I’ve worked with many middle managers who struggle to put a positive spin on their boss’ changing expectations and help them make sense to their staff. Those closest to the leadership are privy to more information and have a deeper relationship with the person who may alter their priorities. Also, the direct reports are typically more committed to the organization and have bought into “this is how things are around here” so the changes are seen as normal instead of a surprising aberration.
But the continual flip-flopping or change in direction extracts the highest price from the next layer of employees. Often, it’s this group who must implement tactics and the frequent modifications cause them to become frustrated, waste time, duplicate effort, need to backtrack, or feel embarrassed if they must retract something in front of others.
Then, when the middle manager spares the leader by filtering this staff pushback, the leadership doesn’t understand why there is an employee performance or retention issue, and it becomes an unresolved cycle.
Rather than place the burden on your middle management to smooth the waters on both ends, work to cultivate a culture where honest feedback can be shared. Implement a truly anonymous feedback mechanism. Hold informal conversations with non-direct reports to listen to concerns. Conduct lessons learned meetings where barriers and frustrations can be recorded in an attempt to prevent them on the next project. Have a neutral party conduct exit interviews and aggregate themes to protect anonymity, or implement a 360-degree feedback assessment of the leader.
The direct reports may not articulate the squeeze they feel but the frequent changes at the top are creating more lemons than lemonade.
