Grooming mid managers to be leaders of tomorrow

Sudipta Dev / Mumbai

Mid managers play the most challenging roles in any organisation. They are the vital link between the top management and the other employees—the executers who get the work done, the pivot around whom all the functions revolve. One of the frequently debated topics in the recent years has been the lack of leadership skills among mid managers in the IT industry. This aspect takes strategic significance as more organisations have started adopting a succession planning policy to meet future leadership requirements. Good leaders make a successful organisation, but then it is the responsibility of the latter to groom such leaders within its hierarchy.

The job responsibilities at the mid-management level involves challenges which not all are not able to cope with. Ranjan Acharya, vice president of corporate human resources development, at Wipro, lists some of the factors responsible for the shortcomings: “Accelerated growth, multiple demands on time, remote global team management, not enough focus or time on developing the needed competencies could be some of the reasons. It is like the old story—no time to sharpen the saw. It takes more time to work with a blunt edge and that leaves no time for sharpening the saw.”

It has often been found that the management is not focussed on the mid level, the concentration is essentially on the top or lower levels. Sanjay Mandlik, corporate champion-HR and TQM with Emerson Network Power India, believes that mid level employees are often de-motivated and have a high attrition rate, as a result of lack of good opportunities and challenges. “The performance culture is missing and the organisation pays heavily,” he asserts.

The fallout

The repercussions of leadership crises at the mid-management level (both at technical as well as functional groups) can be severe for any organisation. Acharya points out that this impacts employee satisfaction and productivity and might also come in the way of creating a leadership pipeline for the future.

Mid managers are not just first line managers, but also the executers and channels of communication. “Even shortage of skills like grievance handling can in fact affect the finer aspects of project management,” says Harish Govind, vice president of HR with Blue Star Infotech, adding that if they are unable to implement the vision well, it can lead to chaos in the organisation.

It is the mid managers who are the communication channels between the top management level and the other employees. The latter perceive the company through them, consequently any lacunae in the way they operate can send a wrong signal downwards. “The fallout can be very damaging. It will lead to low motivation, impact the stock and market standing, the customer will lose his confidence on the company and the organisation will lose prospective employees and customers,” adds Manoj Mandavgane, general manager of HR with ICICI Infotech.

The effort

A manager might not necessarily be a good leader. It is the responsibility of the top management to coach them well for their roles. It is often found that hardcore techies lack in people-skills leading to problems in the team, and need mentoring in leadership qualities. ICICI Infotech has also chalked out clear-cut career paths for techies and managers, and have different training programmes to address this issue.

“The top management must focus on mentoring, act as coaches and let middle managers become leaders. They should build a shared vision, frame strategy, chart the organisation, articulate the values, and leave the middle management to manage,” says Vinayak Kamath, vice president of HR at Kale Consultants. He feels that most organisations fail to effectively use the middle management. The company has a year-long management and leadership skills development programme and also takes into account the individual career aspirations of middle managers at the time of appraisals.

Wipro has a specific programme called the New Leaders’ Programme, plus a host of mechanisms for providing individual feedback (including 360 degree), new manager assimilation programmes, individual coaching initiatives.

Infosys has also invested in building leadership at all levels. Education and Research (E&R) and the Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) train employees in technology, business, management and leadership. “With the objective of leadership development to address business risk, especially in terms of succession planning, a new ‘three-tier model’ of leadership is being implemented in the company,” says the Infosys spokesperson. The process works the following way: The Tier 1 leaders consist of business leaders including heads of business units; Tier 2 and Tier 3 leaders consist of high potential candidates who may become Tier 1 or Tier 2 lea-ders in the next few years. Each Tier 1 leader is mentored by one of the members of the Board of Directors. In turn, each Tier 2/Tier 3 leader is mentored by a member in a tier above them.

“These high potential empl-oyees are trained through external development programmes in India and globally. The progress and performance of each member is monitored closely. This forms a pool of ready to deploy leaders who can fill any new leadership vacancy in the company,” adds the Infosys spokesperson. Furthermore, the ILI works towards enhancing management depth and grooming leaders who can take responsibilities for critical activities.

Retaining the trained

Is it feasible for an organisation to invest in long-term leadership strategy, particularly when people move so often from one organisation to another? Interestingly, most organisations believe that despite employee turnover, the leadership programmes should continue as they benefit the company as well as the industry in the long run. “Infosys enjoys one of the lowest attrition levels in the industry. However, for any company to stop investing in leadership development in lieu of the attrition they face is extremely shortsighted. Not only is the company not planning for its future, but also the lack of leadership opportunities within the company could further increase attrition,” states the Infosys spokesperson.

“Ironically, the more you train, the more you retain. People do not want to leave you and join another organisation, where learning stops,” points out Acharya. He believes that organisations can retain trained leaders by creating a psychological relationship with employees through appropriate career anchors. This relationship also means giving an opportunity for the employee to use his/her enhanced competency or skill. There is otherwise always a danger that they may look elsewhere for the opportunity.

Providing opportunities

An organisation can retain employees by providing leadership opportunities to them. Challenging assignments can make all the difference. “This includes investing in new businesses, creating new structures, fast track growth, early and substantive responsibility, having their voice in the company’s strategy formulation process, encouraging them to take risks and any other method of making them “belong” to the organisation,” states Kamath of Kale Consultants.

Both ENP and Blue Star Infotech believe that the fact they have been able to provide such opportunities to their mid management cadre has brought down their attrition rate. ENP has a leadership programme drawn out with the help of institutes like the IIMs. Mandlik points out with evident pride that the retention level of the key people in the organisation is very high, primarily because the organisation has invested a lot of time and effort by designing a career plan for them. Govind adds: “The leaders are being identified and trained. We also give them monetary and non-monetary incentives.”

It is the mid managers who will be the senior management tomorrow. If they are not gro-omed well, there might not be any leaders tomorrow!

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com