The term “middle management” hardly generates excitement and enthusiasm from anyone in the business world. Mental images of middle managers include beleaguered, overworked, underpaid bureaucrats and administrators who sit at computer screens or push paper between the CEO, who makes all the decisions, and the front-line employees, who do the real work.
While pop culture paints a picture of these managers in the middle of business-savvy CEOs, general managers in the feed and grain industry know how important middle managers are to the success of the organization. Savvy leaders won’t be surprised by recent research from Field, Hancock, Smallets and Weddle with McKinsey and Company consulting, which found organizations with top-performing middle managers had total shareholder returns multiple times larger than firms with average or below-average middle managers.
