Leading from the middle

Last year at Cultivate, the wise and wonderful Lindsay Squires of Tagawa Gardens introduced a noteworthy topic for any organization: leading from the middle. Unfortunately, I had a conflict and missed what her panel had to say on the subject. At the time, I was at the top of my small organization, but this year I moved to the middle of a larger organization and I’ve often wished I had made it to the session.

From the middle, I’ve gotten curious about different forms of leadership, and I’ve begun to notice the ways it shows up in organizations large and small. Here at Mahoney’s Garden Centers, I’ve been inspired by Sam, a front-end manager who took it upon herself to create training and onboarding materials to help her team feel more confident. I’ve become a gigantic fan of Jessie, who consistently strives to support her team and went from cashier to inventory control associate to inventory control supervisor, leaving a string of improvements in her wake. And I’ve reflected on the powerful team I worked with at Rockledge Gardens whose contributions from the middle are too numerous to name.

I hope that as we explore this topic together, it will help empower leaders at every level to embrace and celebrate the many forms of leadership that can enrich garden centers everywhere.

Here is what I’m learning:

It’s not about titles.

Leadership is about influence, not position or title, and you may have noticed that influence can be positive or negative. A team member whose subpar performance is tolerated influences everyone around them to underperform. On the other hand, a team member who takes initiative, demonstrates compassion and cultivates curiosity along with a willingness to learn will have a very different effect on an organization. For this reason, it’s important for owners and managers to recognize that everyone in the organization is a potential leader.

It’s about the details.

Managing up from the middle to affect change in your organization is often about noticing and thinking about the details. While it’s important for upper-level managers to think about the big picture, middle managers can have an enormous impact on the day-to-day by noticing the small details that can make a world of difference. At Rockledge Gardens, a cashier noticed an issue with mystery plants showing up in the check-out building. Were they on hold for a guest? Returns? Paid for? Who knew? She took it upon herself to devise a simple slip system to make it all clear and the result has led to more confident cashiers and a smoother customer experience.

Jessie, Mahoney’s inventory control supervisor, noticed the team needed a better office workspace to do their jobs effectively. When she presented her suggestion to upper management her proposal included a strong case for why this upgrade would improve the business and a design and cost analysis for the project. Details matter, and middle managers are in a great place to notice and act on them. The more you can organize relevant details into any proposal, the likelier it is that upper management will go along with what you suggest.

Those who lead from the middle care a lot.

In the June 2022 issue of Garden Center, Leslie Halleck offered sage advice for “retaining your rockstars” and wisely warned owners not to be intimidated by high-performers who act like they own the place. This is a signal that these employees care, not that they are looking to usurp the throne. If someone goes to the trouble of proposing a new system or pointing out how something could be made better, it means that they feel strongly about the organization. This is a good sign because, more than anything else, today’s employees want to come to work and make a difference.

Leadership is about compassion.

In his book, “Radical Curiosity”, Seth Goldenberg asks us to rethink many things, including work. He says, “When an organization’s primary focus is extraordinary value creation through human care, it designs an employee experience that naturally delivers customer experiences. The reciprocity of an employee experience and customer experience mirroring and informing each other produces an enormous number of smiles. Real value, real joy, real care always yield revenue. To design organizations of care is wealth generative leadership.”

Middle managers can help organizations create value through a culture of care. Those in the middle of an organization often see things that owners and executives miss. Not only are they more likely to have candid conversations with team members at different levels, but they themselves are often responsible for executing or following procedures and policies that those at the top might be exempt from. From the middle, you’re in a position to operate from a place of empathy, which leads to compassionate policies that strengthen teams and create powerfully positive customer experiences.

It’s impossible to quantify how much I benefited as a top tier leader from the individuals who took it upon themselves to lead from the middle. From creating an intentional culture of appreciation to ensuring that team members were equipped with the tools and systems to feel confident in their jobs, we were able to make dramatic improvements to the employee experience driven by the employees living that experience. And it does, indeed, produce an enormous number of smiles.

Although I missed what I’m sure was an incredibly insightful panel with Lindsay Squires at Cultivate, I did get a chance to catch up with her recently and she summed it up beautifully by saying, “Leading from the middle is about seeing and seizing what is possible in the present, imperfect moment.”