Acadia reposted this
CEO of Acadia, Former CEO of 360i, 2X Adweek Media All-Star, AdAge 40 under 40 (No Longer Under 40:), Author of "The Great Client Partner" & "You Get The Agency You Deserve," Operating Partner at Overline.
In this industry, middle management is where value is destroyed or created... Are you spending enough time focused there? Most are not. Times in my past, I was not. Doing a bit better with it now. Think about the rough math. CEO’s manage eight or so people. Those eight people each may manage another X people (or whatever) more. Those X people are shaping the front line people your clients & customers speak too. The odd thing in most industries (mine included) is that most of the focus and investment is against "executive training" which includes all matters of private coaching, presentation training, financial training and whatever else. At most companies, middle management is left to fend for itself, and figure it out. Which is hard. Managing people is about as natural as Waterskiing. Which is to say, it's not. Lean back...and let the boat pull you up...huh? I dont have the answer, and as you know, I dont use LKDN as a "performance-bro-know-it-all-BS-advice-column"....but I will share a few things that I have tried or have seen others do in this area: 1. For a fraction of what you pay for executive coaching, there are a number of experts I have used who do group sessions for emerging leaders at costs that are reasonable. I have one I love. DM me if you want to be connected. 2. Take your incredible executive team, and create some content and a curriculum. It wont be perfect, but it will be good and appreciated. We did The Acadia Leadership Series for our emerging leaders this year. I am proud of how it went for a first time series. It was great to talk to this skip level of next gen leaders. I believe and hope they felt cared for. 3. I have seen some C-suiters take on "Reverse Mentors" or adopt some folks at different early stages of management. I saw a CEO take on as a "reverse mentor" an emerging "Director of Performance" at their company. This helped the CMO stay in touch with the ground (the real), and helped the Director learn from the CMO. 4. Books - You want to see someone light up? Go by them Good to Great or The Hard Thing About Hard Things or The Trusted Advisor, and write a note on the cover and give it to an emerging manager. Shows you care and gives instruction all for under $20. 5. Don't "assign this to HR". This is YOUR thing to figure out. HR can help you. Be a team with your HR and people ops experts. But, let me finish where I started. None of us spend enough time trying to help emerging managers reach their greatest potential. But, unlike a lot of intractable or expensive problems, the 5 ideas above are pretty available and cost effective. Just sayin'