Their contribution to the growth and development of any organisation is often overlooked, but managing director of Make Your Mark Consultants, Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, has warned that the work of middle managers should never be discounted.

“If you do the studies and the research, one would find that these are the persons in the organisation that ensure growth, development, profit, and they are responsible largely for the success of an organisation,” she said.

“They are in the middle of senior and junior staff, so they would be required to manage at both levels, and they would be required to know the needs of top management as well as those persons who report to them. So it is about managing the change, managing the performance, managing expectations; it is about motivating, it is about innovation, strategy and executing the vision,” she said.

Given the importance of these individuals to the growth of any sector, Make Your Mark will be hosting its 10th Middle Managers’ Conference between May 7 and 8 at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel. Coke-Lloyd said one of the concerns that have generally been raised by these managers in previous conferences is the fact that they are not given enough autonomy.

“In order for you to carry out the mandate, you have to have the autonomy to do so. If your hands are tied and you are not given the resources or the responsibility, then it would be difficult for you to execute and to actually get your team members to buy in to a vision and carry out the work of the organisation,” he said.

She has found, too, that middle managers are oftentimes not given the recognition they deserve, despite the fact that they are largely responsible for the success of any organisation.

“You can compare them to the army; they call the sergeant major in the army the equivalent. Without the sergeant major in the army, things would fall apart,” she said.

“If you don’t have good middle management, you will have a problem in your organisation. As a matter of fact, in most organisations, if you have a problem, you need to look at your middle,” she added.

One of the focuses of this year’s conference will be to help these individuals to transition from professionals to leaders.

“Quite often, we mix leadership and management, and even if you are a manager, you must lead. Leadership is important,” Coke-Lloyd noted.

The conference will be hosted under the theme ‘Building and Unleashing Breakthrough Leadership’. There will be a panel discussion with chief executive officers from various industries, as well as a ‘Women of Purpose’ session.