From Managing Others to

Managing Managers
Group.3
Parvathi.S.Unni
Suja.S.Chandran
Shobha Viswanath
Sreekala.A
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Introduction
Managers of managers- greatest number of
people in the company
Responsible for the most hands-on work jobs
They are in charge for getting the work done in
an organization
Directly linked to the quality, productivity &
performance of an organization
Chance for missing skills and values- if
promoted to high positions.
High opportunity to imbibe & implant crucial
leadership qualities.
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Signs of a Misplaced Manager of Managers
 Difficulty delegating
◦ Includes not only being unable to delegate but also
delegating improperly
◦ As people move up the leadership levels the inability to
delegate has a negative effect
◦ As first-line managers think they have increased decision
making responsibility they get frustrated when a work is
forced upon them
◦ Work gets slow as too many decisions have been centralized
and delayed
◦ These managers are much hassled and complaining about
too much work and no competent direct reports to help

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Poor performance management
◦ One who provides poor or little feedback to
managers, who is not good coach, doesn’t offer clear
direction, and whose people are unclear of goals
◦ i. e, These managers are unable to communicate
productively with his direct reports

Failure to build a strong team

◦ They works with their direct reports as individuals
but doesn’t organize them into a productive team
◦ This prevents the synergy that comes when a team of
managers share ideas.

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A singleminded focus on getting the work done
◦Demonstrates little or no capacity for taking full advantage of
his new position, still operates with the values of first-line
manager
◦Doesn’t recognize his role as a coach and developer of a
managerial talent
◦Do not exhibit interest in strategic or cultural issues

Choosing clones over contributors

◦These people have opportunities to select their first-line
managers
◦They are not trained in this and tend to choose one resembling
to them or choose friends and former direct reports over people
who are truly best qualified
◦This is harmful as they(friends) are often unwilling to challenge
boss and don’t bring fresh perspectives to the job
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 What Managers of Managers Should
Do…
1) Selecting and training first-line managers
2) Holding first-line managers accountable for
managerial work
3) Deploying and redeploying resources among
units
4) Managing the boundaries that separate units
which report directly, and with other part of the
business

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About Selecting and training first-line managers

Finding individual contributors who are likely

candidates capable of assuming a first-level leadership
Need to know individual contributors well enough to
select them for a managerial position
The risk of indulging in a relatively new task of
selecting a proper set of individual contributors
Giving them the opportunity to see if they like, and are
good at managerial skills which can be accomplished
by two ways:
 Team assignments
 Project-leadership assignments
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 Main goals…
Training first-line managers-the art of creating a
supportive environment that allows mistakes but
not failures

An environment where there is great enthusiasm

for learning techniques, performance appraisal
writing, and constructive criticism

Need to develop a sensitivity about power which

will motivate and instruct rather than demean and
demoralize
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 Contd……..

Becoming to the use and abuse of power is

necessary at this level.
 Need to make individual contributors responsible
of reporting to not more than two superiors, thus
avoiding them to have a feeling of “powerless or
unimportant” to the organization

 recognizing the best time to deliver negative

feedback and, more importantly, how to deliver
it

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 The Flaw…

 Managers do not value selection responsibilities and

as a result brings out many cronies and clones:

 Devote less time and seriousness for the selection

 Hate to differentiate their people. Feel
uncomfortable giving not so good comments like “
You are not good enough for us..”

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About Holding first-line managers accountable
for managerial work

Need to be competent enough at holding people

responsible for individual contributor work

Shifttheir accountability focus thus giving them an

opportunity to value a different type of work

Realize how to set stretch goals that allow room for

growth, avoiding a failure

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Develop a different framework for judging results
from the individuals’ direct reports. This provides:
 to evaluate people based on the quality of their
selection decisions
 the frequency and quality of their performance
feedback
 their ability to team with other units and their skill
at producing results through a team

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Need to remove first time managers at a
proper time, who do not make the level
one grade, which calls for a huge amount
of courage, emotional fortitude, and self-
confidence
Allowing under-performing managers to
remain, clogs the leadership pipeline at its
source

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About Deploying and redeploying resources among units

To reallocate money, technology, and support

staff to improve the results
To determine whether the teams are using
resources effectively, one can ask questions
like:
 Can each unit deliver the required output on time
at the right quality level and for the appropriate
cost? If not, what additional resources are needed?
Do we have the right mix of external and internal
quality resources? How should the mixture be
adjusted, if needed?
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Are any units wasting or missing resources?
If yes, what should be done?

Is this the right configuration of units given

the total requirement? What resources
should be redeployed?

Which people should not be working here?

How quickly can they be replaced with more
productive people?
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In case of the units required, following questions can
be raised:
 Which unit is the most effective and should be
given the most difficult project?
 Which unit deserve more than their fair share of
support resources as they would use them more
effectively?
 Who, if anyone, should receive the biggest raise?
 Who needs the most coaching and the most of my
time?

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 Managing the boundaries

Must be a silo buster- avoid boundaries that impede

the flow of work and information between the
different functions and groups
Transitioning from a purely functional mindset that
values a specific function to one that embraces a
more egalitarian view
Must inculcate this egalitarian value among both
first-line managers and individual contributors so
that work, information, ideas and technology flows
freely among the units

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Calls for a specific workflow management skills
that includes:
Monitoring the workflow between his unit and
others in the organization
Asking questions and recommending
improvements
Require a more subtle form of boundary
management that helps in achieving business
goals. It includes:
Understanding and conveying functional
strategies, business strategies and the corporate
mission

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 An add-on leverage…

◦ Effective cross-unit collaborations which would

accelerate work processes which would lead to gaining
competitive advantage

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 How to help Managers of managers through
this leadership passage.

 Make them aware of the difference between being a

manager of individual contributors and a manager of
managers.
 These two managerial levels are closely aligned in
people’s mind’s and the differences have to spelled out.
 Bosses must clearly communicate the new requisite
skills, time applications and values that shape how they
apply these skills.
 Simply describing new leadership role won’t work, goals
and measurements must be put in place that create
accountability for new managerial behaviors.
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Appropriate measurements include:

Amount of improvement in efficiency

Degree of improvement in quality
Frequency and impact of coaching sessions
Number of first-line managers promoted to
bigger jobs or moved laterally for broadening
experiences
Success rate of new first-line managers
Teamwork within the assigned areas
Teamwork within the other areas.
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Contd…………
Among all these measures the most important is
preparing the first line managers for their roles
–inexperienced managers are tremendously
impressionable, naturally model the actions and
attitudes of their bosses
If the bosses are either unwilling or unable to set a
proper example and help in developing the right
direction
–leadership pipeline clogged at its source, such case
only resource is to recruit stars

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Coaching is a more interactive method to help
people translate the right message (to the front–
line managers) into behavior.
-It’s the hands on art of caring ,it bonds people
(especially potential leaders ) to each other &
the organization.
-when coaching & caring are absent &
pressures are intense turn over is high and
people leave to find better place to learn and
grow.

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Contd……
Finally ,its important during these times of rapid
change and uncertainty to involve managers of
managers at a strategic level.
-They can play a major role in
interpreting and communicating the company’s
evolving objectives to the workforce, either
directly or to first line managers.
-If you ignore engaging others strategic
level, you risk creating leaders who resist
change.

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 GE bringing the change
When Jack Welch initiated his changes at GE
◦ the manager of manager’s level was known
as ‘concrete layer’.
◦ They were primed to resist to any new
initiative, the reflexively viewing
delayering , downsizing and workforce
empowerment as a threat.
◦ GE decided to break this resistance through
a training program called “The
Experienced Manager”.
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Advantages of the programme
Ithelped the participants to acquire skills
needed to manage and lead at this level.
Also focused on explaining the culture and
business context for the changes reshaping the
organization.
Helped them to understand the strategic
impetus for change melted to resistance
Eliminating the rumors and misinformation
about change that prevented them from
managing effectively and enthusiastically.
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 Gordon-A role model for manager of manager’s
Runs a technical group of telecommunication company
Seven manager’s reports to him
At first he was interested in “getting ahead” early in
his career
But now interested in stability and doing meaningful
work
His characteristics as a manager
He is extraordinarily demanding
Sets high standards both for his team and for
individual performance
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 Success factors of Gordon
His people believe that his demands are fair
Communicates what he wants clearly and quickly
Clear about major responsibilities of his job to
grow and develop managers(provides honest
feedback for performance)
Knows his people well and tailors his interactions
according to the needs and sensitivities
Good delegation skill
Sets objectives for his people and allows freedom
for them to achieve it

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 Result
He speaks proudly about a number of his direct
reports being promoted and doing well in their
jobs
People in other departments like to work for him
He excels in producing future high level
managers and leaders
 For personnel reasons he may not advance much
further in the organization, but he is fulfilling his
manager of manager’s role serving as a
launching pad for career of first time managers
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 Conclusion
Managing the manager’s is the most tough but
the integral part of every organization

Such a manager needs to be a good

communicator as well as must have a clear
idea about his change of duty as a first-line
manager to manager of manager’s

If he resists this change he will not be

effective leader and thus the leadership
pipeline gets clogged
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THANK YOU 31