Originally published in the September 2003 Issue of Link & Learn.

No longer are we sure what it means to lead, whether at the top, the middle, or the front lines of an organization. Yet we continue to define leadership primarily as the work of senior executives. In so doing, we overlook some of the most important and abundant sources of leadership.

In the past, leadership was equated with authority. It was viewed as a position within a hierarchy. In the days of relatively predictable revenue streams and stable business models, senior executives could draw on their experiences, craft a strategy, and resolve most issues. Today, however, leadership consists not in giving the answer but, rather, in asking the right questions. The challenge is not how to control what happens in the far corners of the organization - you can't - but how to draw out and facilitate the answers from those corners. Learning can come from anywhere at anytime.

A New View from the Top

In this new world, senior executives can add the most value by focusing on five arenas:

1) Creating culture and climate

2) Asking the right questions

3) Busting barriers

4) Becoming a talent magnet

5) Creating and protecting leaders at all levels

Of these, creating a culture and creating leaders at all levels will have the greatest payoff. Today, more than ever, knowledge and creativity are the currencies of success. But creativity cannot be mandated. The motivation to be creative surfaces when employees feel free, honored, nurtured, recognized, rewarded, trusted, and touched. Larry Bossidy, former CEO of AlliedSignal and recently retired chairman of Honeywell has said "You've got to continually make sure employees understand how important they are. As a CEO, you need people more than they need you."

Senior executives need to be able to touch the minds and hearts of employees. It is critical for them to create a climate of openness, caring, and constructive challenge of the status quo. Jan Carlzon, CEO of SAS has noted, "One of the most interesting missions of leadership is getting people… to listen to and learn from one another. Held in debate, people can learn their way to collective solutions when they understand one another's assumptions. The work of a leader is to get conflict out into the open and use it as a source of creativity." Leadership is no longer the privilege of the few.

Of course, none of this can be faked. Senior executives need to live professed values in consistent, observable actions. The biggest single cause of cynicism in organizations is the discrepancy between what is practiced and what is preached. Organizations can rarely fool their customers or their employees but many of them keep trying!

Links to the Real World

In the past, organizations have asked the front line, either explicitly or implicitly, to check their brains at the door. Today, the front line of an organization has become its lifeline. They are the ones who constantly face what Carlzon calls "moments of truth" - when the real world intrudes on a strategic plan. They have an accumulated knowledge base about what works and what does not. They are privy to unvarnished information about products, services, processes, customers, suppliers and competitors. We need them as partners to draft and craft our joint futures.

To do that, we need to continuously transfer an unfiltered view of the market and the organization to the top of the organization. This is a daunting task in even the best of organizations. As one frustrated executive once told me, "When a customer complains, by the time I get to hear it, it almost sounds like a compliment!"

That's where the middle managers come in. Until only recently, middle managers were being derided, denuded, disempowered, and downsized. The vigorous merger and acquisition activity in our economy will continue to put pressure on the size of middle management, but there is a growing realization that people in this bracket play a critical role in the success of an organization.

This was first articulated by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi in their groundbreaking book, The Knowledge Creating Company. These authors introduced the concept of "middle up down management," declaring "Middle managers serve as a bridge between the visionary ideals of the top and the often chaotic reality of those on the front line of business." They argue that middle managers are the key to continuous innovation. In my conversations with innovative companies such as Lucent Technologies and Pfizer, I am often reminded that most new product or new process ideas come from managers in the middle, with insights from the front line and from customers and suppliers.

New Survival Skills for Middle Managers

In the best organizations, middle managers play three roles beyond their everyday jobs - they: 1) identify, codify and transfer existing knowledge; 2) help create new knowledge; and 3) champion change.

The new role of middle managers represents a leadership paradox. Middle managers are expected to exert influence without authority. However, these are new skills for middle managers to develop. Like senior executives, middle managers must invest in their self-development and reinvent themselves for the times.

In conversations with over a thousand middle managers, I have identified six critical skills needed to lead effectively from the middle:

1) Self-Awareness. Leadership requires self-awareness; yet self-awareness cannot come from self alone. Even the most successful managers have blind spots. It is therefore important to tap trusted sources of feedback. Senior executives can validate the process for middle managers by themselves asking for, and acting upon, honest feedback from colleagues and subordinates.

2) Bird's Eye Perspective. Middle and front-line managers, often mired in work, can lose sight of the big picture. This limits their ability to transfer or create new knowledge. It is important for them to understand their organization's strategies, the industry they are in, their competition. Senior executives need to provide learning opportunities for others and to explain the role that middle and front-line managers play in each area.

3) Emotional Competence. Psychologist Daniel Goleman has done all of us a favor by defining "emotional intelligence" as a significant leadership issue. Many careers get derailed because of a lack of empathy and fundamental people skills. Middle managers need to cultivate these skills through conscious practice - and honest feedback.

4) Advanced Communication Skills. Effective persuasion and communication are essential tools. Senior executives, who generally excel in these skills, need to give middle managers opportunities to make presentations to the senior teams. Providing a safe practice field has the added benefit of giving middle managers exposure and recognition.

5) Career Management Skills. The key to managing one's own career is building a network both inside and outside the company. I like to say that my network is worth more than my net worth! With career management comes the self-confidence to take on the leadership role. Senior executives need to understand and support middle managers who want to take charge of their careers. It is a win for all when managers work for an organization because they want to, and not because they have to.

6) Continuous Learning. When we change, our world changes. It is helpful for middle managers to know how they learn and to seek out opportunities for learning. Senior executives need to invest heavily providing the right developmental opportunity at the right time. Executives also set a powerful example by helping an organization learn from its mistakes.

If middle managers master these skills, they will not only help their organizations flourish, they will also enhance their own careers. Organizations will begin to look for innovations within the ranks of middle managers before rushing to outside consultants. As senior executives establish new expectations of, and provide new resources for, middle managers, organizations will begin to create a new psychological contract based on mutual respect and interdependence.

It takes the efforts of the whole organization to be successful. Senior executives have to help create the right climate, and that demands changes in both style and substance. But senior executives can't do it all - the front line and the middle must seize the moment, initiate leadership, and behave as owners.

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