Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven to seventy eight. Today's episode is called
Speaker 2: fixing the Middle of the Organization. When organizations struggle, leaders
Speaker 2: often look in two directions. They look at the executive team,
Speaker 2: or they look at the frontline employees. What gets overlooked
Speaker 2: is the layer sitting right in the middle. That middle
Speaker 2: layer includes supervisors, managers, shift leaders, team leads, department heads, lieutenants,
Speaker 2: form and project managers, and everyone else responsible for turning
Speaker 2: strategy into action. The middle is where leadership either comes
Speaker 2: alive or quietly dies. Think about that for a minute.
Speaker 2: The CEO can create a brilliant vision, the employees can
Speaker 2: be talented, motivated, and committed. If the middle is broken,
Speaker 2: neither one of those groups will ever connect. The middle
Speaker 2: is the transmission of your organization. It's responsible for taking
Speaker 2: the power from the engine and delivering it to the wheels.
Speaker 2: Without it, you aren't moving anywhere. One of the biggest
Speaker 2: mistakes organizations make is assuming middle managers automatically know how
Speaker 2: to lead because they were promoted. Many weren't promoted because
Speaker 2: they were exceptional leaders. They were promoted because they were
Speaker 2: exceptional employees. Those are two completely different skill sets. Being
Speaker 2: the best paramedic doesn't automatically make make you a great lieutenant.
Speaker 2: Being the best mechanic doesn't automatically prepare you to supervise
Speaker 2: twenty mechanics. Being the best salesperson doesn't mean you'll suddenly
Speaker 2: know how to coach, mentor manage conflict and inspire a team.
Speaker 2: Leadership requires a different toolbox. And here's another problem. The
Speaker 2: middle often gets squeezed from both directions. Executives are pushing
Speaker 2: down with goals, deadlines, metrics and expectations. Employees are pushing
Speaker 2: up with questions, frustrations, scheduling issues, requests, and concerns. Middle
Speaker 2: managers spend their day caught between pressure from above and
Speaker 2: pressure from below. Eventually, many stop leading. They become messengers.
Speaker 2: They forward emails, they repeat policies, they schedule meetings, They
Speaker 2: solve today's emergency, Tomorrow shows up, and they repeat the cycle.
Speaker 2: Months later, leadership wonder why culture has stalled. It did
Speaker 2: in stall because people stopped caring installed because leadership stopped
Speaker 2: developing the people holding the organization together. And here's a
Speaker 2: question every executive should ask, when was the last time
Speaker 2: you intentionally invested in your middle leaders? Not compliance training,
Speaker 2: not software training, leadership training. Have you taught them how
Speaker 2: to coach poor performance, how to hold difficult conversations, how
Speaker 2: to build trust after conflict, how to recognize burnout before
Speaker 2: someone quits, or how to give meaningful feedback that actually
Speaker 2: changes behavior. Many organizations spend thousands recruiting talent while spending
Speaker 2: almost nothing preparing the people responsible for keeping that talent.
Speaker 2: I think that's backwards. So let's flip perspectives. If you're
Speaker 2: one of those middle leaders listening today, this message is
Speaker 2: for you. Stop waiting for permission to become a better leader.
Speaker 2: Your title doesn't determine your ceiling. Your learning does. Read books,
Speaker 2: listen to podcasts, attend conferences, ask mentors difficult questions, study
Speaker 2: organizations that consistently perform well. Leadership is a profession. You
Speaker 2: have to treat it like one. And here's something I
Speaker 2: learned in ems. Every emergency scene has someone standing in
Speaker 2: the middle. They're receiving information from command while directing crews
Speaker 2: on the ground. If communication breaks down there, the entire
Speaker 2: operation slows down. Business works exactly the same way. The
Speaker 2: middle isn't glamorous. Nobody writes magazine articles celebrating the manager
Speaker 2: who quietly kept everything running. Nobody notices the supervisor who
Speaker 2: prevented five problems from ever happening. Great middle leadership often
Speaker 2: looks invisible until it's gone, then everybody notices. If you
Speaker 2: want to improve your organization, spend less time asking why
Speaker 2: employees aren't engaged. Spend more time asking whether your middle
Speaker 2: leaders have the confidence, authority, and skills to create engagement.
Speaker 2: And here's a practical exercise. Make a list of every
Speaker 2: person in your organization who directly supervises other people. Next
Speaker 2: to each name, answer one question, when was the last
Speaker 2: time I invested in this person's leadership. If the answer
Speaker 2: is measured in years instead of weeks or months, you've
Speaker 2: probably found one of your biggest opportunities. Organizations don't rise
Speaker 2: because executives have great ideas. Organizations rise because middle leaders
Speaker 2: can instantly execute those ideas with clarity, consistency, and credibility.
Speaker 2: That's where momentum begins. That's where trust is built. That's
Speaker 2: where culture becomes visible, and that's where leadership earns its reputation.
Speaker 2: So before you launch another initiative, rewrite another policy, or
Speaker 2: announce another strategic plan, spend some time fixing the middle.
Speaker 2: Because when the middle gets stronger, everything above it becomes
Speaker 2: more effective and everything below it becomes more confident. That's
Speaker 2: leadership worth investing in. As you head into your day,
Speaker 2: take a look at the middle of your organization. Ask
Speaker 2: yourself if you're expecting people to lead without giving them
Speaker 2: the tools to succeed. Great organizations are rarely built from
Speaker 2: the top down. They're strengthened from the middle out. Spend
Speaker 2: seven intentional minutes, and that's investing in the leaders who
Speaker 2: connect vision to action and watch what happens next. And
Speaker 2: if you want more free leadership resources, head over to
Speaker 2: paulflovalito dot com and click on free Stuff. I have
Speaker 2: over twenty five free leadership documents you can download and
Speaker 2: start using today. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com.