THE CATTALYST: MIDDLE-MANAGER OPERATING BRIEF

Purpose: connect a management priority with clear decisions, coaching and follow-through. This is a working template, not a fixed management model. Complete it with the people who own the work. Do not add personal or sensitive employee information unless it is needed and handled under your organisation's rules.

ROLE AND SCOPE
Management role or cohort:
Teams or functions involved:
Sponsor:
Brief owner:
Review period:
Decisions explicitly outside this role:

PRIORITY
Business objective in plain language:
What must change in everyday work:
What stays the same:
What will stop or be deferred:
Who must approve that trade-off:
Customer or employee consequence to protect against:

DECISION RIGHTS
Decision to make:
Accountable decision owner:
Information required:
Authority boundary:
Conditions requiring escalation:
Escalation route and backup:
What the team should do while awaiting a decision:
How the reasoning will be recorded:

MANAGER COACHING
Situation the manager brings:
Evidence they have reviewed:
Standard or policy that applies:
Options they have considered:
Their recommendation and reasoning:
Support they need:
Agreed action they retain responsibility for:
What will be observed or reviewed next:

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL DEPENDENCY
Shared outcome:
Functions involved:
Constraint each function faces:
Decision or handoff required:
Accountable owner:
Receiving owner and acceptance criteria:
Unresolved disagreement:
Authority to resolve it:

PERFORMANCE REVIEW
Measure or observable behaviour:
Definition and eligible population:
Source and review period:
What the evidence shows:
What remains an interpretation:
Alternative explanation to test:
Agreed action:
Action owner:
Dependency or support required:
Review point:
Evidence that the action helped:

DEVELOPMENT AND REINFORCEMENT
Skill or judgement to practise:
Realistic practice situation:
Feedback criteria:
Workplace application opportunity:
Participant's manager or sponsor support:
Conflicting process or incentive to resolve:
Who owns that operating change:
Follow-up finding:
Decision to continue, adjust or stop:

PRE-REVIEW CHECK
Can the role holder explain the priority without repeating a slogan?
Are decision boundaries explicit and authorised?
Does each action have an accountable owner?
Is coaching developing the manager rather than collecting their work?
Are cross-functional constraints visible?
Is the next review intended to test an action rather than repeat a report?

Discuss a leadership development requirement:
https://www.thecattalyst.com/training/leadership-development-programs/