid-level leaders
(22:10):
to step into leadership roles?
Tomorrow?
You'll benefit, your companywill benefit by making sure they
are equipped, start thinkingwhat it would take, what would
it take for them to do the nextjob?
What would it take for them tosit around the leadership table
(22:31):
and.
A great way to start is startwith creating those crystal
clear expectations for them, andmake sure you're having weekly
one-on-ones, productive weekly,one-on-ones with them to help
them understand how they'redoing against those
expectations, to hold themaccountable for that and to
(22:56):
coach them.
If you want a great leadershipteam.
You need a great set ofmid-level leaders, and if you
want a great company, you need agreat leadership team so it all
falls into line.
I hope that helped.
I'll see you next time.
Now, the CEO or the senior leadership team could
get up in front of everybody andtalk about how important culture
is, but the way.
Your individual team membersknow you are serious is by how
your mid-level leaders act.
(00:22):
And if your mid-level leadersare not acting in a way that's
consistent with your culture,consistent with your core
values, those team members juststart to believe it's all BS You
(00:45):
made it to the better leadershipteam show, the place where you
learn how to surround yourselfwith the right people, doing the
right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
(01:05):
world by building a betterleadership team.
All right, let's go.
On this show, I focus everyepisode on how to create a great
leadership team.
(01:27):
But what I wanna do a littledifferently today is to focus a
level down from that.
One of the best ways to create agreat leadership team is to make
sure that you're taking care ofthose mid-level leaders.
Your mid-level leaders, yourmiddle managers, if you want to
(01:50):
call them that, and I'd rathercall them mid-level leaders,
those folks are the lifeline ofyour organization.
Without them doing their job atthe highest level, you can't do
your job at the highest level.
They are the connectors betweenthe strategy you work on as a
(02:14):
senior leader.
And frontline execution.
Strengthening mid-level leadersstrengthens the entire
organization.
In fact, I would say that ifthey're weak, everyone in the
company, including you, is doingthe job of someone one level
(02:34):
below them.
Now, what do I mean by that?
And I was just having aconversation with a client last
week on this.
Very specifically in thisscenario, there was a vice
president of service whocouldn't do the job as vice
(02:58):
president of service because hisdirectors, the four directors
that worked for him were notreally doing their job.
The reason they weren't doingtheir job is because the
customer service team membersweren't doing their job.
So, so picture this is that ifthe frontline individuals aren't
(03:22):
doing their job, and then you'vegot the folks that are
supervising them, well, thefolks that are supervising them,
as opposed to doing what they'resupposed to do, they have to
actually jump in and do the jobof.
The customer service teammembers, and if they're jumping
in and doing the job of thecustomer service team members,
(03:43):
if the directors are doing thejob of the customer service team
members, well, who's doing thejob of the director?
Well, the VP of service has todo that.
So who's doing the job of the VPof service?
Nobody.
or, and, or the CEO needs tojump in, and that's not gonna
(04:06):
work for very long.
But if that, if those directorsare doing their job coaching and
mentoring the team members, sothey do their job.
It impacts the whole company ina positive way.
Now, in addition to.
(04:27):
Productivity measures that areimpacted, those mid-level
leaders influence culture asmuch or more sometimes than the
senior leaders do.
They tend to see more of theorganization.
(04:48):
From day to day, they're workingwith the rank and file
employees, and as a seniorleader, you may not be every
day, depending on the size ofyour company.
Now, the CEO or the seniorleadership team could get up in
front of everybody and talkabout how important culture is,
(05:10):
but the way.
Your individual team membersknow you are serious is by how
your mid-level leaders act.
And if your mid-level leadersare not acting in a way that's
consistent with your culture,consistent with your core
values, those team members juststart to believe it's all BS
(05:38):
now.
the mid-level leaders are alsoin a unique position because
unlike senior leaders un, unlikeA CEO, unlike rank and file team
members, those mid-level leadersneed to manage both up and down.
(06:00):
Of course, they need to lead andmanage their direct reports.
But they also need to manage up,communicate up, sometimes even
lead up, and that puts them in avery difficult position of
feeling like they've gotta takeone side or the other.
(06:23):
Are they taking the side oftheir team members and looking
like they're protecting them inthe eyes of senior leaders?
Which can make them look weak orare they consistently taking the
side of senior leaders and theirteam members believe they don't
(06:43):
really have their backs.
it's a really, the mid-levelleader position is a really
difficult position.
And on top of it just being adifficult position, there are a
number of challenges they facewhen that mid-level leader
position is not focused on inthe right way.
(07:06):
And I see time and time again,mid-level leaders became
mid-level leaders because theywere really good at what they
did.
They were really good.
Salespeople.
So they became a sales manager,or they were really good, you
know, on the factory floor.
So they became a operationsmanager.
And not only does being good atthe day to day, not always mean,
(07:30):
you could be great at leadingand managing people.
That's true.
But let's even put that aside.
What I see time and time againin small and mid-size companies,
the larger companies might do alittle better job of this
because they have the manpowerand the dollars to put behind
it, and they have so manymid-level leaders that they put
(07:52):
formal programs in place.
But at the small and mid-sizecompany level, these folks get
promoted to those positionswithout any real training,
coaching, or mentoring.
they're left to, to navigatetheir new leadership
responsibilities without a guideor a compass on how to do that.
(08:13):
They also, more so than anyother part of the organization,
they need to balance thestrategic nature of the business
along with the operationaldemands of the business.
And that's really hard to do.
It's really hard to focus onstrategy and vision when you're
(08:37):
dealing with the, you know,production line that broke down
today, or you're dealing withthe, the client that, that's
complaining, you, you tend todive in and roll up your sleeves
as a mid-level leader into thedetails at the same time, you've
gotta keep strategy and visionin mind.
(08:58):
So it's a very difficultposition, and if your company is
not growing significantly, it'salso a position where people
really talented, mid-levelleaders could feel stuck without
opportunities for any upwardmobility.
(09:18):
And unless you have some kind ofprogram in place or you're doing
a good job coaching them, andwe'll talk about all that,
they're stuck with thatopportunities for upward
mobility, but they're also stuckwithout any opportunities for
skill building'cause they're sobusy rolling up their sleeves
and diving in to the day to day.
So I wanna talk about some ways,eight ways to develop mid-level
(09:46):
leaders.
And the first is not specific tomid-level leaders, but it's
super important.
Number one is to set crystalclear expectations for those
leaders.
Crystal clear expectations onwhat productivity you expect
(10:08):
from their team, what it meansto be a culture fit, how.
They and their team need to livecore values, but on top of that,
those are expectations you needto set with everyone, team
members, mid-level leaders,senior leaders.
And the CEO, those expectationsneed to be there for everyone.
(10:32):
But with mid-level leaders,especially those that are new to
leadership, you need to setspecific expectations for what
it means to be a leader, whatthey should be doing to hold
their people accountable, togive their people feedback, to
coach them, develop them, retainthem.
(10:55):
So setting those expectations iskey.
that's number one.
And it's gotta start there.
Number two is you've gotta modelthe way you can't expect your
mid-level leaders to be betterleaders than you if you are a
senior leader.
And I've seen in the past, CEOsand VPs of HR say, we need our
(11:17):
mid-level leaders to bestronger.
We need stronger middlemanagement.
and they bring people in to dothese leadership development
programs, these trainers to comein and do leadership development
programs.
They do them for the middlemanagers, and yet the senior
leaders aren't doing that stuff.
So the middle managers learnthings that aren't reinforced.
(11:39):
And all that money and all thattime goes to waste.
So you've got to model the way.
As a leader, if you want yourfolks to coach and hold people
accountable and give peoplefeedback and have the difficult
discussions, and hire in theright way and coach people out
of the organization and ifthat's what's important to, to
(12:03):
have one-on-ones in the rightway.
You need to model the way and dothat as a senior leader, it's
gotta start there because theywill follow you.
That's number.
Two is modeling.
The way number three is startwith your high performing team
members, and even morespecifically those high
(12:24):
potential folks who might besitting around the leadership
table one day.
If there's work you wanna do, ifyou wanna dive in and be a
better coach, be a bettermentor, put in place some
leadership development.
Don't necessarily look at allyour mid-level leaders, put them
all in a bucket and say, what dowe need to do for all of them?
(12:46):
Your mid-level leaders may be atdifferent way different levels
of maturity and performance, andyou're gonna get your greatest
ROI by starting, by focusing onyour best people, partially
because they could be great rolemodels.
For everyone else, partiallybecause like strength finder and
(13:08):
positive psychology.
The whole idea of spending moretime leveraging your strengths
than fixing your weaknesses, areal is a really important idea,
and it doesn't just work for youas an individual.
Works for your team.
Most leaders overinvest in theirunderperformers and underinvest
in their high performers.
(13:29):
Don't do that.
Start with your high performers.
Start with your high potentials.
What could you do to help them?
Step four.
Once you understand who thosefolks are, challenge them.
Raise the bar.
Set higher productivity goals.
Set higher expectations aroundliving the culture.
(13:53):
Increase their responsibility,especially if you are stretched
too thin.
Give them projects to do.
Don't think you need to take allof that on as a CEO or as a
senior leader.
Give your mid-level leadersprojects to do either as
individuals or get a bunch ofhigh potential mid-level leaders
(14:13):
together and have them tackle abroken process or a new, or a
new way to, to handle gettinginto a new market or developing
a new project or figuring out anew strategy.
So challenge them.
(14:35):
and by the way, I've seen moresuperstars leave out of boredom
than anything else.
So challenge them to do more, bemore, become more.
So that's step four.
so far set crystal clearexpectations.
Model the way.
(14:56):
Start with your high performers,high potentials.
Challenge them as number four.
Number five is implement sometraining.
A, call it a leadershipdevelopment program, but when I
say that, I cringe a little bitbecause I've seen too many
organizations spend months andmonths developing these all
(15:19):
encompassing leadershipdevelopment programs, and
they're crap and they don'twork.
they're either not done well orthey're done well, but.
but the time is not invested inmaking sure people are going
through those programs andgetting value out of it.
Sometimes the senior leaderssay, yeah, I know you've gotta
do this leadership development,but I need you to fix this
(15:40):
problem first.
They're putting every priorityover leadership development and
the biggest problem I see isleadership development is about
teaching a whole bunch ofconcepts, but.
What about actually holdingpeople accountable for executing
on it?
So there's nothing wrong andeverything right, with saying
(16:01):
what do we need to do from aleadership development
standpoint, and do we need tocreate a program and how do we
design that program?
That's all good, but mysuggestion is do it in small
chunks.
Don't create an all-encompassingleadership development program.
Start narrow not only what Isaid.
(16:22):
Before it, which is start withyour high performing folks and
your high potentials, but startnarrow.
Don't try to teach everything.
Maybe start with teaching peoplehow to have the right kind of
one-on-one weekly, one-on-oneconversation with their direct
(16:42):
reports.
Maybe start by teaching peoplehow, what coaching is all about.
Versus managing versus feedbackversus holding each other
accountable.
What does it mean to be a coach?
What does it mean to ask theright questions to help people
surface the right answer forthem versus always giving
advice?
(17:04):
So when you do this leadershipdevelopment program, think
narrow and think, not, did Icheck the box and teach people
something?
Think what value came out ofthat.
Piece of leadership developmentand as I said before, model the
way part of modeling the way isas a senior leader, you better
(17:25):
make sure you're an expert inthat first, that was step five.
Step six is if you wanna takecare of your mid-level leaders.
If you want your mid-levelleaders to perform at a high
level, you need to have theright hiring processes.
Crappy hiring processes thatcause the mid-level leaders to
(17:47):
have a bunch of lower performingfolks working for them.
I don't care what leadershipdevelopment program you put in
place, I don't care what kind ofcoaching and development
mentorship you give them,they're gonna find themselves
diving down and having to do thejob of their team members.
So you need to put in place ahiring process.
(18:08):
That focuses on hiring the best.
I love the top gradingmethodology.
Now, it's not the only one havea methodology.
And by the way, don't, I hopeBrad Smart isn't listening to
this.
Don't read the book Top Grading.
I much prefer the book his son,Jeff Smart wrote called Who the
A method for hiring, but youneed to put in place a hiring
(18:30):
process and commit to hiring thebest people.
That's step six, step seven.
Create transparent careerpathways, build career
progressions to alleviate theuncertainty in people's minds
about what's next.
Mid-level leaders are gonna bemuch more excited about doing
(18:53):
what it takes to be greatmid-level leaders if they see a
career path in front of them.
Now for those of you who havecompanies that aren't growing
very much, this is a tough thingto do.
'cause you can create a careerpath on paper, but if your
company's not growing unless youretire or die, the folks working
(19:20):
for you have no way up.
So part of.
The most difficult part ofhaving a career pathway is, man,
you gotta make sure you'refiring all on all cylinders and
growing as a company, or thatstuff looks good on paper, but
it doesn't go anywhere.
but create transparent careerpathways and have discussions
(19:41):
with your mid-level leaders asto where they want to go.
When's the last time you satdown with them and said, where
do you want to go in yourcareer, and how could I help you
get there?
That's step seven careerpathways and step eight is be
willing to coach low performingfolks, whether they are low
(20:03):
producing, which in mymethodology means their
productivity is low or they'relow culture fit.
I don't care how productive theyare.
If you are not willing to coachthose people out of the
organization, you are tying thehands.
Of your mid-level leaders, notonly are you setting a bad
(20:24):
example for them, but again, youare forcing them to go down and
do lower level work becauseyou're not willing to coach the
low performing folks out,including the low performing
peers, not only allowing them tocoach their low performers out,
(20:46):
but.
If you've got someone who is asales manager, but your
operations manager and yourservice managers, those other
mid-level leaders aren't doingtheir job.
It's hard for the sales managerto do their job, so be willing
(21:06):
to model for them.
Having the difficultconversation, making the
difficult decision, andsometimes the best way to take
care of your best people is tofire your worst.
So eight steps I shared withyou.
They're not the only things, butI think they're pretty powerful
if you start there.
Step one, setting crystal clearexpectations.
(21:27):
Step two, starting.
step two is modeling the way.
step three is starting with yourhigh performing, high potential
folks.
Step four is to challenge yourmid-level leaders.
Raise the bar, increaseresponsibility.
Step five is, implement aleadership development program,
but do it in manageable chunkswith some real outcomes and
value coming out of it.
(21:49):
Step six is have hiringprocesses to hire the best.
Step seven create, clear,transparent career pathways.
Step eight, be willing to coachout your low performers.
How equipped are you?
I'm sorry.
How equipped are your mid-levelmanagers, your mid-level leaders
(22:10):
to step into leadership roles?
Tomorrow?
You'll benefit, your companywill benefit by making sure they
are equipped, start thinkingwhat it would take, what would
it take for them to do the nextjob?
What would it take for them tosit around the leadership table
(22:31):
and.
A great way to start is startwith creating those crystal
clear expectations for them, andmake sure you're having weekly
one-on-ones, productive weekly,one-on-ones with them to help
them understand how they'redoing against those
expectations, to hold themaccountable for that and to
(22:56):
coach them.
If you want a great leadershipteam.
You need a great set ofmid-level leaders, and if you
want a great company, you need agreat leadership team so it all
falls into line.
I hope that helped.
I'll see you next time.
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