In the language of the United States Military, the codewords ‘Broken Arrow’ are significant. They signal an unexpected event that results in the accidental launching, detonating, theft, or loss of a nuclear weapon. Thankfully, since nuclear armament became a reality, only six nuclear weapons have been lost and never recovered.
Within modern organisation culture, something just as significant has also broken. The ladder that managers used to rely upon to define their career paths. The ‘delayering’ of the company organogram began to shoot seismic waves through the management cohort more than two decades ago. Shocks increased in frequency as firms began to hire middle managers from the outside, rather than promote from within.
Bringing in outsiders created two psychological impacts. First, outsiders often take an adversarial stance towards the status quo of the organisation. (The status quo being what incumbent managers prize.)
Second, new arrivals often reduce the ‘pull’ incumbents have with their CEO. This is particularly disturbing because managers like to see their career ladder ending in leadership - a misconception because the two roles are distinct and evolution from one to the other is not guaranteed. So, closeness to the boss is an important source of sustenance.
Recently broken ladders have altered all this, so middle managers now find themselves searching around for new loyalties. This is made more difficult by the arrival of successive new generations of employees, each one with less regard for traditional organisational cultures than the last.
Now, with the ‘sticky middle’ of management identified as a talent management issue, middle managers have moved from being invisible to becoming a target. Sticky middle refers to the group of managers in any organisation who have enjoyed long tenure and good remuneration but are now struggling to make outstanding contributions to the business.
But perhaps a more balanced view would have us valuing middle managers for what they do contribute and looking for ways to develop them for the future. A future that may not be inside their current organisation but gives them hope and, to some extent, repairs the broken ladder.
We might start this process earlier, by creating career paths that do not entirely rest on upward mobility. Encouraging more horizontal movement across management positions and facilitating this movement with a wider variety of training opportunities. This would have the added benefit of exposing managers - custodians of institutional knowledge - to a broader view of the enterprise.
They say, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. Making the management career an experience that broadens skills and deepens knowledge might help us to avoid that painful challenge in future.
Chris Harrison leads The Brand Inside
www.thebrandinsideafrica.com