Leading From The Middle

Article by Dr David Freemantle

An organisation must have capable staff at all levels, especially in middle management, to motivate the front line.

Writing in the Straits Time on March 24th 2004, Ms Shirley Tan of the Singapore Tourism Board stated: "'Uniquely Singapore' is an overarching brand which should capture Singapore's way of life and its mix of cultures and languages, history and traditions, cosmopolitan society and heartland living."

Ms Tan is absolutely right. The overarching uniqueness of Singapore involves everyone who lives and works in the country contributing in a unique way to its future success. Inevitably this also means having leaders who are unique. And at one level it certainly does.

Thus there is ample evidence that Singapore has one of the leading economies in the world. In fact the IMD World Competitive Scoreboard published on May 4th 2004 showed that Singapore ranked No.2 (after the USA) out of sixty countries. My own country, the UK, slipped three places in the rankings to a mediocre position of No.22.

It is obvious therefore that at strategic level Singapore has a group of incredibly successful senior leaders whether they be in politics or commercial enterprise. They have clearly led Singapore to its unique position in the world today as a leading economy.

This leading position however brings the danger of complacency. Manchester United used to be the top premier league soccer team in the UK. Now they are No.3. Boeing used to be the leading aircraft manufacturer in the world. Now they are No.2. The largest and most successful international airline in the 1980s was PanAm. Now it is minnow with an extremely small fleet aircraft flying to some minor destinations.

The challenge for leaders therefore is to sustain the Number One position and not to fall behind. This requires a uniqueness of thinking and everyday practice and involves continually pushing back the boundaries to keep ahead of the competition. It also requires much inspiration, creativity, risk-taking and willingness to experiment with new ideas.

As Acting Education Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam said at the recent Stanford Club annual dinner: "It is scepticism towards existing wisdom that leads to new ways of thinking and breakthroughs in knowledge. Deepening this spirit of enquiry is the most important challenge for the universities, as it is for our junior colleges." He is right. In fact this challenge extends to all organisations if Singapore is, as he says "to stay alive and remain relevant."

With its excellent leadership at senior leader level the challenge for Singapore now is to extend this to middle management and front-line team-leadership level. It is insufficient just to have one leader (the CEO) in a large organisation. Every manager and supervisor must effectively be a leader.

Let us take Singapore Airlines as an example. Over the last six months I have flown on ten different airlines including four sectors in March with Singapore Airlines (London-Singapore-Manila and back again). Being British I am loath to flatter SIA but I have to tell you that without doubt it is the leading airline in the world when it comes to customer service. My own airline British Airways can be brilliant one day and dreadful the next. But I find SIA consistently excellent. One can of course attribute this to the excellent leadership of the airline, currently under the helm of Mr Chew Choon Seng, CEO. However when I am 35,000 feet up in the air on a 13 hour flight it is not the CEO taking the lead in providing me with phenomenally good customer service. It is IFS Rudy Chua and his Chief Stewardess Janice Ng. These are just two of the many wonderful people in SIA who take the lead in providing me with excellent service. If there is an incident on board it is they who have to take the lead in dealing with it. If I have a special requirement as a customer it is they who will be in a lead position to meet it.

Thus the concept and practice of leadership is not just confined to the strategic executives at the top but to every single manager and team-leader. This is the real challenge for Singapore: to explore what leadership means in middle-management and to push back the frontiers at this level such that Singapore and its constituent organisations and institutions are ahead of its competitors by having tiers of first-rate leaders being developed from supervisory up to CEO level.

In practical terms this means having managers and supervisors who can inspire and motivate front-line people to deliver exceptionally high standards of performance as well as the ability to pick up and run with exciting new creative ideas, the implementation of which will benefit all.

Here are 8 practical tips that up-and-coming leaders can practice to push back the frontiers of their own approach:

Eight Top Tips For Leadership At Middle-Management Level

Put people first
A key lesson I learnt on my very day as a Production Manager with the chocolate manufacturer Mars Ltd was "to be successful as a leader you have to invest an inordinate of energy, time and resource into getting the people thing right." As Sir Richard Branson told me "You have to put people first."

Be focused on daily objectives
Most employees find it difficult to relate to long-term visions and objectives. Far better to concentrate on what the team has to achieve today. A good leader focuses on helping his team identify and meet daily challenges en route to his longer term goals.

Keep the message simple
The Disney Corporation has a simple strategic message for its front-line employees: "Create Happiness". In two words the company articulates the mission for every single employee. Your 'task' might be to clean the sidewalks but your 'mission' is to create happiness

Bring out the best in people
The role of the boss is not to find fault and punish people for it. Conversely the role of the boss is to bring out the best in front-liners. So your task as a leader is to go looking for the best in people and then reflect it back to them.

Make a difference (be a little bit M.A.D.)
Avoid getting into routine when managing people. Try motivating people in a variety of different ways. One of the best employers in the UK and a company which won the 2003 UK for customer service is Happy Computers. Amongst the many motivational things they do is offer each employee a complimentary icecream every afternoon.

Express emotions
If you are delighted to see a front-line person that employee will be delighted to see you. Discover and display some positive emotions when dealing with employees. It might be delight, excitement, enthusiasm or even compassion (if something is not working out as planned)

Give employees time
If you haven't got the time of day for your employees they won't have the time of day for you. It is essential to give employees time - to listen to them, to understand them and to learn from them.

Recognise people and what they do for you
With rare exceptions most people work hard and try hard to deliver what is expected of them. The skill in any leader is to recognise this and show appreciation.

Copyright © Dr David Freemantle
Dr David Freemantle is an international expert on leadership, motivation and customer service. He can be contacted by e-mail at: team@superboss.co.uk. Or check out his web-site at www.superboss.co.uk.

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