How To Motivate And Authorize The Middle Level?

　 A survey of employee satisfaction shows that the overall satisfaction index of middle managers is not only lower than those of senior managers, but even higher than those of grass-roots employees. How to motivate and empower the middle level is one of the keys to enhance the efficiency of enterprise management.

If the top level is compared to the "brain" of the enterprise, the middle level is the backbone of the transmission and implementation of the enterprise strategy. However, some enterprises often have such problems between the high and middle levels: some enterprises have a high level of speech, and the middle level has no chance to express their opinions; some of the senior managers directly intervene in the management of lower level departments, which impair the enthusiasm of the middle level; some of the senior authorities give power to the middle level, but do not have the right and left wings to let him fight alone; and some senior executives are just making a blind eye to their faults in order to blend with the middle class. A survey of employee satisfaction shows that the overall satisfaction index of middle managers is not only lower than those of senior managers, but even higher than those of grass-roots employees.

How to stimulate the creativity of middle-level employees? How to improve the executive power of middle level employees? What kind of training space should the middle school employees provide for training, learning and promotion?

This round table discussion is invited by Peking University Business Review Magazine to invite Professor Ye Jianhua, associate professor of International Business School of University of International Business and Economics, director of policy and regulation department of China National Chemical Corp, CEO, Yang Dan, vice president of China human resources development network and CPO Bao Ming Gang, and senior partner of Peking University, Baoshan to discuss this topic.

　　 Encouraging middle level development is prerequisite

Bull Eagle: there is a prerequisite for middle level incentives, that is, the continuous development of enterprises. I once worked for a long time as a director of human resources in the enterprise, and I have some feelings about middle management. At that time, the mobile phone business of the enterprise flourished, and the branch companies were constantly appearing. This gave the middle level personnel a useful place. He could go to the next general manager of a branch company and manage the assets scale up to hundreds of millions of yuan, which is the best incentive for the middle class.

Another important aspect of middle level motivation is trust. At that time, enterprises encountered a big problem, that is, the conflict between "old people" and "new people". In a state-owned enterprise, many "old people" have a strong mistrust of the new middle-level managers who have been recruited later. Once the subordinates' middle level is not trusted by their superiors, they will give way to their own businesses and their business will be greatly blocked.

Bao Minggang: the encouragement to the middle level must be considered from the system and from the perspective of human beings. From the institutional point of view, in the past, enterprises mostly relied on Ideological and political work and "official orientation" oriented incentives. Nowadays, more emphasis is placed on economic incentives, such as the introduction of long-term incentives, including options and annual salary system. But we must avoid going to the other extreme. We should combine the incentive of "system angle" with the encouragement of "people's angle".

From the perspective of the work characteristics of middle managers, they can be divided into three categories: one is task oriented, the other is relationship oriented, and the third is achievement oriented. In addition to the unified institutional incentives, these three kinds of people need to have different incentives for different purposes. For example, we should give more opportunities to the middle class of achievement. When he makes mistakes, he must give some tolerance. The task oriented middle class may not agree with a certain thing, but as long as the high level is assigned to him, he will try to finish it. For them, they should pay attention to a certain sense of occupational safety. If the middle level is faced with problems due to task assignment and other reasons, senior executives should be brave enough to help them share risks and responsibilities; for relationship oriented middle-level, they should give more love and create opportunities for them to communicate with the senior level, so as to avoid giving them the feeling of being indifferent. Generally speaking, the incentive to the middle level should be considered both in system and in personality.

Yang Dan: to arouse middle kinetic energy needs to be customized according to the inner desire of the middle level. Middle managers have different requirements. The first is the sense of achievement, and the middle level often has a strong desire to further develop. He will consider whether he can be independent. Or do you want to go out and start your own business? The need for such a sense of achievement motivates the middle class to go up. On the other hand, middle managers need to have a sense of security. Many times, there is no sense of security in the middle of the enterprise: if you do well, you will be left behind. Therefore, some middle-level enterprises do not have enough recognition and belonging to enterprises.

As a top floor, the question to consider is how to make the development of the middle level and enterprises more relevant to eliminate their sense of insecurity. Our company is also trying to see whether some new businesses can be split up so that some of the team members will have the opportunity to become shareholders of the new company, thereby enhancing their sense of belonging. I have another experience: to encourage and retain the middle level, we only need to do better than our competitors: the turnover rate of the middle team is lower than that of its competitors, and its destruction is smaller than that of its competitors. It is impossible to be perfect.

Liu Yingwu: in the middle class, Ningbo and YOUNGOR have chosen different paths. When the fir develops to a certain scale, it is found that the middle quality of starting a business is not particularly high. So, Shanghai came to a large number of new middle levels, replacing almost all the old middle classes. But later it was discovered that these people were hard to integrate into the corporate culture and finally had to send them back to the old department. Such a setback makes the development of Chinese fir somewhat affected.

YOUNGOR's approach is different. When the enterprise developed to a certain scale and the middle level also had some money, YOUNGOR built a villa in the area, sold it to the middle level of the enterprise, and provided them with a loan. Working hard to repay loans has become a new target for the middle class. This is both an incentive and a constraint. After that, enterprises also encourage middle level employees to send their children abroad to study, so as to reserve talents for the next YOUNGOR internationalization. This undoubtedly raises a higher goal for the middle level. Therefore, in the process of YOUNGOR's development, the middle level has not been greatly adjusted, but is constantly upgrading itself with the enterprises. The boss of YOUNGOR told me that if the middle layer of the enterprise made a mistake, he would not criticize him, but instead changed him to another post. For example, the general manager who used to be a sales branch in a certain area was transferred to another area, but the business scope of the director was narrower. The boss did not tell him the reason, so that the middle level itself to understand, which has formed a culture in the enterprise.

　 Middle level undertaking corporate culture

Baoshan: when we talk about corporate culture, we often find it difficult to "land". Why? Because only after dividing the corporate culture can we implement it in a targeted way. The core values and strategic thinking of the higher level are first implemented to the middle level, and then through the middle scale of the undertaking to enlarge the scale, and to convey the influence of the grass-roots level. We are increasingly aware that corporate culture must play a role in the enterprise, and there must be targeted groups.

Nowadays, when we help corporate culture "landing", we divide it into three levels: the core of corporate culture is the strategic level, followed by the concept level, and the third is the ethical level. The strategic level is mainly connected with the top level of the enterprise, and the high-level vision mission, career goal and so on are refined. Then we pass it on to the middle level, when we build a cultural system of "concept level" in the middle level. They are systems designed according to the core values and closely integrate strategy and system. There are also some core values of behavior, and the middle level has played a role of "helping others". And at the grass-roots level, because of the complexity of the number, personal values can not be unified, so we can not simply rely on the core values and concept system to solve the problem of corporate culture landing. At this level, we follow the ideas of western enterprises and emphasize business ethics. When employees enter a job, they first need to sign a commercial ethics treaty, similar to the ten commandments of Christianity, which is very simple. At this level of business ethics and ethics, coupled with the behavior standards of our former state-owned enterprises, the operability will be greatly enhanced.

Yang Dan: from my own experience, a good middle manager can help with a lot of work. The team he leads is very effective. If the middle managers are poor in ability and the team development has no morale, it will take a lot of energy for them to remedy. However, it is very difficult to have a good middle manager team. If it is only because of the lack of ability, it is relatively simple. But middle managers also have a very important role in carrying out and implementing corporate culture. If he can play a positive role in this area, his team will be very integrated with the whole enterprise. For IBM, a large company like HP, corporate culture has penetrated into everyone. But for small and medium-sized enterprises like ours, corporate culture is mainly reflected in the level of middle managers. Middle managers' words and deeds directly affect their subordinates' team.

　 How to authorize middle level

Baoshan: there is a Shandong enterprise that produces maltose, ranking first in the country. The eight subsidiaries are distributed throughout the country, and the management relationship of the group is calculated through profit. Therefore, the authorized amount of headquarters to subordinate factories is very large. Relying on this mechanism, this enterprise can be the first in China. However, the profits of the group will be smaller. This is a purely emotional choice of your entrepreneurs. The different authorization mechanisms for the middle level are different.

It may not be appropriate to measure empowerment with pure ethics and loyalty. Because the behavior of an enterprise is a unit behavior, which determines that it is to profit from profit. An enterprise may have two strategic choices: to be a "big" enterprise, or to be a "strong" enterprise. The market size of "big" enterprises is large and the impact is very large, but profits may be very thin. The "strong" business profits are good, but the scale impact may not be too strong.

How to choose depends on the two modes of thinking of entrepreneurs. If an entrepreneur chooses to be a "big" enterprise, he may not pay close attention to the value of everything, he will tend to be empowered. If he wants to be a "strong" enterprise, the entrepreneur wants everything to be the most perfect to enhance the efficiency of the enterprise. Under this concept, he tends to be insignificant, personally, and the authorization will be weakened. Many large enterprises that I have contacted are basically decentralized management. When the enterprise is authorized to the middle level, there will be a mechanism to assist, and through this mechanism, we can calculate the extent to which the work of subordinate units can be achieved and how much proceeds will be obtained. If we can bring this kind of interest mechanism into the enterprise, the enterprise will become bigger and bigger, because every middle level is desperately seeking profits. It is not necessary to become a "brother" with the middle level. The enterprise is not a gathering of Liangshan, but a common business cooperation.

Bull Eagle: once the top level is authorized, it must bear the risk of authorization. If the middle level is authorized, while the middle level often intervenes when making decisions, this is against the system unless the upper level can convince the middle class. But in practice, especially Chinese enterprises, there is a characteristic: when the middle layer is arguing with the high level, the result often is that the upper level has not persuaded the middle level, and the middle level has not persuaded the top level. However, due to the influence of traditional culture, the middle level often obeys unconditionally. In this way, the middle level rights are of little significance, and the sense of responsibility is lost and they dare not make decisions.

Ye Jianhua: the degree of authorization is related to the scale of enterprises. The scale of enterprises is small and the degree of authorization is low. The scale of enterprises is large and the degree of authorization is high. Authorization is different from decentralization and decentralization. Authorization is essentially an agent system, and the licensor should assume the responsibility arising from the authorization. Therefore, it is necessary to supervise the authorized person, so as to facilitate the deviation and correct in time. The supervision of the authorized person is not a matter of doubt, but a necessary system.

　 Yang Dan: authorization is related to two factors. On the one hand, it is the ability of middle level, on the other hand, it is his loyalty to the enterprise. Before authorization, we need to have a deep understanding of the middle level. What kind of person is he? What way should we control him? For a newly introduced middle level, if the authority is fully authorized at the very beginning, the risk is very great.