Leadership Skill — Two Ways Perspective in Leadership — How to be a middle manager in your company
By: Marcello Judhandoyo
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Startup Lessons, Leadership Skills, Leadership, Startup Life

Leadership Skill — Two Ways Perspective in Leadership — How to be a middle manager in your company Marcello Judhandoyo Sep 7·3 min read

Hi reader, let me introduce myself. My name is Marcello, working as a full-time entrepreneur. Right now, I lead 2 companies named Livera & Chameleon who consist of total employee more than 15 people. It’s still a small company but I believe that the company will be bigger than now and realize my vision. I am very excited to talk about leadership, business, & management. That’s why I create my Medium to discuss more that topic.

I will start with the “Leadership” topic. In this article, I will start with “two ways perspective in leadership skill”. Sometimes as a human, we take sides with something that we hear from another person that closes with us. We judge something because everyone blames it, are you the one who does that too in your life?

In my humble opinion, as a leader, we need to see 2 perspectives of every case that we face. Let’s discuss the simplest thing that we face every day in work-life.

As an employee, we always think about how hard our task is. Maybe we always say that our boss is not as hard as us. The employee thinks that their boss is not doing anything and enjoy the “result” of the employee’s job.

In the meantime, as a c-level or management, we always think about how hard our task is. Always demand the employee to improve the performance and create a bigger impact for the company. The boss thinks that their employee enjoys their life and not doing anything right in the daily work life (maybe not all leader/boss like this).

This is simple but very impactful for a leader and as a middle manager in a company who connects the employee & the c-level. They need to know each other responsible and going to the same vision (that’s why we need the vision & mission the first time we create a company).

Okay, let’s break down the case. The problem of this case is they don’t know each other responsibilities. As a leader, we need to keep between them and not take sides with someone (not to c-level / management & not to employee).

From the employee side, they need to know the management pain. Needs to look for investment for business growth, employee well-being, responsible to improve the self skill & employee skill, think about a career path in the company that they create, cash flow, and a lot of problem in management’s head. The truth is the employee doesn’t need to think about that, the employee needs to work and think about the result for a better result. The employee doesn’t need to think about everything that the management thinks.

From the management side, they need to know the employee pain. Needs to run their life, pay the bill, work-life balance, and other things that the employee needs.

From this perspective, we can see that no one is wrong and no one is right. The only thing is about having two perspectives and empathy for each other. The management needs to think about their employee and create a good work ecosystem with a work-life balance. In the meantime, the employee needs to know the struggle of the management to keep improve and innovate to make the company run. With this balance, the “wheel” of the cart named “Company” will always move and create a better future for everyone inside the company.