Leadership - Chess the middle game
Chess the middle game
Opening gambit
Trying to improve in leadership is like trying to master chess. Novices begin to learn opening moves.
These are developed further with initially tried and tested strategies.
Eventually, you have to depart from the tried and tested in the middle game in order to gain a tactical advantage.
At some point you will need to master the end game to complete your education.
The middle game can be tricky as you move up in the organisation.
As an emerging leader it is unlikely that you have any staff to deal with and your main frame of reference is yourself and your boss.
As you gain experience, projects and promotions you will move into another realm. In this phase of your leadership development you will begin to have responsibility for staff and deal with personnel in other departments that are not directly under your control.
For this phase of leadership development you will need to add additional skills to those of the emerging leader.
When you are in this zone of leadership one of two things will happen.
Either you will stay here and never move on or you develop your skills further to escape from this matrix environment on to higher leadership tasks.
This whole process could relate to the chess analogy in the following way:
| Opening gambit | New leader |
| Develop the opening | Developing leader |
| Middle game | Maturing leader |
| End game | Complete leader |
Middle skills
In your own world as an emerging leader your goals and targets and performance measures will be fairly clear.
As you move up the ladder into the matrix world a fog can descend on these values. In your world you are largely master of your own destiny as you advance you have to contend with other leaders, different personnel and departments all contending for limited resources.
It becomes much more of a test of your influencing skills.
You will need to move on from the basic leadership skills of personal goals, knowing your own weaknesses and understanding the local culture.
It is a must for you to acquire influencing techniques, how to deal better with complex situations and negotiate targets and deliver the goods.
You will need to manage people well if you are to succeed.
Whilst other areas like the setting of a vision are considered more for the complete leader you ought to have a short term vision which you can break down into various goals and objective.
Emerging from the worm hole
Entering the ‘middle game’ is a little like entering a worm hole in Star Trek – you will learn a lot, hope to gain from the experience and with a bit of luck come out at the other side unscathed. Many people get stuck in the worm hole. If you don’t carry on developing your leadership skills you will get stuck. There are some areas to consider as you go into the middle game.
Technical guy
One of the biggest problems with moving up in the organisation is the difficulty of leaving behind the desire to solve all the technical and specialist knowledge problems. This is very much akin to the getting rid of the ‘monkey on your back’ issue.
If you keep solving people’s problems for them they will never develop in their own right as leaders.
You must learn to delegate and empower your staff. Naturally, this doesn’t mean that you allow people to make a complete mess of things but this is what good delegation skills are all about.
This is covered in much more detail in ‘The Complete Time management package’.
The mole
This person generally defends his or her own territory but prefers to remain underground out of the way.
He will stick in the middle game as he will be reluctant to develop any of the skills necessary to escape the worm hole.
Management structures tend to be either hierarchical or flat. In the latter case there are often a lot of flat layers.
These can make daily life complex for the leader and drives the mole underground. However, when there is a shake up the mole finds he lacks the necessary skills to adapt.
The star
They can be rather superficial in their approach but crave the limelight. They will tend to take the credit when their staff do well and can’t be seen for dust when things go wrong. They often have good contacts and play the political game well.
Other
Pure hard work is not the answer either. Just by producing results people often believe they have a right to move up to the next rung of the ladder.
If you are just working for yourself, however diligently, you will not be seen as a potential leader.
Your style may be fixated on results and you might get these by the ‘do it my way or else’ approach. This may be looked upon favourable in some areas when things are going well but it creates resentment in your staff and senior managers recognise the results by ‘fear’ and the lack of motivational skills [see The Complete Motivation package] as a long term hindrance to morale.
Where no one has gone before
Actually, this isn’t true but it fits in with the Star Trek analogy and the worm hole.
Getting out of the middle game requires you to think about your trajectory through the worm hole.
Getting people to help you
If you can’t get anyone to help you you will be stuck. You must learn the art of influencing, the techniques of delegation in order to build trust so that people will follow you even if they don’t report to you directly. The middle game requires a lot of networking to maximise your sphere of influence, so brush up on some of those communication skills.
The model leader
If you want to act like a leader begin to think like one. Examine the role models around you and take careful note of their behaviours and attitudes.
Consider gaining a coach and also coaching others. Find a reliable mentor for when times get tough.
Positive thinking
Remember the ‘can do’ mentality. Don’t look for negatives all the time. Bring solutions to the meeting table and look for the way forward.
Examine situations for potential opportunities. Be decisive once you have evaluated options. Learn to manage conflict well. Practice giving positive feedback and improve your appraisal techniques.