Scott Mautz - Leading from the Middle: A Playbook for Managers to Influence Up, Down, and Across the Organization

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9

SCOTT MAUTZ

A PLAYBOOK FOR MANAGERS TO INFLUENCE UP, DOWN, AND ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

Copyright 2021 John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate percopy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 7508400, fax (978) 6468600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 7486011, fax (201) 7486008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 7622974, outside the United States at (317) 5723993 or fax (317) 5724002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by printondemand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in ebooks or in printondemand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data is Available:

ISBN 9781119717911 (Hardcover)
ISBN 9781119717881 (ePDF)
ISBN 9781119717942 (ePub)

Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: CurvaBezier/Getty Images
Author Photo: Rick Norton

To Deb and Emma:

For inspiring me through the ups, downs, and acrosses in my life.

It was a yellow fish with bright blue stripes, unlike any other in the aquarium, that drew my attention.

Regally, intentionally, it circled the center of the glass encasement at a measured pace, surrounded by myriad other fish darting wildly about. My coworker, sitting next to me at a noisy workdinner party, asked what I was staring at. I brushed the question off and reentered the fray of conversation, albeit halfheartedly. At a time when I felt frazzled in my middle management role, I kept stealing glances at the Pisces protagonist, my mind lost in association.

I was that fish.

Maneuvering in the middle of an oversized fishbowl, all eyes privy to my every movement. Surrounded, yet lonely. Pressure from all sides; the weight of water. Watching other fish with their own agenda zip by while I labored to remain steady and purposeful in the middle of it all.

Such is the plight of the middle manager, of those who lead from the middle.

Which would be anyone who has a boss or is a boss, at any level, anyone who must influence in all directions to do their job well.

Me. You.

My existential moment happened in the middle of my threedecade corporate career. Even as I moved closer to the top at Procter & Gamble to run multibilliondollar businesses, I was still always in the middle at some level, with people to influence above, and always plenty of those to influence down and across. It was exhausting at times, exhilarating at others. I found myself wishing someone would study the unique challenges of middle managers and offer help. Then I decided, Why not me?

And so began a journey that carried on for 15 more years in corporate; intensely studying those who lead from the middle and their challenges, watching how they operate effectively (or not), learning the success secrets of influencing up, down, and across, all as I rose at P&G, knowing that understanding the middle was how I was able to rise at all to begin with.

It became a mission, a mission for the middle, one that has carried over into my postcorporate life. I leverage each class I teach as faculty at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business for Executive Education to study the middle manager. I conduct studies, interviews, surveys, and focus groups with these heroes. I wrote hundreds of articles about middlemanagement struggles for my top Inc.com column, garnering well over a million clicks a month, which speaks to the unmet need in this arena. I wrote the multiawardwinning books Make It Matter and Find the Fire that speak to leadership and selfleadership, all while harboring a burning desire to write the book that addresses headon the challenges that middle managers face.

Which brings us to here.

I've been where you are. I know how challenging it is to have to influence in every direction, saddled with an undoable workload, often underresourced, underappreciated, and overstressed. Surrounded, but alone.

It's time the specific challenges of middle managers are recognized and specific help is provided. And while I know the experience, research, data, and volumes of work poured into this book will serve you well, there's another reason it will become your playbook for leading from the middle.

Because it comes from the middle. My heart.

At one point, any midlevel manager who worked for the Lego company had the set of directives in

The middle is messy, full of contradictions and opposing agendas, and couldn't be more critical for a company's success.

And it's you. Those who lead from the messy middle work in spots higher or lower in the organization, from Vice Presidents, General Managers, and Directors to Sales, Marketing, and Design Managers, and many more. They have a boss and are a boss, at any level. It's anyone who has to lead up, down, and across an organization.

Don't be fooled by the old Dilbert cartoons or Office reruns. Those who lead from the middle, let's use the oftenderogatory term middle management for a moment, aren't the gonowhere, hasbeen, mediocre bureaucrats that block progress as popularized in pop culture. They're the ones that love what they do (mostly) and whose passion and talents make the company hum. They account for 22.3 percent of the variation in revenue in an organization, more than three times that attributed to those specifically in innovation roles, according to Wharton research.