One stress point in organisations today is the importance of activating a theory of success for middle managers who need to translate organisational strategies to their working teams, holding the creative tension between their current reality and where the organization wants to go. However, there is usually not enough attention paid to turning middle managers into leaders beyond equipping them with deeper functional skills. Hence, while they may be operationally competent, middle managers are often unable to adapt to the fast-changing external environment.

A critical aspect of this adaptability is the development of middle managers who can bridge the gap between operational efficiency and strategic leadership. The key to their development lies in employing effective pedagogical strategies and designing a robust pathway for growth and development.

Managers need to go beyond individual contribution to leading in the emerging future. They need to provide clarity and context for the work their team is doing. This includes:

Advocacy

Developing effective advocacy strategies is essential for rallying the intact team and cross-team efforts. Manager-leaders should learn to tailor their communication to different audiences and contexts for consensus-building.

Stakeholder Engagement

Understanding and addressing the needs and priorities of various stakeholders is crucial. Techniques such as using systems mapping to determine the nature, frequency and narrative choice can improve stakeholder buy-in over the long term.

A manager-leader also needs to steward organisational resources responsibly and create a virtuous success loop based on improving the quality of relationships to deliver results. This includes:

Building High-Performing Teams

Leveraging team strengths, setting goals aligned with corporate vision and maintaining accountability are key aspects of team leadership.

Coaching And Mentoring

Providing constructive feedback and coaching team members for their growth and development is crucial. Tools to activate autonomy toward team potential such as the PEARLS model or the Wheel of Work can support such undertakings.

The manager-leader personal mastery is crucial as they rise up the ranks within the organisation. The areas of focus would include collaboration mastery, creation mastery and complexity mastery.

Continuous Learning

Encouraging a culture of continuous learning and development is important. Systems leaders play five roles in making this happen. These roles support the development of their teams: steward, coach, teacher, designer and theory-builder.

Talent Pipeline Development

Identifying and nurturing high-potential employees to build a strong talent pipeline is essential for long-term organisational success as part of the stewarding process.

For middle managers taking on the mantle of leadership, the hierarchy of choices model is a valuable tool for diagnosing team needs and strategizing future directions. It emphasizes the logical order of decision-making, where lower-level choices (such as strategies and core values) must align with higher-level choices (such as vision and purpose). This model helps leaders develop greater systemic competencies, ensuring consistency and that decisions are aligned with the organisation’s strategic goals during implementation.

For example, if a component of the competency roadmap is to focus on increasing industry and financial acumen, the corresponding strategy derived from the hierarchy of choices based on the vision of managers as thought leaders might be to align training programmes with industry needs to maintain relevance and competitive advantage, ensuring their managers have relevant and insightful industry knowledge and stay updated with industry trends. They also need to understand the economic and financial implications of their decision-making.

In addition, leaders can use the levels of perspective. At the mental model level, the beliefs and assumptions that influence behaviour and decision-making would drive the creation of systemic structures that allow for skills upgrading in cross-functional collaboration that drives innovation. At the patterns-over-time level, communities of practice sharing analysis of industry trends and the impact of technology could be set up to ensure a cycle of learning and operational application. In designing such interventions, here are some pedagogical considerations to bear in mind.

Self-Directed Learning

Team members learn best when they take responsibility for their learning. Programmes should encourage self-directed learning and provide opportunities for learners to apply new skills in real-world scenarios.

Experience-Based Learning

Drawing on the existing knowledge and experiences of learners enhances engagement and relevance. Case studies and scenarios should reflect actual challenges faced by the managers.

Critical Reflection

Encouraging manager-leaders to critically assess their beliefs and assumptions facilitates transformational learning. This can be achieved through reflective journaling and dialogue sessions.

Perspective Shifts

Provide opportunities for managers to challenge their existing perspectives and develop new ones through interactive activities and discussions.

Real-Workplace Application

Incorporating hands-on exercises, role-plays and practical scenarios helps managers apply their learning in real-world contexts, ensuring better retention and effectiveness.

In developing middle managers to become effective organization leaders, senior management first needs to role model the aspired mindset, skill sets and tool sets themselves. They need to demonstrate their leadership mastery to inspire middle managers to walk the same path. This transformational journey requires developing competencies in effective communication, stakeholder engagement, team leadership and continuous learning.

Implementing pedagogical strategies anchored on systems thinking and leadership through a self-directed and experience-based approach improves corporate efficacy. Through intentional learning interventions based on critical reflection and real-workplace application, middle managers can evolve into capable and effective leaders who can drive organisational success systemically toward future desired reality.

Thomas Lim is the Vice-Dean of Centre for Systems Leadership at SIM Academy. He is an AI+Web3 practitioner & author of Think.Coach.Thrive!