Middle management within companies is important. It is obvious, but often we strive in the search for professionals, who occupy the top of our organization without realizing that middle managers are as important, or more important than senior managers. Regarding the value of these professionals there is consensus of opinions:
- “Some people call them the glue of the company, because they are the connecting factor between strategy and operation”. Francisco Loscos, professor at ESADE.
- “They are responsible for ensuring that the strategy emanating from the leadership reaches who should reach and, at the same time, make information flow from the reality of the terrain to who makes decisions”. Carlos Capaz, Training Director at The Human Talent Factory.
As you can see, these middle positions have the responsibility of running the various areas of a company and if they do not do their job well, they can cause the department they run to fail.
For your organization to run smoothly and be well captained, here are 4 tips to hire the best middle managers.
1) What profile are you looking for?
Before starting the search for candidates sit down, breathe and reflect on the following:
- Identify the responsibilities of the position to be filled and the qualifications that a good leader should have to be successful in the position.
- Define the most appropriate class of leader for the employees who will be in charge based on you, the specific way they work and also the way the company operates in general. For this it is good that you take into account the functions of the work team, the time they have been performing them, how to interact among their members and the motivations they receive.
- Look for leaders who are in line with your company’s culture and values.
2) Let the past tell you about the future
By analyzing a candidate’s career path, you can evaluate the impact of their leadership. To do this we recommend that you look carefully at the achievements he has made, throughout his career and to what extent he is responsible for them happening.
There are two other aspects to which it is good to pay attention: the size of the teams that the candidates have handled and the use they have made of the available resources.
The interview is a very good opportunity to investigate all these issues. Your goal has to be to get details and the more the better.
3) Focus on the vision
To find good leaders it is important that values, if the achievements of the candidate show that he is a proactive and visionary person.
If we can’t get enough information from the applicant’s previous work, you’ll need to get creative and come up with some questions to help you figure this out. Basically try to inquire into the following questions:
- In what direction does the candidate think the business should go?
- How do you see the future?
- What do you think is the best way forward?
4) Simulates a leadership environment
Simulating situations is very useful when it comes to seeing how a person acts as a leader Simulating situations is very useful when it comes to seeing how a person acts as a leader.
For this you can think hypothetical questions to raise during the interview or, if you prefer, you can create situations that require the use of leadership skills, where applicants must interact and work as a team with some of their subordinates.
Hiring the wrong middle manager can get very expensive not only because the performance of the department can go down, but also because it can create a bad environment and make you lose valuable employees. To avoid these problems it is essential to spend time searching and hiring new leaders, but if you do not have time or do not know how to do it in TalentFY we can help you. Through our platform we give you access to the first network of recruiters, who will immediately get down to work to find your ideal candidate. If you want to know more about TalentFY, do not hesitate to read our article Why find talent through TalentFY?
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