IPDApril 2, 2025Expert Insights - upcoming

Foundations of Workplace Resiliency | May 2025 Expert Insights Webinar

Foundations of Workplace Resiliency: A Practical Overview

Date and Time: May 22, 2025 12-1pm

Last Day to Register: May 20, 2025

Presenter: Eric Dormoh, Jr.

Audience: ALL

Managers, team leaders, and HR professionals
Mentors and mentees from all generations
Organizations interested in enhancing workplace culture and collaboration
Employees seeking career development opportunities

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The workplace is full of change. More than ever, external forces are affecting the work we do each day. You can use resiliency strategies to manage stress. In this workshop, learn how resiliency strategies work and how you can apply them in your workplace.

Take-aways:

1. Define Resiliency
2. How Resilience helps you manage workplace stress
3. How you can help yourself, your coworkers, or your staff
4. Learn a resiliency strategy and apply it to your situation

More About the Presenter:

Eric Dormoh, Jr.

Expert Areas:

Unconscious Bias
Cross-Cultural Communication
Microaggressions
Building Inclusive Language
Identity at Work
Imposter Syndrome
Mentoring
Community Building
Emotional Intelligence

More About Eric

Beth SchaeferApril 1, 2025Most Recent Blog, Professional Development and Career Advancement Blog

Support Middle Management | Middle Management Blog

6 Key Activities That Support Middle Management

By Beth Schaefer

6 key activities that support middle managemnt april 25 blog

My research from Forbes suggests, “Middle Managers have the potential to drive growth specifically because of their unique position with a company… middle management binds purpose with execution.”

In the second article in the Middle Management Series, I discussed the research supporting the importance of middle managers to an organization. Because of this role’s importance, organizations should intentionally and directly support the people in those roles rather than view them as a “layover” position.

Here are 6 Key Activities organizations can take to build up middle managers and build up their organization’s potential:

Listen to them

And, even better, empower them. Daily, middle managers observe who and what is working… and who and what is not working. Ask them to weigh in on decisions and listen to what they say. Provide them with some latitude to make decisions or execute the organizational goals in a manner that makes sense for their team. Provide them with training beyond the check-off-the-box meant to save the organization insurance and legal costs and instead pay for professional development that helps them lead their team.

2. Give them credit and respect

Recognize that there isn’t anything wrong with someone who loves their job and does not want to move into C-Suite. The best leaders are sometimes followers; the best followers are sometimes leaders. This appears to be a relatively easy concept on the surface, but one that is difficult to juggle within the power dynamic or political climate of an organization. Middle Managers do this every day. The best middle managers have the confidence to listen to their team members and to challenge their superiors. Knowing how and when to do both is a nuanced skill that should be respected.

3. Quit measuring success by the number of direct reports

In America, we tend to be about big and bigger: “Value price meals” with extra-large servings; Gawdy stats of individual athletic achievements over the team success; giant SUV’s to transport 1 or 2 people. It is hard to escape that in America, more equals better, and that quality is often an afterthought. The bigger is better concept is often applied to how middle managers are rewarded. Someone who has 55 direct reports is paid more than someone who has 34 direct reports who is paid more than someone who has 12 direct reports. Of course, the natural reaction is, but the 55-report person is doing more work. The question to ask is, what kind of work? “Paperwork” and reporting could take most of the time for someone who has 55 direct reports with very little time spent on the actual managing – coaching, communicating, and collaborating. And, most would agree, it’s the “people work” that requires the greater skill. Put in success measurements that are more than the number of boxes on an organizational chart.

4. Pay for expertise and experience – not organizational chart status

In article 1, I talked about how much I enjoy middle management. With several years left to work, I have reached my financial peak as a middle manager. So, unless I choose to move up the organizational chart, my salary will stay the same even as my experience and contributions to the organization grows. The next layer of leadership shifts into strategy. While I enjoy using value streams, capability mapping, and the SIPOC to solve problems, I do not want to do hypothetical risk cases and projections all the time. Reward middle managers for the work they love to do and for their experience of doing it well.

5. Find ways to reward outstanding employees instead of promoting them to management

Most organizations provide one path of financial reward, and it goes through official leadership roles. This causes people who are experts in research, or selling, or creativity, or coordinating, or engineering, or accounting, or (fill-in-the-black) to leave behind the work they love to do and become a middle manager. Contrary to this career pathway, being an experienced expert in a specific skill does not necessarily make you good at leadership. Being a good leader is about collaboration, coaching, and communication and often has very little to do with the actual skill and expertise that is valued in the current role. Every day, somewhere in America, an organization is promoting people into leadership roles as a “reward” when, in fact, they are setting up many of those people for failure, and, indirectly, their teams and organizations for failure too. Do not use Middle Management as a reward for those who do not really want to be leaders.

6. Pay for Professional Development

I know; I work for an organization that sells professional development. The reason I do this work is because l believe in its value, but you do not need to go by me – plenty of research will tell you the same thing. Providing professional development for leaders is critical because leadership challenges are not static. While some challenges, such as team collaboration, remain perennially relevant, new leadership issues do surface. For instance, most workplaces now have 4 generations of workers. Or the latest leadership challenge of when and how to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and train your team to use it effectively and ethically. Learning about leadership is not just “one and done.”

Ideally, organizations will look at how they structure and support middle management roles so that they can contribute to growing the organization. However, judging from the number of people I have heard from since starting this series (Middle Managers Part 1), it appears that middle managers find themselves in situations with difficult choices. The next set of articles will explore common middle managers’ dilemmas and some action suggestions that middle managers can take to navigate them.

Middle Managers Are Like Oreos | Middle Management Blog

Importance of Middle Managers

Middle Managers are the crème in the Oreos® of the workplace. They are the delightful, yet functional, filling that connects the two cookie wafers: workers and leadership.

Think about that classic cookie without the filling. That is what an organization is without Middle Management – two cookies that are disconnected. You can press them together, but… they will not stick, and might even crumble.

Here are the Top 6 benefits your organization receives through middle managers:

1. Middle Managers Drive Growth.

Middle managers provide purpose to their team. Feeling connected to the purpose of the organization is one of the best ways to engage a productive workforce. Middle Managers pace work for consistent production that builds resiliency against stress and prevents burnout. A respected Middle Manger can request extra from their team when needed and get it. Middle Managers can foster worker relationships and create high-performing teams, or teach employees how to slack off and not get caught, or be a jerk and create a disenfranchised workforce that results in mediocre products and customer service. That is why it is important to support Middle Managers (strategies to do this in the next article).

2. Middle Managers Set the Tone of the Work Environment.

Some organizational culture trickles down from the top, but it can be reinforced or undermined by a savvy Middle Manager. They set the expectations. The best Middle Managers model respect, kindness, and grace. They coach their teams to do the same. They find the right time and place to address bad behaviors that can infect the team, nipping them in the bud. Ultimately, their treatment of employees makes the organization either a desirable place to work or one that workers want to leave.

3.Middle Managers Provide Reality Checks.

Timelines, projects, and processes often look good on paper, but they do not tell the tale of the unintended consequence: the fallout when someone who makes a decision is unaware of all the stakeholders or processes affected. An unintended consequence could result in a process hiccup or an epic fail. An effective Middle Manager can diplomatically push back on the organization when administrative decisions come with unintended consequences, keeping their organizations on track and running smoothly.

4.Middle Managers are the Organization’s Moral Compass.

While organizations often hire consultants to facilitate leadership’s writing of mission, vision, and values statements, it is the Middle Managers who live it and model it for all employees. The true culture of the organization is not in the written words, but in the everyday living. Employees watch middle management for how closely their behaviors align with the espoused values. They listen to Middle Managers explain how the administration’s decisions are connected to (or disconnected from) their mission statement. Middle Manager’s actions can reveal their feelings about the organization. Are they trusted leaders or a bunch of phonies who say one thing but do another? Middle Managers guide the moral and ethical decisions of their entire team.

5.Middle Managers Put the Human in Human Resources

Administration writes policies about human resources or human capital. These policies provide necessary governance of humans in the workplace, but it is the Middle Managers who put the humanity into the workplace. Effective Middle Managers take time to listen to individual workers and address their challenges. They are the ones aware of workers who are sick or grieving or struggling for any number of reasons. They know which resources to offer and provide assistance at the moment it is needed.

6.Middle Managers Build Succession and Loyalty.

Middle Managers coach, mentor, and nurture the next generation of leaders. Through the delegation of work, they can provide low-risk opportunities for their workers to practice leadership. They can model decision-making, using clear communication, and accepting responsibility for their actions. They can give credit to their teams instead of making themselves look good. They can build trust with the workforce by being authentic with problems and not being trite or flippant when work is challenging.

The daily decisions and interactions of Middle Managers are the brushstrokes and colors that compose an organization’s painting.

Provide Leading Teams Through Change to your organization to support your Middle Managers.

Stuck In the Middle

Hello, My name is Beth Schaefer, and I am in middle management.

This may not seem like a terrible admission, but… for those of us who find our passion in middle management, we can also find ourselves on the receiving end of sideways glances and whispers…

What is wrong with her? She has been in that same role for 10 years!
Why haven’t they been promoted?
I thought he was going to apply for the next level once his kids were in school, but he still hasn’t made a move.
Why would anyone want to stay in that job instead of going for more money?

I cannot answer that last question for everyone, but for me, I like the combination of leading and mentoring still mixed with project work and task completion alongside regular communication and relationships with the people who benefit from our products and services.

And, I believe, there are others like me.

For those of us in the American Middle Management role who say, I like what I do. I do not want to be constantly pursuing the next level, there is a danger of being labeled a “slacker” or an underachiever. Middle Management is often viewed as a bridge from beginning supervision to Leadership. It is not considered a career goal; it is seen as a means to an end. So, when I, and others like me, make no attempt to apply for the next rung on the ladder, it raises eyebrows… and suspicions.

The question Stuck in the Middle? is not self-help to move out of middle management, but rather questions if we need to see being in Middle Management as being stuck at all.

I say Nay. (Cue your own patriotic or inspirational music here).

I say it is time for Middle Managers to stand proud and be respected. Because, frankly, we are important to our organizations, and we navigate really difficult and complex situations that benefit the organizations we work for. This past week, I have mentioned this topic and the challenges I believe middle managers face to my neighbor and walking partner, my bar trivia partner, my friend who is a high school department chair, and one of my IPD instructors. They each gave me additional challenges they thought should be addressed based on their personal experiences with managing in the middle! It seems the complexities of middle management are a shared experience – as I suspected (based on this small anecdotal sampling).

This series, Stuck in the Middle? will focus on the specific dilemmas faced by middle management with strategies to navigate them and will wrap up with what upper management can do to support the essential work of middle managers.

When will this series wrap up? Who knows? It depends on how many more middle management challenges pour in.

And Kudos to all you middle managers out there. You have my respect.

IPDJanuary 14, 2025Expert Insights - archives

Navigating Polarizing Conversations at Work – Free Video | Past Expert Insights Webinar

Navigating Polarizing Conversations at Work

navigating polarized conversations EI 2.25 Square

Presenter: Eric Dormoh, Jr.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

In today’s diverse and fast-paced workplace, polarizing conversations around sensitive topics like politics, social issues, and differing work styles are becoming more common. These discussions can create tension, hinder collaboration, and impact team dynamics if not handled carefully. This webinar is designed to help professionals navigate polarizing conversations effectively to foster a positive and productive work environment.

Take-aways:

Techniques to remain calm and composed in tense workplace conversations
Strategies for listening to understand and build empathy
Approaches for addressing controversial topics while preserving respect
Tools for resolving conflicts and fostering collaboration in diverse teams
Ways to create an inclusive environment that encourages open, yet respectful dialogue

More About the Presenter:

Eric Dormoh, Jr.

Expert Areas:

Unconscious Bias
Cross-Cultural Communication
Microaggressions
Building Inclusive Language
Identity at Work
Imposter Syndrome
Mentoring
Community Building
Emotional Intelligence

More About Eric

Beth SchaeferJanuary 14, 2025Professional Development and Career Advancement Blog

Stop the World #3 | I Want to Catch Up

Stop the World; I Want to Get Off Catch Up

Beth Schaefer IPD Director

This series on Stop the World has been about taking time to do Important and Innovative work.

I know, easier said than done. Time is a limited resource. Even if you work overtime, you still only have 24 hours in a day. You cannot create time, but you can control how you spend your time. This is what is meant by time management.

You may already do some of these time management strategies, but maybe you will be sparked by a new idea or two. I am presenting these in “David Letterman countdown style” – starting with most difficult for me to practice on a consistent basis and ending with the one I do the most.

#8 – Write Down Process

I find it is easier to delegate tasks or ask for help if the process I use is written down. It allows me to easily hand off work knowing the person has direction/instructions. I will not lie; documenting process takes time to do. Because it takes time, this makes it the most challenging way for me to manage time. However, once you get some processes defined, it really allows for teamwork. Others can help you when work piles up, and you can help them when their work piles up. As an added bonus, documented processes used by more than one person have a better chance being streamlined, and that streamlining absolutely helps you manage time.

#7 – Prioritize

Prioritizing does not help you complete all your work; it just helps you kick some of the work cans down the road, but they are still down there waiting for you. This is why prioritizing work does not always feel like a time management win. However, it can be a win because when you keep kicking the work can down the road, these things can happen before you see that can again:

Someone else has completed the work
The initiative stalls out, and the project manager moves all the due dates to later
A new leader comes in, and the whole initiative goes away

Kicking the can is effective if you choose wisely.

#6 – Be Realistic With Your Time

The first step to being realistic with your time is to actually think through how much time it takes you to do tasks.

Does this scenario sound familiar?:

You make a list of things you want to get done that day.
You do not calculate how long the tasks will take and make the assumption they will all get done.
You do not allow time for any “fires” that may occur that day.
As the clock ticks towards 5, you start to panic and decide “what needs to get done” that day.

To combat the end-of-day panic, take a beat to think about how much time a task will take. For instance, when I facilitate a meeting, I do not just schedule time to run the meeting, but time to prep the meeting, and time to do the meeting follow-up actions. This technique really emphasizes how much time meetings actually take. It also makes sure that when you take people’s time for meetings, you are prepared which respects their busyness, and it causes you to think twice about the usefulness of your meetings.

#5 – Get Rid of Meetings

Because meetings are more than the meeting time — they are the prep time, the follow-up communications, the time to get to the meeting (or logged into the virtual meetings), and time for the meeting-after-the-meeting meetings — meetings eat more time than you may realize. If you attend meetings that are not useful, consider asking your supervisor to let you skip those meetings stating what work you would be able to complete during that time. If you are the one scheduling all the meetings that have no purpose, well… you know the answer already.

The reason this time-saver is not higher on the list in terms of easy-to-do is because meetings can be more about work completion. For my remote team, the meeting is about connection that fuels collaboration and support for one another. The better you understand the purpose of a meeting, the more you can determine the value of the time. Balance efficiency with relationships.

#4 – Limit Your Time

Time blocking – setting aside a pre-designated block of time for a specific task – can be quite effective for time management on some tasks. Time-blocking a task can help you focus and work more efficiently. (This is your reminder that most research indicates that multi-tasking is a fallacy). The time pressure can motivate you to persist on challenging tasks. Time-blocking can be especially helpful on “black hole” activities such as research, cleaning out email, or innovation and idea-generation. If you reach the end of the time without sufficient progress, then schedule another time-block for another day and move onto other work.

#3 – Do NOT Be a Perfectionist

Those of you who know me well are saying, “Really?” Yes, I am definitely a recovering perfectionist. The pandemic taught me to let go of perfection. We needed to punt all the time during the pandemic, and people were really gracious when things did not go as planned. This showed me that perfectionism is overrated. I have learned to embrace the concept of “good enough.”

Let’s be clear – you cannot approach your work with a “whatever” attitude all of the time. That is just being a slacker. Good enough is about picking and choosing moments to accept good instead of great. In a Reddit thread, someone suggested prioritizing tasks by thinking about what adds value to customers and what does not. If a task does not add value to a customer, figure out how to “half-ass” it. This should be used judiciously, but it can still be an effective time management strategy.

#2 – Work From Home When Needed

Working without meetings or messages or interruptions or chit chat at the water cooler is a great way to get more work done, so stay home and spend the day focusing on the work that needs your deepest concentration. This is easy for me as part of a remote office; however, I started this practice prior to working remotely. This technique is very similar to time-blocking because you are dedicated to getting specific tasks completed while at home. For me, the tasks that I get the most value in tackling from my kitchen counter are the ones that take large chunks of time and complex thinking to complete. Researching and writing these articles are in that category, along with annual budgeting. High-concentration tasks can vary depending on your aptitudes.

Some tips to make this work. Put on your out-of-office, silence your phone, and log out of pop-up Teams messages. If you must be in the office, try closing the office door or finding an alcove in the lunchroom and put on your headphones. Also practice a do-not-bother-me face so that just a glance can deter interruptions.

And the easiest way for me to manage time…

#1 – Use a To-Do List

This seems basic but many people do not use lists to organize and prioritize work tasks. I started making lists as soon as I could hold a crayon in my hand, so I have nearly perfected my method. I end each week with my to-do list for the next week.

While this takes 1 – 2 hours of my time, I also take this time to:

Complete any task that I can do in less time than it takes me to write down on my to-do list.
Tap coworkers or clients who owe me completed tasks for my projects to move forward.
Determine if a project needs a status meeting to move forward and get it on the project team’s calendar for the next week.

I know that using my own brain to generate my to-do list each week is old-school; however, my language arts teacher background tells me that writing is one of the best ways to create order out of chaos. Organizing information (whether handwritten or typed, whether essay or table or list) is thinking. Creating the to-do list is my own way of taking time each week to think holistically about the work/goals/purpose of IPD.

For me, not enough time is one of my biggest stressors at work. I am always balancing time in terms of what I need to complete for my team and clients with what I need to check off my list to feel less stress about my job to the time I should spend away from work for a healthy life.

While this Top 8 list provides some strategies for managing time, you may still feel guilty about the steps you take to balance your work time and your personal time. Here are a couple of statistics that can ease your guilt:

Research indicates that once you put it more than 50 hours a week, your production decreases to the point of being pointless to work.
Americans are towards the top of the list for working more hours in comparison with other countries with an advanced economy. Americans also suffer more health issues and higher insurance costs related to work than any other country with an advanced economy. So, save your organization insurance costs and work less.

Sidebar

As part of my research, I was curious about the phrase, Stop the world – I want to get off. Turns out it is the title of a musical from the 60’s. Set in a circus, it is the life journey of a young boy, who stops the show to have sidebar conversations with the audience every time something disastrous happens in his life. As an intelligent reading audience, I will leave you to draw your own connections between the workplace and the circus and add your own sidebar comments.

Stop the World Series Resource List
The 7 Habits
Encouraging Creative Thinking in the Workplace
Falling Behind on Work? Take These Steps to Get Back on Track
Finding Your Innovation Sweet Spot
The Hidden Tactic Overloaded Workers Are Using to Catch Up
How CEO’s Make Time to Create That Unexpected Lead Forward
How to Catch up on Work When You’ve Fallen Behind
How to Give Busy People the Time to Innovate
How to Gossip Strategically to Get Ahead at Work
Systematic Innovative Thinking
Top 10 Productivity Killers in the Workplace

IPDDecember 10, 2024Business Architecture Expert Insights, Expert Insights - archives

Transformation Leadership – Free Training | Past Webinar

Transformation Leadership

Presenter: Mandy Spiess

More and more organizations are embracing transformational efforts. This session will discuss how to ensure successful transformation and how you can play a role in that success.

Kay Take-Aways: