Transparent Leadership

Establishing a culture of trust in organizations and strengthening the middle line are both critical for implementing innovation, especially during major disruptions. Work units and teams operate in environments that are largely influenced by broader organizational and institutional goals where middle managers are most needed for guiding and directing the staff to carry out change.

Recently, however, the value of middle managers has come under attack. Despite their valuable contributions that often have gone unnoticed by senior executives, middle managers have regularly been viewed as non-value-added practitioners who consume resources but do not add value to products or services. Further, as technology advances and social media allow executives to interact more directly with stakeholders, it also removes middle management from the communication loops or the decision-making process.

Conscious about the potential of being eliminated, demoted, or bypassed, some middle managers attempt to "prove their premium" by working excessively hard, thus becoming hyper-effective, working longer hours with a desire to perform their roles better. Surprisingly, however, executives who react harshly to these attitudes and behaviors also typecast middle managers as being unmotivated and needed to be further bypassed or often incentivized monetarily to accomplish important tasks. Neglecting middle managers’ strengths or focusing on negative attributes and weaknesses creates conditions of failure harmful to employees and organizations.

Transparent Leadership: Bridging the Trust Gap Between Senior Executives and Middle Managers focuses on trustworthy relationships between senior executives and middle managers. A proven framework of trustworthy leadership is presented as a practical guide for leaders and professionals wishing to gain skills for building and maintaining trust in the workplace. It provides practical strategies and assessment tools for bridging the trust gap between executives and middle managers.