Most companies struggle with middle management because they are quick to promote but slow to train. Serving as the intermediary between executives and their direct reports, middle management bears the weight of demands from both sides. In this unique position, many managers struggle with role alignment, work-life balance, and effectively connecting with their teams. Upper-level leadership goals are communicated to managers with little direction on how to attain that particular result. Managers seem to be given an end destination without a map of how to get there, leaving most feeling misplaced. Learning how to face this unique set of challenges is a daunting task yet, critical for both personal and organizational growth.  

Once promoted, every individual is faced with a particular set of challenges. Commonly, these challenges include communication changes, leadership difficulties, role ambiguity, and trouble managing a practical work-life balance. Receiving feedback from both upper management and direct reports can help new managers get acquainted with their roles. However, receiving this feedback on an annual or semi-annual basis is not frequent enough to show growth. To help managers become better acquainted in their role, consider utilizing AIM insights. AIM Insights is a tool that works to provide accessible, quantitative feedback metrics to managers and provide better organization-wide alignment resulting in an improvement of overall productivity. 

Managers commonly face problems with a lack of control and alignment. Executives create organizational goals and managers are left to carry them out with insufficient guidance on the direction of the company goal. Managers are left to execute the goals set by executive management even if they find them impractical, unattainable, or struggle to understand the purpose. AIM insights displays a variety of tools to help leadership within an organization communicate and achieve or even exceed goals with improved transparency and alignment that improves satisfaction and productivity while reducing turnover.

Beginning with communication, AIM insights works to help middle managers streamline communication with direct reports and improve communication with executives to better understand organization goals. Creating personalized communication plans that lead to a better connection between managers and their direct reports. AIM insights works with managers and executives to promote constructive feedback and drive continuous improvement, allowing teams to reach their full potential. 

Additionally, AIM insights works to create plans that improve transparency and accountability with managers and direct reports. This software will enable managers to be more transparent about big picture and long-term goals with direct reports that will in turn be more accountable and more loyal to their organization. Being able to employ year-round performance metrics will enable managers to address problems as they arise and quickly analyze their team to work in a more efficient and productive manner. The accessibility of this important quantitative information allows managers and even executives to be more adaptable and agile in strategy, smoothly addressing issues and pivoting to avoid problems along the way. 

Data-driven goal setting allows employees to set SMART goals that are certainly attainable and timely, with the help of their managers. These goals allow managers to better identify problems and leaders within their team, frequently eliminating bias that may occur in evaluations. Being able to align each employee's goals with the organization will quickly exhibit strengths and differentiate firms from their competitors. Having clearer purpose and transparency improves productivity, leading to higher goal achievement and increased employee satisfaction, leading to higher retention rates organization-wide.  

Another important point of AIM insights is the development of feedback. Generally, once promoted, managers may go a few months without receiving direct feedback on their job performance. AIM insights enables managers to view goals and feedback constantly, having access to goals and utilizing specific metrics that clearly demonstrate different aspects of the organization and directly align performance areas with leaders’ goals. Being able to use these concrete metrics provides clarity and encourages managers to hold themselves and their direct reports accountable for reaching their own goals. 

Job satisfaction and job performance are directly linked. So to improve job satisfaction, managers should feel fully equipped with the tools to have high performance. This will reduce turnover and boost the efficient use of company resources. In addition to these benefits that would specifically aid managers, improved job performance and job satisfaction is crucial for direct reports as well. Having managers who are strong leaders, know how to communicate well, and genuinely enjoy their jobs will lead to the same traits in their direct reports. Having AIM Insights to provide clarity on these individuals will allow for streamlined objectives and goal-setting, making it easier for both managers and their direct reports to enjoy their workdays and be as productive as possible while maintaining their team. 

AIM Insights is just one aspect from a catalog of different tools to improve the experience of middle management. In addition to AIM insights, consider implementing mentorship programs that help managers better understand what personal steps they may take to better their careers and goals. Furthermore, managers should focus on not only being mentees but also becoming a mentor for their direct reports. Mentorship within an organization should focus on giving back so each person can have a mentor and a mentee to learn from and give advice to. This will help develop camaraderie within the organization and focus on open communication that will benefit all employees. 

To help mitigate burnout and exhaustion in managers, consider the use of software like AIM Insights to create transparent and instant tools to aid in the achievement of organization-wide goals. AIM Insights works to provide long-term solutions to organization-wide problems, once beginning your use of AIM Insights, managers are trained and on-boarded with continual resources and tools on employing this interactive feedback tool. It is impossible to grow without feedback and, challenging to show growth from feedback with infrequent reviews or evaluations. Focus on effective feedback that helps professionals at every level grow into stronger leaders, teammates, and employees. 

The overall happiness ranking for people making $40,000 a year was 3.5 out of 5, for those making over $300,000, the happiness ranking was 3.89 out of 5 (Forbes). 

Many companies face high turnover rates that are both counterproductive and costly. High turnover rates are commonly attributed to compensation compared to other roles but, more goes into job satisfaction than salary and benefits. Happiness is determined by more than a paycheck, after a certain sense of financial security, happiness can no longer be derived from income. Employees will search for engaging jobs with future opportunities and a sense of belonging in the workplace in their new roles if they feel unfulfilled. To reduce turnover, leaders should hone in on employee engagement and organizational support to increase both job satisfaction and job performance.

Job satisfaction is how fulfilled someone feels within the scope of their professional and personal roles. The challenge of this metric is that each person may be seeking different goals toward feeling gratified at work. Some may seek high compensation or benefits, work-life balance, recognition, future opportunities, workplace culture, or job-specific content. With increased job satisfaction, job involvement, and motivation are improved, leading to better job performance, once the performance is high, most feel a better sense of achievement and happiness. 

Job satisfaction and job performance are codependent and directly related.  When an employee feels that they are doing well or have high performance, they feel more satisfied and fulfilled by their role. On the other hand, if an employee has poor performance, they will feel burdened and disconnected from their job and company which can lead to counterproductive work behavior. To better increase direct reports’ feeling of contentment, focus on employee engagement and organizational support. 

 It is a good leader's responsibility to be involved and engaged not only in their work but with their team members. To help employees find workplace purpose, begin by focusing on employee engagement. Although seemingly simple, there are a plethora of factors that contribute to employee engagement. Being able to pinpoint direct reports’ points of engagement will allow for increased job satisfaction and motivation. Engaged employees should show enthusiasm, initiative, collaboration, adaptability, innovation, and continuous learning. 

Executive leaders should focus on the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in employee engagement. Many employees who feel underrepresented or unvalued are apt to leave a company. Be conscious and genuine in the inclusion of employees and throughout the hiring process to embrace all backgrounds where employees feel respected. Overall focus on employee engagement will allow leaders to spot those engaged and focus on including those who aren’t to avoid turnover. Being able to improve employee engagement will unlock a new ability to increase job satisfaction and therefore job performance, thus reducing turnover.

Finally, prioritize company culture to reflect the values of employees. Work towards building an environment where professionals can embrace their mistakes, learn as they go and collaborate with others in their team. Between an encouraged growth mindset and a supportive environment, turnover will decrease and employees' happiness and comfort in the workplace will increase and lead to increased productivity. 

Organizational support is what an organization does to demonstrate its support for employees’ well-being, development, and success holistically. Executives should find innovative ways to help communicate this to employees, through actions and initiatives. For example, a company may consider a mentorship initiative where employees and executives or leaders can connect and discuss topics outside of job performance, such as career progression or work-life balance to exhibit the genuine care an organization has for its people. 

Other forms of organizational support for a company to consider would be creating focus or interest groups for certain topics, such as a working parents group, a veterans support group, or even trivial topics like fantasy football or a book club. These initiatives serve several important purposes in communicating organizational support and working to reduce turnover.  First, they bring members of a company together to build a community and increase employee engagement. Additionally, groups based on a commonality allow people to develop friendships and relationships that will improve loyalty to the organization. Finally, these initiatives allow a company to show their employees that they are more than just an employee and that they are valued for more than just the work they produce. 

Additionally, firms may consider health and wellness programs and rewards or recognition programs. These programs would allow employees to feel seen and valued beyond their contributions in work tasks and potentially exhibit those who are leaders within the organization, and those who exhibit outstanding citizenship behavior, going outside of their job role and taking initiative to improve a process or colleague’s job. Organizational support does not need to come from a direct supervisor or boss, but from the organization as a whole, in different channels.

As in all business processes, feedback is crucial for growth. Executives and leaders should utilize quantitative feedback through retention and employee turnover rates. Consider the use of retention data or employee surveys to understand how team leaders may find more impactful methods to focus on employee engagement and organizational support for increased job satisfaction and contentment for employees. Additionally, consider the use of two-way feedback so leaders and direct reports can have open communication about opportunities for growth and strengths that enable a more personal and genuine connection with a company and its leaders. 

As mentioned above, a mentorship program will strongly increase an employee's perception of organizational support; however, each employee's goals and expectations for fulfillment in their job differ. Have patience throughout this process of bettering the workplace environment both for the sake of the employees and the company. These initiatives will allow leaders to gain insight into their employees to find better methods of increasing comprehensive engagement specific to the members of their teams. 

It is challenging to demonstrate your company's culture in an interview yet, the hiring process is fundamental to organizational success, growth and innovation. The makeup of your team determines productivity, efficiency and the culture practiced in the workplace. 

In interviews, candidates are considering if this is the company for them, if their values align with your firm, and if they will be able to thrive on your team. As the interviewer, you should evaluate the same things. Recruiting “matches” for your company is a crucial part of the sculpting of your company culture. 

You may also struggle with how to be genuine and inclusive of all different backgrounds and experiences. Working towards embracing differences allows companies to enhance problem solving and creativity, encouraging employees to work together in growing through different sets of strengths and weaknesses. In addition to bettering the current workforce, practicing inclusivity will help attract candidates to strengthen the team. 

Using the hiring process as a mutually beneficial proceeding allows both you, as the recruiter, and the candidate to have insight on the potential and future possible. This allows both parties to better understand how aligned their future paths and values are. Being analytical and intentful throughout the process can help you better identify strong candidates who will fit in as a teammate and colleague, both professionally and socially.  

Here are 4 steps on being able to demonstrate your company culture throughout the recruiting process:

 To best demonstrate your company's culture throughout the recruiting process, start by focusing on getting employees on board with your decided culture and values. If every employee is able to effectively demonstrate your cultures, it will be reflective in recruiting. If employees fail to follow set culture practices and examples, it will be challenging to express the culture your firm either has or is working towards. 

To help find employees that will hop on board with your company culture, carefully select behavioral interview questions that will reveal if this person's ideal workplace culture and values are aligned with your companies. To best get employees to follow new goals, select values that a lot of employees already believe in or prioritize at work. 

In exhibiting company culture, many recruits will find honesty, transparency and authenticity in the recruiter to be important. In hiring, you should be open and willing to talk about future opportunities, learning and development that may be available to participate in. Take this as an opportunity to demonstrate the firm's dedication to its employees and that they are valued members of the team. 

This also brings the counter, being honest about your challenges. Whether it be within culture, technology or any other aspect of your operation, share what you see needing work to help pinpoint your strengths while acknowledging you may still have some weaknesses and opportunities for growth. To help clarify this step, consider using cultural terms and values in the job description. This will help filter to those who are aligned with your values. 

Consider bringing candidates to lunch or to a more casual event other than an interview. This will help you showcase the authentic culture of your company. Instead of explaining your culture and values, show it. Allowing you to get a better look at some of your recruiting candidates, see how they act and if they will fit in socially and professionally with your current workforce. Teamwork is key in all offices and having a difficult team member can heavily detriment projects or discourage teammates.  

For improvement in recruiting, seek feedback from all parties involved. Just as your firm may provide potential hires with feedback, you should ask the same. Ask what could have run smoother or been done differently and if they have enjoyed their interactions with all of the firm's personnel. Internally, seek feedback from interviewers, new-hires and executives that are involved in the process. Find new ways to improve and exhibit the culture you have cultivated. Additionally, requesting feedback builds a culture of transparency and openness from an executive level. Being available to hear new ideas or revisions to the process can sincerely aid you in further growth.

Moving forward in the hiring process, be intentional and cognizant of your actions. It is crucial to consider your potential recruits’ perspective and outlook on the process and how an executive outlook may differ in intentions and perspective. 

Consider references and establish a pipeline of candidates, whether that be at the university level or on hiring from within. Being able to have a reliable network of potential candidates will allow you to be more selective with their hiring and lead to better fits. 

Another aspect that executives can sometimes struggle with is finding a genuine way to approach diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring. Be conscious of diversity in all aspects, diversity of thought, background in addition to physical forms of diversity. Focus on genuine hiring practices, and prioritize finding value in diverse experiences that allow your company to grow and for new backgrounds to influence for a better future with your team. Be authentic and genuine, be inclusive and be considerate of others' experiences. 

The key to having a strong recruiting process and good experience is investing in your people, creating an authentic culture and being transparent in your conversations. Be intentional with the impact you leave with each candidate and focus on your company brand to produce an appealing and accurate image to those in the job market. 

As professionals, everyone has different hopes for the workplace culture they want to experience. As leaders, many may find it difficult to actualize culture changes that every employee will embody. 

The main struggle of enacting new change is that humans are creatures of habit. Routine work habits and communication patterns become repetitive and can get anyone stuck in a rut of redundancy. After years or decades of the same unwavering schedule and workplace practices, it is hard to motivate divergent values throughout your company. As leaders, it is hard to get everybody on board with enacting a cultural shift, even when it is for the better. 

Changing company culture can be a daunting task. It can take time to unwind cultural norms that have developed over years and people can be very resistant to change in all facets of their lives. Initiating culture changes takes consistent time, effort and resources, and patience in the results. 

From a bird’s eye view, it is easy to imagine the differences culture can cause in the overall makeup of a business, including increases in efficiency, improvements in workplace comradery and overall happiness at work. However, employees can sometimes be affected by tunnel vision and find it challenging to see the bigger picture and importance of workplace culture. Here are four steps on how to get your employees to join in on a new wave of culture changes:

From an executive position, it can be difficult to know what those several levels below you can most benefit from. In forming your new company values, the most crucial step for getting every employee on board is making sure the new values are important to employees and inspire them to create change throughout the company. Find what values upper management wishes to prioritize and collaborate with other professionals at the company to find a set of values that will enhance everyone at the company. The best way to have employee buy-in is to prioritize values many already find important. Additionally, resistance to change can be minimized by transparency in new values. Many people have anxiety and growing pains when change is in effect due to uncertainty, but if the unknowns are minimized, the change resistance may be too. 

To implement your company's culture and get everyone on board, start at ground zero. Implement portions and examples of your culture into training and development throughout your company or better yet, create training programs tailored to specific goals and values. To ensure this is impactful, consider using different training platforms and methods, and include real life applications and examples on how you expect this culture shift to affect your company as a whole. For example, if you want your company culture to reflect a value in innovation, explain to your employees how you are working on embracing mistakes and finding creative solutions  in the workplace. 

As a second portion of training and development, consider implementing a leadership program to teach leaders how these cultural changes should be exhibited in each of their teams. Teaching leaders to lead by example can be tricky when it is in unprecedented areas for individuals. As part of a leadership training, it is important to emphasize a united front to the rest of your company to ensure buy-in from all employees firm wide. 

One of the most impactful methods of leadership is leading by example. If you want your company's culture to prioritize its people, show that in your everyday actions. After beginning training and development to adjust your company’s culture, be sure to exhibit these values in your everyday life. By demonstrating your ideal culture, you gain credibility and support from others, and inspire others towards new goals. Those in lower level positions look up to those within leadership and will follow your lead of implementing different priorities in your company's culture. Finally, practicing what you teach is crucial for holding yourself accountable and working towards self- growth. If you want to lead a company that prioritizes compassion but you yourself have trouble exhibiting this, your employees may have a hard time endowing such a shift. Self-growth allows us all to become more aware of ways we can better ourselves, and will exhibit to your employees that you are all working on growing and learning at the same time and that it is a team-effort that will result in improved culture for the entire company. 

Sometimes from a leadership position, it is challenging to see the effect of changes from a top-down view. It is impossible to grow without feedback so, once you have implemented your cultural shifts, be sure to collect feedback at specified intervals from all levels to better understand the execution of changes throughout your employees.  In receiving feedback, it is also important to celebrate success and keep an optimistic view moving forward. Consider using different systems to celebrate success, maybe publicly recognizing those who exemplify your new cultural changes and values. Finding time for both of these items can sometimes take the back burner nevertheless, it is important to collect feedback and celebrate success for continuous execution of your revised culture. 

Remember that these changes won’t happen overnight. It is important to be patient and understanding as everyone begins to enact new habits and values throughout their professional life, it can be a long process to unwind decades of repetitive habits and values. A good leader is able to understand and empathize, be patient in understanding that it is hard to change something as broad as culture and that in practice, your company’s culture will develop and with passion, people will follow. 

At some point in your career, you will have to deal with a problematic colleague. Someone who is negatively impacting your day, having a bad attitude, or a detriment to your company's culture. 

Being able to maintain a valuable workplace culture is challenging when having to deal with a disagreeable teammate. Nevertheless, it will happen to just about everyone sometime in their professional career. Being able to shift away from this disruptiveness, promote a positive attitude and encourage your company culture identifies outstanding leaders. 

A pessimistic co-worker can be the cause of several problems affecting a wide variety of professionals. A defeatist attitude can impact productivity, teamwork, communication, and morale within a company in addition to personally affecting team members' mental health and work-life balance. If you notice a colleague with a consistently unfavorable attitude, it is important to address it to minimize the disruption and reduce the impact of their demeanor. Focus on open communication and balance to help foster a healthy and comfortable work environment for everyone. 

Dealing with a supervisor or subordinate with an unpleasant attitude is strenuous, but dealing with a negative peer presents a whole new challenge. Superiority and titles no longer impact the relationship, one of you does not directly report to the other one, but collaboration is crucial. Understanding a discouraging or disruptive coworker is exhausting but here are some tips that may help you better conduct a beneficial relationship with a fellow employee that has a poor attitude:

Although it may be challenging, it is crucial to keep an optimistic attitude when dealing with a difficult coworker. Even if this colleague is not your superior or subordinate, they may still learn from the work environment you are fostering compared to theirs. Being able to successfully lead people and create a warm and welcoming culture demonstrates your leadership and attitude. Being able to lead by example and exhibit a positive attitude changes the dynamic, especially when you need someone's cooperation to finish a project or meet a deadline, ensuring you are maintaining a positive attitude is important. 

2. Practice empathy

We all can get caught up in emotion. Being empathetic and working to understand where a peer's attitude stems from. Nothing can create an adverse environment like an uncooperative and adverse leader. When working in a professional environment, consider perspective vs. intent, and take a closer look at what the situation may be. You may understand a workmate to be abrupt or hasty but, maybe they have another meeting to attend. Examining a situation from the other's point of view and being able to further break down your perception of someone's attitude and actions compared to the intent behind it will help you understand how to best move forward in dealing with a teammate you perceive as hostile. 

3. Offer constructive feedback 

While it may be awkward, getting feedback is what allows us to professionally grow. Professionals may have an unpleasant attitude but do not realize how they present it, how they communicate, and how they disrupt the culture and attitude of others in their company. Work on cultivating a culture that embraces mistakes and allows employees to grow through feedback. Being able to effectively communicate constructive feedback is a great skill for all leaders. In preparing to give constructive feedback, be sure to consider timeliness and be specific in your feedback so they know exactly what they are doing that portrays them as uncooperative. It is also important to find a balance between criticism and appreciation for the work they do and ask if they have any feedback for you. Requesting feedback for yourself is crucial because not only does it allow you to grow, it creates a conversation between the two rather than a scolding of the person with a poor attitude. If this seems too overwhelming, consider talking to human resources and seeing if feedback can be worked into a performance review. 

4. Focus on self-care 

When working with a resistive colleague, be sure to take time to focus on keeping up your positive outlook to foster a productive work environment and, celebrate the small success within that relationship. Working with a troublesome coworker slowly damages your resilience and patience. It is crucial to take the time and recuperate and rebuild so you can put your best foot forward in maintaining a positive attitude and encouraging the company culture you would like to see. Some steps you could take to focus on your self-care could be setting work boundaries to make sure this doesn’t affect your personal life or setting transition times before or after your meetings with this team member to debrief and decompress. Build time into your day to do whatever will help you realign after working with this challenging teammate. 

5. Seek mentorship  

Dealing with a negative attitude can be emotionally draining. Finding a mentor who has had similar experiences that will be able to provide specific advice and guidance can help you maintain your productive attitude and continue to foster the workplace environment you want to have. To avoid gossip, seek connection with professionals outside of your company in a horizontal mentorship program to learn how others in the same position are dealing with problems similar to your own. 

When working with a frustrating peer, it is important to maintain professionalism, gossip is inappropriate in a professional environment. However, being able to vent about these problems is a great way to release some frustration. Consider reaching out to your company's human resources department, you can request an off-the-record meeting, and explain you do not want to have this person notified but just need someone to talk to about the situation. 

Remember that moving on from a difficult co-worker takes time and effort, do not expect to see changes overnight, stay focused and committed to maintaining your optimistic attitude and fostering a productive and healthy work environment for those around you, and do not let others' negativity hinder your happiness.