The demands and pressures on managers in a post-pandemic workplace are higher than ever. Middle managers fuel organizational performance by connecting executive strategy to front-line performance. They often juggle multiple priorities with little support and recognition. If you don’t see value or impact from this level of leadership, it’s time to examine your company’s approach to middle management development.
It’s hard to argue with the research. Top-performing middle managers transform how organizations work and help companies achieve better financial outcomes. According to McKinsey, ‘Organizations with top-performing managers yield multiple times the total shareholder returns (TSR) of those with average or below-average managers over a period of five years.’
And as remote and hybrid work structures become more common, middle managers have become more important than ever to keep people connected, according to Harvard Business Review. ‘As hierarchies within companies become more fluid and virtual, middle managers will increasingly become channels for relationships, influence, and connection.’
If you provide leadership development opportunities to help your middle managers fully embrace their role, they have the potential to operate so effectively that you’ll realize you can’t run your business without them.
In this article on developing middle management to their full potential, we’ll explore:
- Understanding the role of middle managers.
- Why viewing middle managers as expendable is a mistake.
- Why middle managers are vital to your organization.
- How to fill common gaps in middle management development.
Understanding the role of middle managers
In most organizations, middle management includes roles such as department heads, operations managers, directors, general managers, and in some cases VPs. These managers typically have front-line managers reporting to them.
Middle managers’ roles and value depend on a company’s size — and the larger the company, the more critical these managers are. Why? In large organizations, there is often more distance between the executives and the front line. Standing in this gap, fueling a generous amount of productivity in your company, are your middle managers. They’re responsible for teams of people, including other managers, but may not be sure how to lead them to better performance.
Middle managers don’t typically make headlines, though they do a lot of heavy lifting in your organization. Their workload is only increasing, with 70% of HR leaders saying managers are overwhelmed by their responsibilities, according to Gartner.
The complexity of the role has increased in recent years, with middle managers expected to be skilled in the art of interpersonal influence as they are tasked with managing relationships with senior executives, their peers, and their direct reports simultaneously.
Managers are more likely than non-managers to be burned out and disengaged at work. They’re under enormous pressure, with 64% of managers indicating increased job responsibilities in 2023, while 42% also say budgets have been reduced, according to Gallup.
Why viewing middle managers as expendable is a mistake
Often underappreciated, middle managers are easily targeted when companies are struggling or need to cut expenses. After all, if their contributions often go unseen, it’s easy to think they’re the group you can reduce.
Mark Zuckerberg’s recent moves at Meta to demote supervisors and eliminate layers of middle management is a perfect example of this misguided approach. While his decision sounds logical (removing layers of managers managing managers), one has to wonder how these companies expect to function without these key players.
Flattening your organizational structure may sound tempting, but the more middle managers you remove, the more people you’d have reporting directly to your executives. Does your senior leadership team have time to train your front-line leaders? Should they shift focus to step in when daily challenges arise? If you’ve considered this path, know that you risk overburdening your senior leaders and executives.
When you do away with your middle managers, you essentially remove the engine from your company vehicle. You may have lightened the load, but how will you get anywhere?
Why middle managers are vital to your organization
When we begin to view middle managers as essential drivers of business goals, it becomes easier to see why they have the potential to make a significant impact on your success. They’re closer to the front line and have a strong influence on employee performance.
You likely have smart, capable team members who are excellent at their jobs and can deliver high-quality products or services. But this production level won’t be effective if it doesn’t align with the high-level strategies in the company. You need a strong workforce of experienced technicians and managers who can get your best offerings to the market, so your company can compete and grow. Without middle managers, you’ll have difficulty connecting the efforts of your staff to the vision of your senior-level executives. These mid-level managers ensure strategies are executed and that the time and efforts of your front-line staff are invested in actions that drive successful business outcomes.
Understanding this connection is critical to recognizing the value middle managers can offer you, so you can increase their impact instead of stifling it.
How to fill common gaps in middle management development
Your middle managers may have come up through your company to now oversee people they used to work alongside. Perhaps they’ve had some management training along the way, but now they’re also expected to lead teams and supervisors, not just individual performers, to high performance.
When evaluating your middle management, ask yourself if they’ve been offered the opportunity to develop the leadership skills required to be effective in their roles. The answer is probably no, but it’s a problem you can solve that will have a high ROI.
To help these managers learn to lead, your middle management development strategy should include training in these essential leadership areas:
- Building and leading teams
- Developing and mentoring other managers
- Advanced coaching techniques
- Emotional intelligence
- Workflow management
- Interpersonal influence and negotiation
If there has been any concern or doubts in your organization about the impact of your mid-level managers, the best solution is to create opportunities for them to develop into the leaders you need now — and the leaders your business will rely on in the future. Remember, these managers are more than just a layer between your executives and front-line employees. They’re the buffer that protects your executive team’s time and focus. Ideally, they can also coach and mentor frontline leaders, becoming a tremendously valuable bridge that holds your company together.
A proactive strategy for middle management development is a game changer for your organization. If you’d like to learn how to support middle managers in your organization and unlock their potential, book a call with Corina.