Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR practiceLearning & developmentLeadershipOpinion

Leadership development for middle managers

by Personnel Today 24 Feb 2010
by Personnel Today 24 Feb 2010

At Henley, in common with many business schools, we focus on a distributed leadership model – encouraging the development of leadership capability at every level of an organisation, with an emphasis on ‘leaders developing leaders’.

I have many conversations with corporate clients who understand that employee engagement begins truly at line or middle management level; and these individual perceptions have been borne out by Henley’s recent Corporate Learning Priorities survey, which revealed that leadership development, of both the senior and middle management teams, is by far the most important learning and development priority for 2010.

Interestingly, leadership development for middle management seems to have the edge with 67% of HR professionals surveyed naming it as a priority, rating it first or second on their list. This compared to just 35% of those rating leadership development for senior managers as their priority. This finding is supported by the fact that 72% of respondents also chose ‘developing high potentials’ as one of their priorities for next year – people who may be expected to become leaders in the future.

Often much maligned, middle managers find themselves in the unenviable position of having to be both strategic and operational; task and people focused; having to implement and explain decisions that may not be fully intelligible to those that report to them.

Middle managers are often called organisational ‘blockers’ – people who are deliberately trying to protect the status quo and thus stopping an organisation from moving forward. This is rarely true or fair. However, simplistically put, acting as the conduit between the ‘strategic thinkers’ and the ‘doers’ within an organisation is a challenging place to be, especially as organisations stabilise and regroup after the upheavals of the recession.

The more middle managers feel equipped, respected and appreciated, the more they will be able to help organisations create bright, new futures. About 60% of executives on Henley’s Leadership Programme observe that it has helped them recognise the importance of their relationships with other people at work, both in terms of getting tasks done and in terms of their creativity, ability to share their workloads, improve communication, be more self-aware, and generally making work more interesting and enjoyable, and hence more engaging for all concerned.

Middle managers are the lynchpin to successful employee engagement. Separate research by the HR Centre for Excellence at Henley spells out the three things that make a line manager effective at engaging – and leading – their staff:

1) They focus on the individual



  • Takes a genuine and active interest in me and my development
  • Knows me as an individual
  • Values my opinion, seeks my views and recognises my contribution.

2) They have an empowering managerial style



  • Gives direction but allows me to get on with the job
  • Gives me the bigger picture and context to the job
  • Gives me support and guidance
  • Is approachable, available and open: willing to share thoughts and feelings
  • Regular meetings and contact, both formal and informal
  • Gives ongoing, constructive, open, direct and timely feedback
  • Gives me exposure and connects me to the rest of the organisation
  • Adapts their style to my needs and those of different individuals.

3) They are honest, authentic and competent, which drives high levels of trust



  • Words and behaviours match
  • Is good at job and has organisational respect.

Some of these skills and behaviours are innate – but rarely all of them. However, they can be learned. Investing in middle manager development is an investment in the long-term levels of employee engagement within the whole organisation – and the resulting high levels of discretionary effort and high productivity that creates. And this is one of those times in the economic cycle where engagement is at a premium.

Linda Irwin, executive director, corporate development, Henley Business School

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Social care £15k ‘golden hello’ won’t tackle retention problems, experts warn
next post
Foreign language skills make jobseekers more employable during recession

You may also like

How introverts can become brilliant leaders

5 Aug 2022

Ensuring mental health conversations don’t overstep boundaries

26 Jul 2022

Why ‘micro-upskilling’ is essential for productivity

18 Jul 2022

Frasers Group scraps Friday working from home policy

15 Jul 2022

Wimbledon 2022: what can leaders learn from the...

11 Jul 2022

Learning that sticks: Dr Alex Young talks to...

8 Jul 2022

Founder disputes: the significance of fair play

8 Jul 2022

PM’s resignation sheds light on leadership psychology and...

7 Jul 2022

Netherlands on track to approve working from home...

7 Jul 2022

Employment law changes for 2022 and beyond: update...

1 Jul 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+