Whatever happened to middle management? It's gone -- and with it the natural training ground for the next generation of leaders, says Tony Hart of Best Buy.
 I spoke with Tony recently about the challenges of building teams and fostering leadership as marketing organizations grow leaner, and how he is addressing the situation. He had some very interesting and insightful comments to make about the keys to strong leadership, and how to instill leadership qualities in others.
He also made some valuable points about the dynamics of leadership in matrixed versus non-matrixed organizations.
Tony is the Vice President of Customer Relationship Management and Strategic Planning for Best Buy and he is currently responsible for driving enterprise CRM strategy across all Best Buy business units.
Prior to Best Buy, Tony was Senior Vice President and Chief Strategist with RTC Relationship Marketing and J. Walter Thompson Advertising.
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The business world needs to be doing more to mentor and foster leaders because we've lost a lot of middle management. Middle management was where you trained people to lead, but it went away in a lot of organizations. Consultants stepped in and filled in the gap. We need to do more to take young folks who are joining organizations and teach them not only how to be successful in their job but also how to lead others.
One of the biggest mistakes I see in organizations is that a person will get promoted to management because they're successful in doing the job that they do. However, they have no skill sets or the acumen to lead and motivate others. That sets that person up to fail, most likely, in that next role.
It's also causing a lot of alienation with the people that person becomes responsible for, because he or she doesn't have the skill sets to motivate and drive that group towards success.
Willing participation is one of the first keys to team success. That's the idea of people coming to work, ready to join arms with their counterparts, and realizing that the part that they play is only one piece of the puzzle. Willing participation and readiness to join arms is a very important thing.
As I hire people, I want to try to sense from them that they're not just there to get a job but to be a part of an organization that's going to move things forward.
The second thing about building a team is that you need to surround yourself with people who have complimentary skill sets. I try to identify people who have expertise that I don't have, that can help compliment and augment the way I'm leading to achieve the end result.
So, I really try to make people feel that they have special expertise. Oftentimes, for example, if I'm in a meeting where one of my peers or superiors asks a question, I try to defer to the person who is responsible for a particular expertise. If I can charge everyone to bring out their best on a daily basis, it helps everyone overall.
People sometimes lose sight that a team has to have strong leadership, a captain at the wheel.
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The third thing is to give people enough of the story about what we're trying to accomplish overall. For example, if I'm in an interview, or if I'm trying to persuade people to join my team, I'll say: "Let me tell you some things about what we're trying to do here."
If I can see in their eyes that they're responding to that and that they're getting it -- they're nodding their heads, asking questions about how they would play a part in that -- that's another important thing. So, it's not only a matter of trying to assess a person's skill set, but helping them to see how they would fit into making the whole thing happen.
Strong leadership is also essential to building teams. Over the years, there's been a softening of the business world that sometimes translates into a consensus management that is slow and clunky. It doesn't always deliver the best results. Part of the problem is that people sometimes lose sight that a team has to have strong leadership. It has to have a captain at the wheel. It has to have somebody who has a vision and aspirations for that team.
Over the past two years I've seen a lot of places where people will get into matrix teams and think they understand where they need to be heading and what their goals are. But because no one individual will step up to the plate or bring their voice maybe a little bit stronger to the table, you find groups of people sitting around and not really achieving a lot.
The result is more one of feeling good about each other instead of getting things done. That's a waste of time. It might be feel good for a moment in time, but ultimately you walk away not feeling very good at all, because you're not accomplishing goals, you're not achieving results.
While we can work in all kinds of matrix environments, while we can utilize all types of different decision-making processes, there still needs to be somebody to step up to the plate and say, "Okay gang, here's what we're here to accomplish; here's what we're here to do together and here's how I need you to bring yourself, your resources and your experiences to the table." That's what I try to do. 
Dennis Troyanos is the founder of The Troyanos Group, an executive search and consulting firm specializing in recruiting senior-level relationship-marketing professionals. Dennis has led many highly- acclaimed management workshops for the DMA and National Center for Database Marketing. He has facilitated CEO roundtables and written numerous articles on the subject of interviewing, hiring and retaining top performers. Dennis can be reached at dennis@troyanosgroup.com or 914-997-1907.
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