I sit squarely in the middle. Maybe slightly above middle, if we’re being honest, but functionally, I’m the layer between the executives talking about next quarter and the techs keeping the lights on today.
Here’s what we get right: almost everybody shows up to work every day trying to make today better than yesterday. That’s true at every level. Executives, managers, line staff. Nobody’s trying to make things worse.
Here’s what we get wrong: we speak completely different languages and pretend we don’t.
Senior management cares about EBITDA. Gross revenue. Net revenue. Cost containment. The line staff trying to keep the lights on are just trying to keep the lights on, and if the lights don’t work because the power bill hasn’t been paid, or the light switch needs replacing, or the bulb burned out, they don’t know the difference. They just know it’s dark.
My job, middle management’s job,is to be the Rosetta Stone that keeps all of this from falling apart.
It means understanding both sets of priorities and balancing them on a daily basis. Translating “we need to reduce OpEx by 12%” into “here’s which projects we’re pausing and why.” Translating “the network is down again” into “here’s the business case for the infrastructure upgrade we’ve been requesting.”
I’ve done this in a 10-person organization. I’ve done it in a 50-person organization. I’ve done it multiple times in 100-person organizations. It works the same way every time. I have to assume it scales the same at a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, you just add layers of translation.
You add the complexity of middle management only when you have no other choice. A boardroom meeting about next year’s priorities doesn’t directly translate into operational instructions for the person trying to keep the thing running. Someone has to do the translating. That’s us.
People love to criticize middle management. Fair enough, sometimes it deserves it. But here’s my favorite example: the United States military. Massive organization. Constantly criticized for the inefficiency of its management layers.
And yet.
I don’t think anyone in the world wants to be on the other side of a “mismanaged, middle-management-heavy” United States Marine Corps.
Oorah. And goodnight.