Mid level managers

[vilasman]

For those of you who have companys big enough to have field supervisors, or crew bosses, what skills/talents/abilities do you look for in a potential mid level manager?

I was at work today and I realized that the elderly master that I worked for was using me to make his contracts presentable ( my wife has a communications degree and works for a ad agency), to figure out his wiring runs and problems and trouble shooting and then to do the work also.

The few times that I have worked for a larger company, I realized that all the crew boss did, was make sure the work got done and figured out the wiring runs. And I do that every day.

So what else does being crew boss involved... aside from getting your rear chewed up and something doesn't go right.

 

[bikeindy]

Well you must be worth more to him than others and he should know that. Present him with it and a $ figure that you feel is reasonable to be compensated. some bosses will do this on there own, the Ec I worked for before he sold his business gave me $5.25 an hour in raises in less than a year as I continued to impress him with my skills I never asked for one of those raises. He sold the business, took that guy three years to file bankrubcy cuz he didn't find value where it was, in his employees. I had left after only three months. I have 3 of his former GC's and 2 other guys I worked with have 4 others. 4 of his 10 guys are now EC's and we are doing great. I am still good friends with that old guy who sold his business and he figures bids for me from time to time to help me out. Just tell the Guy you think you deserve more money for what you are doing, if he balks at it I am sure there are others who will see your value.

 

[willybud]

I am a student of the Howard Huges theory of hiring quality people paying them well and giving them praise for a job well done and a " we'll do better on the next one" when a job goes bad.
Howard made millions with this method as he hired key people to run his businesses for him as he stepped back and created more companies until it drove him completely out of his mind.

 

[petersonra]

I do not believe people are generally fungible. There are some cases where you can plop in just about any warm body, but they are not all that common.

A company that appreciates and rewards those at all levels who do well will usually, in turn, be rewarded for doing so.

Many times when a business is sold, the new owner just does not understand what business he is really in, or what made the business successful in the first place. So it is not too surprising the business fails. This is also pretty common when the founder retires and turns it over to his kid(s).