Middle management is all about understanding the broader vision of senior leadership and molding that into a playbook your team members can run with. While this involves a delicate balance, there are steps you can take to reach it and grow into a strong performer in this role.

• Clarify expectations from higher-ups. Set up a weekly or biweekly one-on-one meeting with your manager. Use this time to ask your boss about the company’s current priorities and align on the objectives your team is expected to carry out.
• With a firmer grasp on what’s expected from the top, the challenge now shifts to effectively communicating those goals to your team and breaking them down into two areas: team goals that contribute to the organizational goals and individual goals that contribute to the team goals.
• As you create each team goal make sure it’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (aka SMART). When it comes to breaking down team goals further into individual goals, try to align specifics tasks with each person’s role, current responsibilities, and areas of expertise.
• Finally, make sure your team’s work is visible to upper management. As people begin to carry out their work, hold biweekly or monthly “report-out” meetings during which you present their progress to stakeholders in upper management. The goal of these meetings is to show how your team is contributing to the organizational goals.