Managing the Managers

No easy task, to manage managers. And yet this is essential in any business organisation. Through my carrer I learned the tough way to manage thru managers. Here are some tips which I found that could be very helpful.

Leaders at the third level of accountability are the

backbone of a successful organization.They are the operational

general managers who make sure things happen.

Work at Level 3 moves beyond leading one situation at

a time, or diagnosing a single case, to balancing the needs

and outcomes for a number of different individuals and

sets of circumstances.

Here are the Seven Elements at the third level of

accountability.

1. Nature of work. The key aspect of work at this

level is the delivery of planned performance, while at the

same time continuing to get better performance from

the assets and resources year on year.The essence of

Level 3 accountability is managing a sequence or flow of

work tasks and events, which have to be managed as a

whole, not as a series of unconnected events.

2. Resource complexity. Managers at Level 3 are

not yet accountable for changing the fundamental disposition

of the resources at their disposal. Resources have

to be managed in the context of an integrated system,

unit or head office department.Working at Level 3 often

requires authoritative specialist knowledge.The Level 3

manager is accountable for the identification of potential

managers and their appointment to Level 2.

3. Problem-solving. For the Level 3 manager, problem-

solving involves identifying patterns in the actual

performance of existing products, technology platforms

and systems. Individuals at Level 3 manage a flow of

interrelated problems that need to be prioritized and

solved using the resources within the team.They are not

accountable for strategy and policy but should see the

implications and shortcomings of current practice and

the need to shape different approaches going forward.

4. Change. The essence of Level 3 change is continuous

improvement.Operational scientific change culminates

in Level 3 innovation. It is important to distinguish

between operational innovation, which occurs up to

Level 3, and strategic innovation, which occurs at Level 4

5. Internal collaboration. Managers at Level 3 normally

work across group disciplines, functions within a

business, and sometimes a number of countries, in order

to improve the performance of their unit or department

or to improve the delivery of a process, operational system,

study or project.Managerial leaders are accountable

for their effectiveness in collaborating with peers.

6. External interaction. External contacts atWork

Level 3 tend to be at a national level, in contrast to those

at Level 2, which tend to be local or regional within a

country.These interactions often involve negotiation of

agreements.The response to the external world outside

the organization is reactive. By contrast, at Level 4 the

manager needs to be proactive.

7.Task horizon. Managers at Level 3 are very much

involved in the delivery of the annual plan.A Level 3

manager adds value by looking across individual plans

and budgets and ensuring that their contribution is such

that the whole unit or department meets its time-related

targets.These managers are also expected to make a significant

contribution to the plans and activities of the

following year.

There comes a point when an operational unit is too

large to be run with only two layers of management.One

should be very careful about designing units in excess of

1,000 at Level 3, unless the work is very routine and only

needs minimal supervision or interference.