Middle Way Management and Equanimity

In my last post, I discussed how you can participate in building a strong and vibrant Middle Way Management™ community. Only by building this community together will we provide Middle Way Managers™ the guidance and resources necessary for their successful daily walk. In this post, I consider to role of equanimity in your Middle Way Management practice.

What is this thing called Equanimity?
Equanimity is "mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain; calmness; equilibrium" (Dictionary.com, 2009). Do these environmental conditions sound familiar? Every manager working in an American-style organization has been "under tension or strain" at one time or another, some of us more often than not. As I think back to particularly stressful management positions I've held, I must admit that I behaved in a less-than-composed manner on more than one occasion. Of course, back then I wasn't thinking in terms of Middle Way Management and how presenting a composed and calm manner during times of extreme duress is a great way to model leadership.

As a Middle Way Manager, you should always try to maintain your equilibrium regardless of the organizational situation in which you find yourself. The only way to maintain a calm exterior is to possess a calm inner energy. You cannot fake your way into equanimity--the human mind is too quick and picks up on too many subtle (and not so subtle) clues about your true feelings. Team members will sense your panic very, very quickly and react in their own, special ways. Thus, challenging situations present you with opportunities to step back and view the landscape with as little emotion as possible while remembering that the ego will slip you into a reactive state without you even knowing it has occurred.

Walking Your Middle Way Management Talk
I've offered ideas in previous posts for developing and maintaining your Middle Way Management practice through mindful breathing, neuro-linguistic anchoring, and reflective thought. Frankly, this is where the preparatory rubber meets the road. All of your hard development work comes into laser-point focus as you make the decision to conduct yourself with equanimous comportment. This is your chance to authentically walk your Middle Way Management talk.

There are three aspects you should consider when conducting yourself equanimously: (1) Right thought (inner dialogue), (2) Right speech (outer dialogue), and (3) Right action (behaviors). Again, all of your hard work preparing yourself to be a true and effective Middle Way Manager will result in an inner calm that no one can achieve without actively seeking it with mindful intent. As you form your thoughts in positive, compassionate, empathetic ways, your speech will naturally follow. Your words will change from the typical American-style organizational language of no-holds-barred competition and war to something more gracious and inclusive. As a result, your actions and behaviors will become more circumspect and, hence, valued by your colleagues.

The Eye of the Storm
As I think of an American-style manager leading a team through a rough organizational patch, I can't help picturing an 18th century sea captain barking out orders as drenching winds and high seas knock his ship and crew about. I know I've felt this way as a manager in the past. Fortunately, you now have the managerial tools to act as an anchor to your organization, someone who all organizational members can learn to value as a calm place in the eye (i.e., the middle) of the storm. You may even notice over time that you are breathing increasingly rarified air as you creep into the upper management echelons of your organization!

I hope this post has helped you think about how practicing some of the techniques I've presented in previous posts can work to set you up for success. Middle Way Managers don't just spring from the mouth of Zeus, they are made through hard work and commitment over time. Practice right thought, right speech, and right action and you will enjoy the fruits of your diligent labors.

In my next post, I will consider Middle Way Management and active decision-making. Until then...

Onward! Darin

Reference

Dictionary.com. (2009). Retrieved June 29, 2009, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/equanimity

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

The Middle Way Management Practice Community

In my last post, I discussed Middle Way Management™ and accountability. Middle Way Managers™ excel at holding everyone--superiors, colleagues, team members, suppliers, customers--to the highest possible ethical and quality standards. The honesty and candor with which you hold others accountable is the same treatment you should expect in return. In this post, I will consider how a solid and accessible community of Middle Way Management practitioners can help keep your momentum going.

Friends, Romans, Fellow Middle Way Managers...
Middle Way Management is a new approach to leading and managing people. This means it will be difficult at first to find a community of Middle Way Managers in your neighborhood. As people and organizations begin to adopt the approach, it will become increasingly easier to find such groups. Until then, you can rely on me and the Middle Way Management Web site (http://www.MiddleWayManagement.com) for support, information, teachings, and comfort as you develop your practice.

Regardless of the community's size, it's important you make a regular and concerted effort to interact with other Middle Way Managers. Those with more experience will offer counsel and support. Likewise, opportunities for you to share your own invaluable experience with others will appear seemingly from nowhere. Your contact with this group should be on a regular schedule so it reinforces what you are already accomplishing in your organization. As the community continues to grow nationwide, and then worldwide, networks and groups will show up on social networking sites such as LinkedIn (http://www.LinkedIn.com).

What Have You Done For Me Lately?
As a Middle Way Manager, building the Middle Way Management community is a special opportunity for you to exercise your management muscles. I highly recommend you assume the role of evangelist, it's a lot of fun and you'll meet a lot of wonderful people. Social networking, Web sites, articles, presentations--general advocacy is what will make Middle Way Management a strong and lasting approach. I have big plans and I'd like you to be a part of them. Please keep me posted on your progress and let me know when, where, and how I can be of service to you.

My future plans include the creation of a survey instrument intended to measure the "level" of Middle Way Management in organizations. I'm currently putting together an expert leadership panel to conduct a Delphi study intended to refine the items for such an instrument. I will conduct a limited field study (expect a request from me for participation soon) followed up by a full-blown survey study that will result in a journal article describing and explaining the dynamics of Middle Way Management. The outcomes of this study will also be included in the book when it comes out in the first quarter of 2010.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and the role of equanimity in your daily practice. When you maintain an even keel, you present a model of composure that is a constant example of what it means to manage with compassion, empathy, sympathy, and kindness.

Until then, keep at it--you are the heart and soul of Middle Way Management!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Accountability

In my last post, I discussed Middle Way Management™ and life/work balance. I suggested the only way you can honestly counsel those you lead and manage to balance their own life and work is to model it yourself. It's only when you are balanced that your Middle Way Management practice becomes an effortless daily walk. In this post, I consider how holding organizational members accountable and expecting the same from others is a primary expectation of the Middle Way Manager™.

Hard and Soft Management Approaches
What is the difference between "hard" and "soft" leadership/management approaches? A hard approach is starkly prescriptive. It offers directed actions intended to "fix" management situations. "If you see this, do that." These approaches claim to have all of the answers to any management dilemma you might confront. They are especially amenable to linear thinkers because they offer a yes/no dichotomy that results in a final decision, even if it's the wrong one! They rarely have all the answers.

A "soft" approach seeks to foster character attributes in the leader/manager to act as guiding principles for any management dilemma that might crop up. This is very much akin to virtue ethics in which the character of the person precedes and informs management decisions. Rather than asking questions such as "What action will do the most good for organizational members and result in the least harm?", the Middle Way Manager asks, "What sort of person am I?" when addressing difficult management situations. These approaches not only acknowledge they do not have all the answers, they revel in the fact and invite debate, discussion, and dialogue at every opportunity.

Accountability and Candor
True, Middle Way Management is a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach to leading and managing people. Though I do offer a few techniques for centering oneself and interacting with organizational members, the approach is fundamentally ontological - it's a way of being around which you craft your unique way of doing. At its root, Middle Way Management is a soft approach in terms of the conventional thinking I presented above, yet it is in no way easy on organizational members.

The authentic Middle Way Manager holds organizational members accountable for their words and actions and expects the same from others. Whether it's a boss, a colleague, a team member, a strategic partner, a supplier, or a customer, the Middle Way Manager holds all accountable while being held himself to the highest level of accountability. This attention to honesty and the candor that upholding such standards requires are hallmarks of the Middle Way Manager.

As I stated in an earlier post, I've worked for a Buddhist CEO who would feel right at home practicing Middle Way Management. While he was a compassionate, empathetic, gracious, and kind leader/manager, it was my observation that he did not hold organizational members accountable for either their promises or their words and deeds. Though his vision for the organization was sound and inspiring, a lack of accountability resulted in a chaotic environment in which some departments experienced annual employee turnover rates as high as forty per cent. Clearly, he and his organization would have benefited from a practice of holding all organizational members accountable while still maintaining an environment of compassion and mindful awareness.

I hope this post has clarified my thinking around how a "soft" approach to leading and managing people can be as, if not more, rigorous than a traditionally "hard" approach. In the end, it's all about compassion, empathy, honesty, and candor. Practice these and you will be called a Middle Way Manager.

Viva accountability!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Life/Work Balance

In my last post, I discussed the role of reflective thought in your Middle Way Management™ practice. Taking a few minutes out of your hectic Middle Way Manager™ schedule to reflect on the day's events is a great way to center yourself and renew your physical and emotional energies. In this post, I suggest that balancing your work with home duties to relieve suffering for everyone in your busy life is a great way to practice Middle Way Management.

An Awareness that Suffering Exists
Regardless of the context in which we find ourselves--workplace, public, home--you may be sure of one thing: Suffering exists. In some ways, we are born to a life of suffering, especially when we let ego and a self-definition based on fear get the better of us. I know I have let them get the better of me in the past. Now, though, I see more clearly by practicing a daily, mindful walk of compassion and empathy that extends from my workplace to my personal life. Once you commit to practicing Middle Way Management, it's inevitable that it will affect all other compartments of your life.

As we acknowledge the suffering that exists in the world, we raise our awareness to include everyone around us. In previous posts, I talked about the suffering of your own manager(s), the suffering of the people you manage, and the suffering of your peers and colleagues. I've discussed the Ripple Effect that can be kicked off by a simple act of kindness and compassion. It's this increased awareness and mindful interaction with others that demonstrates the true Middle Way Management practice. An important aspect of this mindful awareness is the recognition that we reduce our own suffering and the suffering of those around us by developing and maintaining a reasonable balance between work and home activities.

A Balancing Act
Practicing any kind of management approach can be challenging. American-style organizations expect a lot from their managers and their managers typically respond beyond expectations (most often because their self-definitions are wrapped up in their job titles). This results in hard work and long hours that test the strength and durability of all sorts of relationships for the manager. As a Middle Way Manager, you must jealousy guard your time and energy because ample amounts of both help you develop a vibrant Middle Way Management practice. Allowing yourself to be stretched too thin at the workplace creates suffering for you and for those around you.

As you balance your work life with your private, personal life, you keep your priorities in a good place and you keep your relationships vigorous and healthy. As a Middle Way Manager, it is important to maintain a balanced life, especially if you wish to act as an example or counsel those you manage to do the same. Before we can help others achieve any kind of reasonable balance in their lives, we must embody the characteristics, behaviors, and beliefs that led us to achieve the balance in the first place. Without first doing this, we are in danger of approaching the Middle Way Management path with hypocrisy, which demotivates those we manage as much, if not more, than muddled, unclear communication.

Assessing the Situation
You may be thinking something along these lines: "This sounds great, yet the reality of the situation is that a perceived lack of extraordinary performance on my part may compromise my position at work." Given the treatment of managers in American-style organizations, this is absolutely true. So, once again (I've said this in previous posts), you must decide if the organization is right for you and if you are "right" for the organization. As your focus and goals shift and change under a Middle Way Management practice, you may find that you no longer believe in the objectives of the organization, or even its reason for existence.

This realization will require a decision on your part, one that is not easy. You really have only two choices: (1) To remain in your position and try to influence the organization by relieving organizational suffering through positive, compassionate actions or (2) Leave the organization for one that supports your Middle Way Management sensibilities. Either of these decisions requires honesty and courage on your part, both of which will become increasingly easy to exercise as your Middle Way Management practice matures.

The fundamental difference between this and other leadership/management approaches is the conspicuous call for a balanced life in the interest of increasing the levels of compassion and empathy in your daily walk.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and accountability. Though Middle Way Management is considered a "soft" approach by conventional standards, it is anything but easy on people when it comes to holding them accountable for their words and deeds.

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Reflective Thought

In my last post, I talked about linear and non-linear thinking and how they affect the practice of Middle Way Management™. I suggested it is possible to practice Middle Way Management as a non-linear thinker in the context of a linear-thinking, American-style organization. In this post, I discuss the role of reflective thought and how you can rely on it as a calming instrument during the course of your hectic day.

Reflections on Reflective Thought
We all engage in reflective thought at some level throughout the course of a day. As a manager, it can be quite difficult in the workplace to reflect on events immediately after they have happened. I know, I've been there. Attending meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting does not promote the kind of peaceful reflection one requires to absorb much, let alone the content of those meetings!

It is an absolute necessity that you take the time out of your busy day to reflect on events. Without this, you will carry past injuries into the present so that you are living in a fearful future that will most probably never come about. As Mark Twain so eloquently put it, "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

Reflective thought is not a quick review of meeting notes or briefly glancing at your schedule in the morning before everything busts loose. Reflective thought is the intentional act of quieting your mind in a peaceful place so that you can not only reflect on the past, you can address the future in a non-reactive way by mindfully living in the present.

Since one of the main ideas behind Middle Way Management is the act of living in the Now while letting the past inform your present and planning for the future, this simple act of taking time to reflect on workplace events is crucial to your success as a Middle Way Manager™.

Vision: A Moral Imperative of the Middle Way Manager
As a leader who embraces Middle Way Management, it is important you understand the critical role played by vision in your daily management practice. Truly, without vision, the organization will perish. Vision is the anchor for the activities of the present; it is what drives us to create and understand the 'what' and it is what compels us to find innovative solutions for the 'how' and 'when' of our work.

Vision is what excites and motivates people to perform to the best of their abilities. The leader-manager who lacks vision provides no incentive to the team. For this reason, it is a moral imperative of the Middle Way Manager to foster mindful awareness based upon shared organizational vision. Vision cannot be developed without engaging in frequent, consciously mindful reflective thought. Hence, reflective thought that leads to a clear, concise, exciting vision for the team is an obligation of the Middle Way Manager.

Quiet Reflections
I once worked for an organization led by a Buddhist CEO. Upon arriving for a meeting at his office one day, I was told by his assistant that he was not yet available because he was "meditating or something." What a great reason to be left waiting. This CEO took time every day to engage in meditation based upon his personal religious beliefs, which informed every aspect of his management style. While it is my observation that he did not hold upper-level managers sufficiently accountable for their decisions, actions, and outcomes (a topic for a future post), he did manage with compassion, empathy, understanding and patience.

Along these lines, it is important for you to take the time to find a quiet place and reflect on events of the day, both past and upcoming. As a busy manager, I have had to block out time on my calendar as a meeting so that no one would book over the top of my reflection time. This may seem disingenuous, but if you book it as personal time and you work for a busy organization, your request will probably not be honored. Besides, it really is a meeting--with yourself.

Your place of restful thinking will offer you the peaceful environment necessary for you to calm your mind. In this case, an open door policy should be discarded for a few moments. You can use the breathing technique described in a previous post or simply sit with your eyes closed while listening to some pleasant music. It's probably not practical to light a candle in an office building, yet I do this when I am working in my own office at home.

I sit in a comfortable chair, close my eyes, calm myself with mindfully aware breathing and reflect. At first, your mind will wander. It always helps me before a session to review a few topics before settling in. This way, you can let your unconscious mind work on other topics as you review ones at the top of your mind. You should not take too much time to do this--it is not an exercise in mediation. Rather, it's an opportunity for you to quiet your mind and get organized so that you can charge ahead with renewed vigor. Ten minutes or so are quite enough for me.

Hopefully, this gives you a way to maintain a busy managerial work schedule without sacrificing too much of your physical energy. In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and life/work balance. The consciously mindful path of the Middle Way Manager treads carefully between work and home. We truly do serve others best by balancing our workload with our personal obligations.

Until then, reflect early and often!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and (Non-)Linear Thinking

In my last two posts, I discussed managing up and dealing with the difficult team member using Middle Way Management™. The key to managing relationships in both instances is compassion combined with empathy, understanding, sympathy, and a healthy dose of patience. This results in the creation of new, stronger links between you and those with whom you interact. In this post, I will be discussing how linear and non-linear thinking affect your Middle Way Management practice.

Linear vs. Non-linear Thinking
Linear thinkers see the world as a set of absolutes. There are no gray areas. Everything is black or white, you're with us or against us, I'm right and you're wrong. This type of thinking does not entertain more than two options or leave the door open for competing ideas to be held in the mind at any one time. Linear thinking is a fear-based, egoistic way of looking at the world. As you can imagine, this leads to a Middle Way Management practice that is focused upon and driven by expected outcomes that fall within a limited thought space. Rigidity is the norm. Flexibility is not the watchword of the linear thinker.

Non-linear thinkers see the world as a set of options. Nothing is set in stone. Gray areas abound and there is always room for debate, discussion, and dialogue. This type of thinking entertains multiple options at any one time and leaves the door wide open for those options to change as new information comes to light. Aristotle said, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." This is also the mark of a non-linear thinker who never feels the need to be right at the expense of others who are wrong. The non-linear thinker does not consider every conversation, meeting, or even competition to be a zero-sum game. The non-linear thinker truly believes everyone can win.

American-style Management
While it is not my goal here to judge one type of thinking as being better than the other, I do recognize that American-style management is all about linear thinking. Examine the language used by American-style leadership and management thinkers and writers and you will see that their metaphors are aggressive, even war-like. The playing field of organizational management is a zero-sum game and, by heavens, they are out to win at all costs.

With these sorts of managers, the end (profit) justifies the means (outright brutality), particularly in the case of people management. If someone doesn't fit into the organizational culture, don't take the time and effort to work with them, simply let them go. I believe the overtly competitive nature of capitalism has driven this attitude. I also believe there is room within capitalistic economic systems and the political systems tightly linked to them for Middle Way Management to flourish.

Thinking in New Terms
Middle Way Managers™ are non-linear thinkers. If American-style management is dominated by linear thinking, how can a Middle Way Manager be effective in an organizational management role? This is perhaps one of the most important questions someone who wishes to make the commitment to developing a Middle Way Management practice can ask herself. As I described in an earlier post, I was once terminated for "practicing servant leadership without a license." While I find humor in it now, believe me, it wasn't that funny back then as they walked me out the door. Rather than using Middle Way Management at the expense of your career or job, think about it in non-linear terms (which I did not do with my former employer).

I think of Middle Way Management as a meta-level approach which I can overlay upon other leadership and management approaches. For instance, organizational operations are largely driven by policies, procedures, guidelines, and rules. Since people are the primary constituents of all organizations, I can practice compassion, empathy, understanding, kindness, sympathy, and patience while still holding my team members accountable to operational constraints. In fact, it is one of the fundamental responsibilities of Middle Way Managers to hold team members accountable to the highest possible ethical and quality standards. In this way, you can practice Middle Way Management in non-linear ways while still maintaining linear organizational norms.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and reflective thought. While breathing can help us become centered in the daily storm, reflective thought produces the type of leadership vision that is a moral imperative of the Middle Way Manager.

Go now, and manage well!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and the Difficult Team Member

As you can imagine, this post will be similar to my last post in which I discussed how to manage up using the Middle Way Management™ attributes of understanding, compassion, empathy, and sympathy. Dealing with a difficult team member requires many of the same behaviors, along with a healthy dose of patience.

The Suffering Team Member
Over the years, I’ve worked with just about every personality type imaginable. Some of them have been difficult, most have not. Admittedly, I’ve even been the difficult one at times. Regardless of the situation, you can be sure the difficult person is suffering. And what is your primary Middle Way Management goal? That’s right, the relief of suffering (you’re starting to get it!), so consider the difficult team member a golden opportunity to walk the Middle Way Management talk.

As I think about the difficult people I’ve worked with (myself included), in every example I come back to a bruised ego. Since ego issues are based upon emotionalized perceptions, accurate or not, much of the relief of suffering is easily accomplished through clear managerial communication. Nothing creates disenchantment quicker than a lack of communication. In the absence of clear, respectful communication, people simply concoct the stories they feel they need to perpetually construct their own perceived value. And isn’t a majority of ego injury caused by the emotions created from a perceived lack of appreciation?

The Relief of Suffering
I wish I could say that I have specific answers as to why everyone suffers. I don't. Since our workplace interactions with difficult people are on a professional level, we only have insight into their behaviors, which are surface level indicators of deeper issues. As a difficult person's language and task quality reveals their suffering, it is your duty as a Middle Way Manager™ to relieve it.

How you go about relieving the suffering of the difficult team member is entirely up to you. Several factors come into play. How well do you know the person? Is it appropriate to delve too deeply to get at root causes? Will the person even accept your help? Regardless, as a Middle Way Manager in an organization, you can typically rely on organizational resources to help you address the team member's suffering. Sometimes, all a suffering person wants is to be heard - by anyone. This is why a suffering organizational member will often choose to voice their suffering to anyone and everyone, which is not good for them, the receiving parties, or the organization.

As a Middle Way Manager, it is your duty to recognize and then empathize with your suffering team member. Once you observe the behavior clues of suffering, you must move forward with compassion, empathy, sympathy, and understanding. Reacting with like behavior is not the way of the Middle Way Manager. Putting yourself in the position of the suffering person is the proper response, one that can work to reframe your relationship with the team member and the team member's relationship with the organization.

In the end, it's all about compassion and empathy, understanding and sympathy. A patient, kind response to the suffering team member is the only way to practice Middle Way Management and the best way to relieve their suffering; it's good for them, it's good for you, and it's good for the organization.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and linear thinking.

Until then...

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Managing Up with Middle Way Management

A Couple of (Very) Good Bosses
I've been in the workforce just about all of my life. I started out picking berries, something that is generally too labor intensive for the present generation of pre-teens and teens. I don't begrudge them this attitude. Riding a bike or walking in the chill morning rain to spend the day up to my elbows in ice-cold berry plants, covered with mud and soaked to the bone was never my idea of a good time. Yet, I learned some good lessons over the course of those summers.

One lesson I picked up from spending years communing with nature for profit was that there are all kinds of bosses. The kindly couple who owned the berry patch where I worked were good bosses. They were tough, but fair and always worked as hard as any of their pickers. They were originally from Japan and it was said that during the shameful internment period of World War II, a neighbor cared for the deed to their farm until they could return to begin anew. I believe this lesson, and those from the culture in which they came of age, were not lost on them.

As I prepared to put my thoughts down here, it occurred to me that these people were probably the best bosses I've ever had. They rose early in the morning, worked hard all day, paid fairly and on time, and were always ready with a good ribbing. I believe their management style was the result of compassionate practice. They really did care about the kids who worked for them and it showed.

Missed Opportunities
Again, as I prepared my thoughts, it also struck me that there exists not one example besides the Japanese couple of a boss, or even an organization, for which I have worked that has given one whit about me as a person. Perhaps this is related to the industry in which I have mostly worked over the course of my adult life (Information Technology), yet I suspect it's something deeper, something endemic to Western capitalism and organizational management that considers me nothing more than a "human resource" to be exploited in the interest of maintaining a healthy bottom line. Likewise, I've had myriad opportunities over the years to interact with my bosses by showing compassion and kindness, yet I have passed these up for reasons I do not fully understand.

I'm beginning to get the idea that my vision was clouded by the environment in which I found myself and by the choices I made about how to play in that sandbox. I played by their rules and, most of the time, I lost. My resume is long and eventful with many jobs where I've played a key role in developing and delivering major technological initiatives, yet I do not consider myself successful. I may have at one time, but I do not today. For me, success can only be measured by the constant, mindful awareness that comes from walking the true Middle Way Management™ path.

Moving Forward - and Up
In the interest of moving forward by discussing the positive attributes and behaviors that are developed through the practice of Middle Way Management, I'm not going to detail the bad boss behaviors I've experienced over the years. One thing I've come to realize is that my work experience is in no way unique. Rather than belabor the characteristics of a bad boss, I will assume that we've all had at least one. I would rather detail what it takes to transcend the negative and manage up with kindness, compassion, and empathy.

Managing up is not about manipulating your boss to get what you want. Rather, it's about standing in the psychological and emotional space of your boss so that you can better understand any type of assignment, good or bad. Thinking back to my posts on ego and self-definition, I submit that a "bad" task assignment is nothing more than one that bumps up against your ego and definition of your Self. For instance, if you have worked in a certain position for any length of time and you have put time and energy into defining yourself, at least partly, as that position, a request by your boss that appears menial is probably one that is knocking at your ego.

If this occurs, you should step back to examine why you are feeling this way. This is not easy to do and requires a kind of mindful awareness that can only come with the daily practice of Middle Way Management. Once you can take this step back, it is another very short step to put yourself in the space of your manager. When you accomplish this, you will learn more about your boss that will be helpful to both of you in the future.

If you consider your manager to be good, this will be relatively easy and you may even be able to approach her to ask about the "question behind the question," or what's really going on. If you consider your manager to be bad, this will require some effort on your part. Regardless of your feelings about your manager, you must understand that she will often have insight critical to her request of you, and she simply may not have the time, energy, or permission to relay this knowledge to you.

At the heart of this practice of empathy and sympathy is the goal of fulfilling your manager's request out of a caring and compassionate heart. Remember, one of your primary goals as a Middle Way Manager™ is to relieve suffering within your organization at all levels. This is an opportunity for you to practice true Middle Way Management. As you engage in these sorts of behaviors, you will notice your relationship with your manager change over time.

The relief of managerial suffering is the essence of managing up with Middle Way Management.

I hope you were somewhat surprised by my ideas about "managing up." Making an effort every day to manage up, down, and sideways with compassion, empathy, and mindful awareness is what Middle Way Management is all about.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and the difficult team member. Hope to see you there!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.