The manager once removed role has a huge impact on the effectiveness of your business
Earlier in our organization design series CORE provided an overview of the 3 tier management system made up of employee, manager and Manager once Removed(MoR) roles (The Three-Tier Management System • Core International | Organization Design Consultants).The blog wrapped up by saying, Instituting MoR practices in an organization provides a formal mechanism to encourage communication, openness, and trust across multiple levels. Additionally, these roles help to sustain the efficacy of the organization structure and the management system. When distinct levels of work are implemented in an organization where each level adds value to the one below, the three-tier management system has the greatest impact.
Today we will expand on this statement by discussing how Manager once removed roles can strengthen trust, maintain, and strengthen the efficacy of the organization structure and management system and add value throughout a business. The simplest way to describe the MoR is a people manager of people managers. The MoR role can be nested anywhere in the organizational hierarchy starting two levels above front-line employees and higher in the organization. In the diagram below, which illustrates 3-tier management, the Director role is the direct manager of the manager role and the manager once removed of the employee roles.
The MoR is a mechanism that facilitates communication, openness and trust
Let us start by observing that the best business leaders understand the need for manager once removed work and tend to do it naturally. However, when the manager once removed accountabilities are not formalized across a business, employee development, succession, and trust-enhancing open culture occur inconsistently across the business.
One of the key accountabilities of a manager once removed is to hold direct report managers accountable for being good managers and effective leaders. Additionally, MoRs are accountable for the quality, effectiveness, and viability of their entire three-tier system. The most common way this is experienced is at the annual performance review time. MoRs review the performance evaluations submitted by their direct report managers for their team members to ensure performance reviews are completed in a consistent, equitable fashion. This ensures one manager does not rate performance too harshly while others are too lenient with their evaluations. This process is repeated once more when bonuses and salary increases are being decided.
This is a good place to start the trust discussion because employees compare themselves to others. If an employee believes that an employee in another department is being treated more favourably, in terms of performance evaluation or pay increase, then they will feel they are being “looked over” by the company. Maintaining equality in these 2 areas creates an environment of relative fairness, and employees trust the system.
Beyond this, the MoR should take the time to learn their EoR’s capabilities by creating opportunities to see the EoRs in action, such as sitting in on direct report staff meetings, requesting presentations from EoRs or observing them “in the field”. This way they can fairly assess the EoR’s current and future capability. This exposure of the EoR to the “boss’s boss” helps reduce fear and build confidence for those EoRs to interact with their MoR, while formally fostering communication and openness. It allows the MoR to judge which employees may be nearing or ready for promotion while allowing EoRs to “show their stuff.” Additionally, the act of the MoR formally meeting with an EoR to understand their career interests builds strong bonds where the EoR can see that the MoR is taking interest in their career and personal development.
Pragmatically, these exposures enable the MoR to develop a talent pool and formally build mentorship into the management system. If you are a MoR with many EoRs then focus your energies on the strongest performers and spend less time with individuals who are not ready for or are not interested in career advancement.
EoR view of MoR
Think about your relationship with your manager and more senior roles in companies you have worked in throughout your career. Practically speaking, your manager once removed was the senior role in the company which has the most direct impact on your career. When the MoR role can be experienced as a mentor and a trustworthy source of context and information, then your relationship with the organization is strengthened. All this to say the MoR-EoR relationship benefits both parties and the business.
Remember when MoR practices are widely instituted, and the manager knows that the door is open between the MoR and the EoR then it creates a natural deterrent to inappropriate managerial behaviour such as harassment. Hopefully, that is not an issue in your company, but the 3-tier system can serve to complement formal HR systems created to support a safe working environment.
Sustain and improve the efficacy of the business over time
When the 3-tier system and MoR accountabilities are formally implemented, then the knowledge gained through this process supports you in your annual business planning. You have a clear picture of your talent pool’s capability and interests and are ready for any changes that are being incorporated into your business plans. It enables you to adjust that structure as required knowing that you have people capable of filling the new roles.
Maximizing impact of the manager once removed and 3-tier management
Establishing the 3-tier management system and MoR role will help any business strengthen the efficacy of its management system. When distinct levels of work are implemented in an organization where each level adds value to the one below, the three-tier management system has the greatest impact. (see learn more about levels of work click the link: https://lnkd.in/dbV62RZ5)
To maximize the effectiveness of staff, each employee should have only one accountable manager, and that manager adds value by operating at the next highest level of work complexity. The MoR is situated two levels above the employee.
If the manager and direct report are operating within the same level of complexity, then compression or a jam-up exists (as illustrated in the chart below). If the manager is operating more than one level of complexity above that of the direct report role, there is a gap. When the manager is too close or too far from the employee then the ability for the manager and the MoR to add true value to employees is weakened.
However, by designing an organizational structure where the number of levels supports the strategy and where work levels are differentiated for employee, manager and MoR roles then these roles are the right distance apart, as represented by the ideal relationship shown above. The application of these work levels strengthens the MoR’s ability to support EoR development and assess the EoR’s current and future potential for promotion and readiness to take on more challenging work.
We will wrap up this blog the same way we started it by reminding you that instituting MoR practices in an organization provides a formal mechanism to encourage communication, openness, and trust across multiple levels. Additionally, these roles help to sustain the efficacy of the organization structure and the management system. When distinct levels of work are implemented in an organization where each level adds value to the one below, the three-tier management system has the greatest impact.
With that in mind, we leave you with this question:
If you have not formalized a 3-tier management system, what are you waiting for?
For more on the MoR please refer to the following blog that describes more in depth the accountabilities of the MoR.
This blog is part of our ongoing series Organizations that Work. To see all of the blogs in the series that have been posted so far, click here.
Every Tuesday over the next few months, we will be posting blogs that take you from the pain of poor organization design, to identifying the root causes, to the benefits of undertaking strategic organization review. We will discuss the steps needed to effectively align your structure and work with your strategy, and we’ll discuss the processes that take out the guess work and help you to get it done. Through it all we will discuss how to lead the change from start to finish.
If you’d like to speak with us about how we can help you on your journey to an organization that works, please follow us on LinkedIn or book a call directly with one of our partners.
Our approach draws on several bodies of work including Stratified Systems Theory, the work of Dr. Elliott Jaques. For more on Dr. Jaques and his work visit the Requisite Organization International Institute at ROII Requisite – ROII Requisite.