Why Middle Management is the Hardest Job | Simon Sinek — Transcript

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1. 0:00middle management is the hardest job in
2. 0:03any organization because when you're jr.
3. 0:09your only job is really to do your job
4. 0:13that's it and you get trained how to do
5. 0:15your job I mean you all have to be
6. 0:17licensed and go to school and learn how
7. 0:19to do the job of being an accountant and
8. 0:21if you're really good at it you
9. 0:24eventually you get promoted and you
10. 0:25eventually get promoted to position
11. 0:27where you're now responsible for the
12. 0:28people who do the job you used to do but
13. 0:30the problem is they don't give us any
14. 0:31training how to do that you know and
15. 0:33senior people are thinking about
16. 0:34entirely different things they're
17. 0:35thinking about the firm thinking about
18. 0:37strategy and the problem is so you have
19. 0:39this middle group that's in this sort of
20. 0:41weird mix where they're not there they
21. 0:44have to be strategic but not majority
22. 0:46strategic and they they have to be
23. 0:48tactical but they're not majority
24. 0:49tactical and they have to translate
25. 0:51what's going up here to down there and
26. 0:52down here to up here and and most things
27. 0:55break in the middle because I'll meet
28. 0:57firms where the leadership is amazing
29. 1:00and they're visionary and they care
30. 1:01about people and they want to do the
31. 1:03right thing and then I go down to the
32. 1:04frontline and they're like yeah this
33. 1:05place is the worst
34. 1:07and so I'm like what happened between
35. 1:10here and there and it's the middle most
36. 1:12things break in the middle and so I
37. 1:14think there are two there are two there
38. 1:16are two factors one is we don't train
39. 1:19people how to lead right so as I said
40. 1:22before when you were junior we're we
41. 1:23have to know what to do we just do our
42. 1:25jobs we'd be good at it and as we become
43. 1:27leaders in this middle management we're
44. 1:29now transitioning to this job we're now
45. 1:31responsible for the people who do the
46. 1:33job we used to do but nobody is teaching
47. 1:35us listening nobody's teaching us
48. 1:36communication skills nobody's teaching
49. 1:38as effective confrontation nobody's
50. 1:40teaching us how to give and repeat
51. 1:41receive feedback nobody's actually
52. 1:43teaching us leadership so this is why we
53. 1:46get managers and not leaders and like
54. 1:49you would never ask somebody to do
55. 1:51anything in accounting without showing
56. 1:53them how to do it
57. 1:53ever bad idea all right
58. 1:56so why on earth do we think that we can
59. 1:59just promote someone to a leadership
60. 2:00position and expect that they know what
61. 2:01to do without showing them how to do it
62. 2:03so that's problem number one is is that
63. 2:05is the rule is the total vacuum in some
64. 2:08cases or just really minimal amounts of
65. 2:12leadership training
66. 2:13and it needs to be robust the other
67. 2:16problem that I come across very often is
68. 2:19I get some really wonderful self-taught
69. 2:22leaders of middle management they're
70. 2:23reading books they're going to
71. 2:24conferences themselves they're watching
72. 2:26TED Talks I mean there's students of
73. 2:28leadership they have mentors I mean
74. 2:30they're really making a go of it and
75. 2:32they complain that the that the senior
76. 2:34management all they care about is is the
77. 2:36quarterly earnings and so that problem
78. 2:38we have there is they're trying so hard
79. 2:40to do the right thing but management
80. 2:42really doesn't care so that's the
81. 2:44opposite right and in those cases I
82. 2:48recommend that they the right thing to
83. 2:50do
84. 2:51I mean quitting is always an option but
85. 2:52that's not the not necessarily the best
86. 2:54option or the first option but I always
87. 2:57recommend to be the leader you wish you
88. 2:58had which is they'll I get the question
89. 3:01it is one of the if not the most common
90. 3:02question I get which is what do I do
91. 3:04when I'm trying to do the right thing
92. 3:06and and my boss for my boss's boss or my
93. 3:09boss's boss's boss just don't get it you
94. 3:13know all they care about is money before
95. 3:14people and and the answer is you can't
96. 3:16control what you can't control so
97. 3:18worried about the people around you
98. 3:20worried about the people to the sides of
99. 3:22you the level below you even a level
100. 3:23above you and you be the leader you wish
101. 3:26you had what you start to find in those
102. 3:27pockets is these magical little diamonds
103. 3:31in the rough up here we we worked with a
104. 3:33large a large technology company and we
105. 3:36worked with a group where that's exactly
106. 3:38what we did we we developed this whole
107. 3:40leadership thing just for this little
108. 3:42group in the middle and yes they started
109. 3:44to do better and their numbers went
110. 3:45better and the group expanded and blah
111. 3:46blah blah all the things you'd expect to
112. 3:48happen but one thing we didn't expect is
113. 3:51that the phone started ringing off the
114. 3:54hook from other people in the firm
115. 3:57asking can I get a job in your group
116. 3:59because when the people who worked in
117. 4:01this group would go out for lunch with
118. 4:02their friends who works in other groups
119. 4:04you know how's work today amazing
120. 4:06different stories different stories and
121. 4:08all of a sudden words spread across this
122. 4:0980,000 person company and this was only
123. 4:12a group of 150 people word spread across
124. 4:14this 80,000 person company that
125. 4:17everybody was trying to get into this
126. 4:18group which is because it was they
127. 4:19wanted to work in it because he had good
128. 4:20leadership
129. 4:23[Music]