I do agree with you that you need to gain the experience and take it to step by step. Leadership is one of the main important points for management but, being a good leadership only does not qualify you to be a manager. A lot of people think it is easy to do but it is not. In my industry, I have seen a lot of managers that they are great in one area but, they can not run the whole project and only think to form major perspective only not the whole picture. Which does not help the company. For example, they could be a great engineer manager but cannot be one of the company leaders. I believe the difference between strategy and tactics is that tactics is the way and/or the steps to get to the strategic goal, however, the strategy is on a bigger skill is the version of the company and focus that everyone needs to align with it.
A middle manager is a link between the senior management and junior levels of the organization. Due to involvement into day-to-day running of a business, middle managers have the opportunity to report valuable information and suggestions from the inside of an organization. Moreover, the middle manager is a channel of communication within the organization, as they pass on major decisions of executives and the main goals of an organization to lower levels of employees. This contributes to better coordination between workers and makes a company more united. I would suggest middle manager as it has many advantages like clear communication and coordination and efficient decision making.
I would prefer middle management because you are more directly involved in the projects that happen. You have a better idea of what needs to be done and how to achieve them. Although it may be a lot of work, a middle manager effectively communicates with the team and escalates and major issues to the "higher-ups" if need be. Sometimes upper management has a clear vision, but because they are not directly involved with the actual team, it is harder for them to understand what exactly is going on.
I think that I am better suited for upper management. I have held high level leadership roles before, and whilst they were not in a company, they still suited my personality and how I like to work quite well. Being able to survey the environment and make decisions based on that is something that I feel I can excel at. Making long term plans is something that I do in my personal life, so the skill I have gained there I believe will transfer to an upper management role quite well. Also knowing that my decisions will have far reaching consequences and that I must be extremely careful in what I do is something that is attractive to me.
I personally find my talents, skills, and qualifications are more suited for upper management. I believe that what makes a good upper management individual is someone whose leadership skills are strong in the sense that he or she can lead a team of employees to achieve certain outputs and goals. This leadership is complemented by a well managing capability which would help the individual manage his or her team. However, if the leader is not as connected to his or her team at their interpersonal relationship, they might not have the right team spirit that makes them succeed. This is usually a personal character that many argue that it cannot be taught; it is something that one is born with. Once the upper managing personnel connects with his or her team, and assign the tasks appropriately, he or she must be able to make tough decisions when it comes to the progress of the performance of the workers or team members. Thus, they should be able to analyze each the skills and talents of the individuals that they are managing and they must be able to listen to their problems and concerns so that they can address them to higher personnel or to resolve the issue directly if it falls under their duties and responsibilities. I think that I possess all of these skills and would be happy and satisfied with such position.
While I believe that I would have the skills to do either upper or middle management, I think I would prefer to be in middle management. It takes the right balance of 'big picture' view and 'details' view in order to effectively communicate the importance of the execuation of tasks while also actually identifying the resources needed in order to get those done. In addition, I find more appealing how middle management is 'on the ground' with employees, in that they know more about the current needs more immediately than upper management might. In this they can delegate better since they know more closely what resources are needed in order to resolve issues that come up.
If I was asked this question years ago, I would have said neither. But based off the experiences I have had in the past four years, I would say I am more suited for upper management and am starting to become more suited for middle management as weird as that may sound. What I mean by that is that through my various leadership experiences throughout my years here, I have become accustomed to learning how to figure out the best way to go from point A to the end goal (meaning what is point B? point C? etc.) and delegating the best person to make the most progress from point to point. Currently I am getting more used to being the person that is the one to go to in order to get to a certain point in a project. For example, I am able to see who out of the group would be best to getting from Point A to Point B in a project, and am currently working on being the person who would be the best to go to in order to go from Point A to Point B.
I believe that anyone could either middle management or upper management, it will just only depend on their. I would like to be in upper management but unfortunately I don't have the skill set. I would prefer to work in middle management then climb to upper management. Middle management is where I will be able to direct group and work to solves problem for upper management. Middle management are more involved because they work with upper and lower management.
I think I would prefer to work in middle management because I would want to be more involved in the project. I like to think critically and I am detail orientated. I feel that these two qualities would be very helpful for someone working in middle management rather than upper management. I like to collaborate with a team that I can build a close relationship with.
A small part of the lecture reviewed Upper Management vs Middle Management. Upper Management people are strategic and tend to set the groundwork and vision for what the company could be. Middle Management people are tactical and make sure what needs to be done in terms of task to fulfill the vision.
Would your personally and talents be better suited for Upper Management or Middle Management?
For me personally, I believe I could do both. Leadership qualities are required for both. I think you have to get the experience first in middle management and being able to complete the task for basically some companies vision. After gaining that experience its easier to be able to lay the groundwork for the direction a company should go in.
In my experience at my previous job, I admired the middle manager. They had to manage a handful of us and it wasn't easy. What I did notice was that her personality matched her position. Even though the team had problems, she always found a way to solve them. It was very rare that she showed anger when things started to go south. She was a team player and actually came up with solutions so that certain problems wouldn't happen again. I think that if I were offered a role as a middle manager, it would suit me because of the tactics that I learned from my previous manager.
Most organizations have three management levels: first-level, middle-level, and top-level managers. These managers are classified according to a hierarchy of authority and perform different tasks. Middle management is the intermediate leadership level of a hierarchical organization, being subordinate to the senior management but above the lowest levels of operational staff. They are accountable to the top-level management for their department’s function, and they devote more time to organizational and directional functions than upper management.
Middle managers communicate upward by offering suggestions and feedback to top managers. Because middle managers are more involved in the day-to-day workings of a company, they can provide valuable information to top managers that will help them improve the organization’s performance using a broader, more strategic view.
Middle managers’ roles may include several tasks depending on their department. Some of their functions are as follows:
- Designing and implementing effective group work and information systems
- Defining and monitoring group-level performance indicators
- Diagnosing and resolving problems within and among work groups
- Designing and implementing reward systems
- Supporting cooperative behavior
- Reporting performance statistics up the chain of command and, when applicable, recommending strategic changes
Because middle managers work with both top-level managers and first-level managers, middle managers tend to have excellent interpersonal skills relating to communication, motivation, and mentoring. Leadership skills are also important in delegating tasks to first-level managers.
Because of these advantages, I would prefer to start with being an middle manager and work my way through upper manager as I will have the skills and first-hand experience needed for that role.
Middle Management can include general managers, branch managers and department managers. They are accountable to the Upper management for their departments function, and they devote more time to organizational and directional function than upper management. A middle manager is a link between the senior management and the lower level of the organization. Upper Management designs and conceptualize strategic business plans. Middle Management frames tactical business plans and acts as a link between strategy formulation and strategy execution.
A small part of the lecture reviewed Upper Management vs Middle Management. Upper Management people are strategic and tend to set the groundwork and vision for what the company could be. Middle Management people are tactical and make sure what needs to be done in terms of task to fulfill the vision.
Would your personally and talents be better suited for Upper Management or Middle Management?
For me personally, I believe I could do both. Leadership qualities are required for both. I think you have to get the experience first in middle management and being able to complete the task for basically some companies vision. After gaining that experience its easier to be able to lay the groundwork for the direction a company should go in.
For my personality, I think I would be better suited for upper management. I am much more of a strategic, big-picture, planner type person than a day-to-day focused type person. While both are absolutely critical for the success of the business, I think what upper management is responsible for is much more appealing to me because they are in charge of making important decisions such as which projects to work on and what the future of the company ideally will look like. Additionally, middle managers are responsible for putting out fires on all the projects their team members are working on, developing the individuals on their team to set them up for successful careers, as well as resolving any conflicts within the team, which all sounds pretty exhausting to be honest. Nevertheless, if someone decides to go down the management career path, they will need to go through a middle management role to get to upper management, so the skills that are developed at each level will certainly help them succeed later on in their careers.
I agree with some of these posts in that I would like to start with middle management and possibly transition into upper management later on. Upper management is strategic in looking at the big picture and future of the company, while middle management is more tactical in focusing on a current project and building strong work relationships. For the time being, I prefer to be fully involved with a project team and focus on all the details involved in bringing a project to fruition. I'm interested in garnering more experience in working with each team member on a day to day basis to address current issues, rather than focusing on how to push the entire company forward as a whole.
I prefer to take middle level management as they are accountable to the top management for their department function and responsibilities. They execute organizational plans in conformance with the company’s policies and the objectives of the top management. Middle managers communicate upward by offering suggestions and feedback to top managers.
