Finding a Middle Ground:

1

Finding a Middle Ground Situating Your Role(s)
in (and beyond) Middle Management Illinois
Association for College Admission Counseling, May
2009
2

Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate
frequently. Provide challenges and rewards.
Believe in them. Get out of their way and they'll
knock your socks off. Mary Ann Allison, author
3

• There are superiors to impress and subordinates
  to maneuver (or the other way around). Being a
  middle manager is performance art. And the show
  must go on.
• Michael Kinsley

4

• For a manager to be perceived as a positive
  manager, they need a four to one positive to
  negative contact ratio.
• Ken BlanchardAmerican Business Lecturer Author

5

• Therefore, it follows that middle managers must
  possess a multitude of skills. They must be able
  to lead while at the same time be willing to
  follow, demonstrate forcefulness as well as
  restraint, and be alternate the voice of command
  with a willing ear. As team builders and leaders
  they practice one set of responsibilities, and as
  a peers and employees to upper management they
  fulfill another.
•  
• Andrew E. Schwartz

6

• In the majority of companies, midcareer managers
  and employees make up half of the workforce.
• Managing Middlescence
• Business Week

7

• The biggest strain of being a manager, to someone
  who comes to it new in middle age, is that you
  must think constantly about others. You needn't
  necessarily think well of them or think kindly
  about them. It's not that stressful. But you must
  think something about others all the time.
• Michael Kinsley

8

•      
• Organization doesn't really accomplish anything.
  Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories
  of management don't much matter. Endeavors
  succeed or fail because of the people involved.
  Only by attracting the best people will you
  accomplish great deeds.  
• Colin Powell

9

• "Don't equate activity with efficiency. You are
  paying your key people to see the big picture.
  Don't let them get bogged down in a lot of
  meaningless meetings and paper shuffling.
  Announce a Friday afternoon off once in a while.
  Cancel a Monday morning meeting or two. Tell the
  cast of characters you'd like them to spend the
  amount of time normally spent preparing for
  attending the meeting at their desks, simply
  thinking about an original idea."
• Harvey Mackay

10
By 2003, close to 60 percent of all women aged
sixteen and older were in the labor force. The
U.S. Department of Labor projects this figure
will continue to increase at a slower rate
reaching and is projected to reach nearly 63
percent by the year 2015.
11

• "Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not
  think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.
• Marcus Aurelius

12
I believe my concepts are more than just
business, they are about our culture. Minoru Mori
13
I have yet to find the man, however exalted his
station, who did not do better work and put forth
greater effort under a spirit of approval than
under a spirit of criticism. Charles Schwab
14
Just four in 10 managers are extremely or very
satisfied working for their employers, according
to a 2007 survey of more than 1,400 respondents
by Accenture, a management consulting and
outsourcing company. About 25 of those looking
for new jobs said they were searching because of
a lack of advancement prospects, and 43 of
middle managers polled felt as if they were doing
all the work but not getting credit for it.
One-third reported frustration with their
work-life balance.
15
Statistics also show that although a significant
percentage of middle managers are women, women
still have only a very limited presence in senior
management. Cubeiro says that unfortunately,
while half of middle managers in many companies
are men and half are women, the situation is
terribly unequal in senior management, where
seven out of every eight professionals are men.
The Limbo of Middle Management
16
Chris Kawakita Assistant Director of
Admissions Illinois Wesleyan University ckawakit_at_i
wu.edu Julie Nelson Regional Recruitment
Director Xavier University nelsonj4_at_xavier.edu Mi
tch Warren Senior Associate Director of
Admissions Purdue University mitchw_at_purdue.edu