If you’ve read your fair share of management stories, you would have come across the one about the guy working the department store floor. He enjoyed meeting shoppers, interacting with them, and closing sales. He was so good at his job that he exceeded his targets regularly. His reward: he was given a managerial position and moved to the office space overlooking the shop. It was exciting at first, but the glimmer of the new role and newfound power faded quickly. From his vantage point, the manager looked at the shop floor longingly, because that’s where his heart was. He wasn’t good at managing the sales people. He was so miserable in his new position that he begged to return to the shop floor. When the big boss realised that his newly minted manager was better off interacting with customers, he let him return to do what he did best. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of future promotions.
Amongst the many things they struggle with, one of the most common things afflicting middle managers is letting go – of old behaviours, of old ways of doing things, and of the activities they did so well which probably got them noticed in the first place. There are several mistakes new managers are guilty of making.
While the above example is too simplistic and probably not representative of the majority of middle managers and their ascension, the inability to let go is very real. There is a natural tendency to gravitate towards activities that they’re familiar with and good at, and which enabled them to shine.
However, if there is a real desire for greater responsibility and to lead, middle managers must be prepared to adopt new tasks, including administrative ones such as budget and people management, high-level reporting, and leading meetings – just to name a few.
The concept of Eliminate-Automate-Delegate is not new (and definitely not invented by the author of this article). It is a well-known productivity hack that helps individuals get the most out of their day.
Nevertheless, it is equally suited to middle management. Here’s how:
Automate – some time-intensive activities are critical to business, but they can be automated. For example, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used in data gathering and report generation.
Eliminate – evaluate which of your activities is completely unnecessary in the current times. If it saps time, energy and money – and has little to no impact – then it should be eliminated.
Delegate – now that you’re in middle management, you’ve got more weight on your shoulders. More meetings, more decisions to make, admin matters, personnel matters, maybe even some management team meetings. Whatever it may be, it’s time to hand the reins over to the next best person in the team. You can’t do everything that you did and take on new responsibilities.
When promoting staff to middle management, senior leaders look for maturity and leadership. If you plan on climbing that ladder, it’s best to familiarise yourself with when to Automate-Eliminate-Delegate so that you can be an effective manager, rather than cling on to that junior role.