# How to be a middle manager

Middle management is the logical effect of a large management structure that needs more people to oversee workers.

Most middle managers "manage managers", and are often promoted into the role.

- Typically, they started as an entry-level worker, then gained a reputation in the company as a great worker and were promoted to oversee other workers, then eventually to oversee other managers.
- In larger organizations, this promotion ladder can move upward a few times (e.g., shift supervisor, general supervisor, district manager, regional manager, etc.).
- In particularly large organizations, most VP roles are glorified middle management roles.

The requirements to get *into* middle management are typically much harder than the requirements to actually do the job.

- The work itself typically involves getting status updates from subordinates, then condensing and sending those status updates to a higher manager.
- Most of your [decision-making](people-decisions.md) ability comes through permission you've been granted by *your* manager.
- To that end, most middle managers don't have much responsibility over what they do all day.

It's vastly difficult to define a high-quality middle manager for several reasons:

- Like [any other manager](mgmt-1_why.md), their performance is based on their *workers'* performance, which is already often difficult to measure in many lower management roles.
- Their capacity to make decisions is hampered by what the company policy indicates, which they typically have zero control over.
- Performance metrics are very reliable to determine how someone does across time, but most executives track performance metrics against different managers on the same level, which disregards *every* variable which could be different.

Unfortunately, middle managers only exist in large groups, so middle managers can *only* exist within the natural inefficiencies that come from [large systems](groups-large.md).

- As the management ladder gets taller, managers show progressively less evidence of any individual contribution.
- Further, most people who are dramatically [successful](success-4_routine.md) will slowly leave their middle management role to find more [meaning](meaning.md) in a different role elsewhere.

Multiple tiers of middle managers *can* add value to a large organization, but only if a few criteria are *not* met:

- When middle managers are [technical idiots](https://gainedin.site/idiot/), they'll magnify the efforts of whoever leads them, since they don't know any better.
- If the power structure is *highly* formalized, with no room for discussion (e.g., a military), the middle manager is a redundant role as soon as higher management adopts better communication [technology](technology.md).

When individual contributions are easy to determine or completely irrelevant, a simple alternative to middle managers is a head communicator (e.g., "account manager", "project lead").

- By having someone relay information, there's no need for a middle manager, since the person themselves is held to that task.
- This *can* create more [chaos](unknown.md), especially when there are any [conflicts](people-5_conflicts.md), but also gives people more responsibility (and therefore they'll find more [meaning](meaning.md) and be more [productive](success-4_routine.md)).

## High above

No matter how human you are, and no matter how well you [craft your image](image.md), your public presence over an organization of several thousand people is *guaranteed* to have at least a few ugly marks on it.

- Learn to [integrate your shadow](personality.md) and humbly understand your place in the hierarchy.
- Being an executive is a bit like being a monarch, where everyone imagines they can do it better but don't realize the stress and limitations required within the role.
- Executive and magisterial roles are *very* abstracted from humanity, and have more in common with a [strategy video game](computers-software-gamedev.md) than any legitimate [human connection](people-3_boundaries.md).

From 2nd-level middle management and higher (i.e., no longer working alongside the workers), everyone quickly becomes a [data point](database.md).

- If you wish to work in that environment, you'll find yourself competing with many [personalities](personality.md) who will have no ethical problems with harming many people to provide a little personal gain (e.g., Cluster B personality).
- In general, it's far easier to fire a 15-person team or cut pay for 200 people when you have no sense of [ethics](morality.md) or [humanity](humanity.md).
  - Making or keeping lower-ranking [friends](people-4_friends.md) in a high-ranking role can represent an opportunity for your rivals to make accusations of [political favoritism](stories-storytellers.md) or imposing *their* scandals or unfavorable [reputation](image.md) onto you.
- By delegating *every* task, a manager has a unique [power](power.md) discrepancy:
  - They can claim the benefits of anything good their subordinates do.
  - If someone keeps making mistakes, they can fire the under-performer.

Stay [ethical](morality.md), even when [a small lie](people-lying.md) can give you a moderately-sized city's wealth at the expense of people you'll never know.

- People never say something is "just business" for morally good things.
- Your moral responsibility, within this life [and the next](religion.md), leans more on you proportionally to the power you have over others.

Your organization is safest when you publicly expose every scandal yourself.

- To the extent you can, publicly disclose everything you know to be true.

The complexities of running a large organization are the same as smaller ones, but with *many* more nuances.

- Every [business role](business.md) will be heavily specialized.
- Many of the tasks you *were* doing will become [specialized roles](jobs-specialization.md) (often part of a Human Resources division).
- It may be tempting to relax and do nothing, but stay closely involved with *any* [critical projects](mgmt-2_projects.md).

On a high enough level, your management expertise involves power-brokering within the world of government lobbying, further mergers/acquisitions, and giving commands to your subordinate managers.

- Your "score" is ranked in the industry competitively against other organizations (e.g. Fitch, Standard & Poor's), but that score determines how much the organization's *owners* will be pleased (but not the workers, and not necessarily the customers).
- If you want a long-lasting model, pay more attention to what the customers and workers want, even if your organization is only middle-of-the-road profitable.
- Whenever possible, try to distinguish the quality of your product from your competitors.
  - This is *not* easy to do when the product is a commodity, but great [marketing approaches](marketing.md) and improvements to existing products can turn even mundane objects into a new experience.

No matter what, *never* let large-scale organizational events happen without your direct permission:

- Don't let any vote for board members added or removed without your permission.
- Stay involved if the board wants to relocate the organization's headquarters.
  - Since future [hiring](mgmt-3_teams.md) decisions draw from the surrounding area, the headquarters location determines the long-term culture of the organization.
- Any substantial asset must get your approval to be disposed of or shut down.
- Any new product or business must be approved before purchase or launch.
- The board should never award themselves bonuses or salary increases.