Second-Level Managers: What Are They and What Do They Do?
You are a second level-manager if...
- You manage other managers
- Your direct reports have direct reports of their own
Second-Level managers have a unique responsibility to cultivate Baylor’s culture and drive departmental performance. In many ways, leading a team of managers is similar to managing individual contributors. These similarities include:
- Modeling the right behavior. As a manager of managers, it is imperative to champion Baylor’s vision and Core Commitments. Core Commitments | Human Resources | Baylor University.
- Understand your own leadership style and the strengths you provide the university.
- Provide training opportunities for your direct reports.
- Utilize the Core Commitments during one-on-one meetings and group meetings. Repetitive application of the Core Commitments helps to reinforce why our work is critical to Baylor’s success and aligns every employee to Baylor’s mission: “To educate young men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence, and Christian commitment within a caring community.”
However, there are some key differences in the way you should manage managers. The key difference is the need to assess your managers’ leadership abilities while assessing the outcomes of their teams’ work and work culture.
Affirm Ownership of Their Work
- Allow your direct reports to feel ownership of their teams’ performance. This may feel like a balancing act, and your level of involvement in managing employees one step or more below your level should vary based on each manager’s level of experience. If you are managing someone who is new to supervising others, you may need to step in more frequently to guide the management process. This should be discussed with these particular leaders beforehand to align expectations. As your managers develop and gain experience, allow them to earn more decision rights, allow their role to expand, and allow for more autonomy. In addition, hold your managers accountable for their performance and their ability to uphold Baylor’s culture. Feedback you provide to leaders needs to be provided in safe, private spaces where it does not undermine their authority over their teams. Feedback should be provided quickly and with objective and accurate information.
Recognize Top Leaders
- The primary function of a manager’s role at Baylor is to help their employees succeed and develop their individual skills. Don’t just tell your direct reports this, but reward behavior that aligns with Baylor’s Core Commitments and the departmental goals. The first step in recognizing and rewarding managers is to track their performance as it relates to their leadership ability. Take time on a regular basis to track specifics on how your managers are supporting their teams and advancing their team’s goals. The more data you can gather, the more you can accurately measure performance and reward leaders through various mechanisms. These mechanisms include advancement opportunities, increased decision rights, work on special projects, pay differentiation, departmental recognition, and University-wide Faculty & Staff Award programs.
Build Relationships with Your Managers’ Team Members
- Baylor’s 6th Core Commitment is “Build Relationships and Work Collaboratively.” For second-level managers, this means developing relationships with your direct reports’ direct reports. This provides a variety of benefits, including a better understanding of your direct reports’ performance and a greater sense of belonging for those who report up through you. There are a number of ways you can develop these relationships. Skip level meetings, attendance in regularly scheduled group meetings, and leading employee appreciation events (years-of-service appreciation, birthdays, etc.) and/or informal group lunches are just some of the ways to establish and build these critical relationships.
