Your transformation’s success hinges on middle management. Freaking out yet?

In this edition we’re showing how middle management are getting a raw deal, why they need some love, and how to make them game changers.

It’s rough out there

Most days, being a middle manager is a game of dodgeball, only your the ball. You’re stuck in the middle between execs strategic brain farts and team members rebelling on decisions you had bugger all to do with.

Your roles under threat because flat layers is a thing. Your budget is in hostage negotiations with the higher-ups. And you’re constantly playing Switzerland or being told “you’re too close to your people”, or “you’re just management’s lapdog.”

“Middle managers are the most abused group in any organisation.” Simon Sinek,

Kind of not surprising then that:

• 71% of middle managers are drowning in stress.(Capterra 2023)
• They’re the burnout champs, with 43% waving the severe fatigue flag. (FutureForum 2022)
• 53% feel they are spread too thin (Capterra 2023)
• Less than 30% of their time is spent on what matters most—people. (McKinsey 2023)
• 44 percent blame bureaucracy as the main cause of their misery (Mckinsey 2024)
• It gets better. We skipped training 63% at the start and 74% never saw any follow-up. Stellar work. (HRD connect)
• Oh and in 2023 they’re top of the list for layoffs. Bravo (Gallup 2023)

But a funny thing happens when organisational change kicks in. Your change ambitions are now riding on these tied, exhausted, and often ignored folk.

Why middle management exists

Before we dive into why middle managers are crucial for change, let’s backtrack. Who thought this was a good idea?

No one’s quite sure who came up with middle management but a few fellas made a dent:

Frederick Winslow Taylor in the early 1900s figured hierarchies was the way to go to maximise worker productivity.

Not to be outdone by Freddie, Henry Fayol a French mining engineer added a structured “command and control’ approach with all the trimmings of planning, coordinating, and organising.

They were trying to tackle three challenges associated with organisations growing in size:

1. Coordination: How to make sure strategic decisions were executed on the shop floor.
2. Efficiency: How to squeeze out very last drop of operational productivity juice.
3. Specialisation: How to keep these new fan-dangle departments of finance, marketing, and production in sync with upper managements ambitions.

Fast forward to today, and we’re still hanging onto the idea, with a few tweaks.

Where middle management stands now

It’s evolved a bit since the 1900s:

• Post-World War II Era: We clued on that middle management can help ensure stability and play a key role in hierarchical communication.
• 1980s and 1990s: We got hooked on lean management and downsizing kicked in with middle management taking the brunt of the hit.
• 21st Century: With the rise of flatter organisational structures, and tighter budgets we threw more responsibilities at them. We now expect them to be collaborators, strategists, innovators, communicators, people developers and admin wizards . Yes, we want #%! unicorns.

Now you typically you see management broken in three layers:

1. Top level Management (C-suite) The highest level of executives who set the vision and strategy of the organisation. Weave in a bit of comms, add a touch of wooing external stakeholders and you’re golden. Typically the role comes with a car park and attitude.
2. Middle management (Business Unit Heads, Department Managers) These are the folks caught between the jaws of strategy and making it happen. They juggle deciphering ‘The strategy’ to connect it with reality, allocating their shrinking resources, all whilst desperately trying to level up their direct report’s capabilities. Oh and in their spare time keeping Business as Usual (BAU) ticking over.
3. Lower Management (Supervisors, Team Leaders) The Frontline Leaders who hang out with the workforce, ensuring tasks are executed efficiently and everyone plays nice.
4. Workforce - The Real Doers. These are the folks who actually execute the tasks underpinning the plans. Without them, all the grand visions and strategic plans would just be hot air.

And as companies grow? Layers within layers, like your favourite burger—messy and likely to collapse.

Why you need middle management on board with change

Middle managers are crucial to your change ambitions as they have a couple of superpowers.

Quy Huy, a Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, picked up on this some 20+ years ago after researching a ton of organisations going through major change.

Middle managers bring the magic in five key areas:

1. Intrapreneur: They see the problems frontline and customers grapple with and the opportunties the strategy is seeking to embrace. Funny thing is they also have ideas —yet there biggest challenging is getting the higher ups to listen to them.
2. Networker: They’ve got an incredible informal network which enables them to know who to reach out to, how to get their buy in and most importantly how to get things done. It is not uncommon to see middle management with longer tenures than upper management which has enabled them to build up a black-book of favours (social contracts) and a deep understanding of how the organisation really works.
3. Translator: They don’t just pitch the change; they live it, breathe it, and communicate it with authenticity. They adapt the message for who is in front of them, translating corporate BS into something that resonates at a personal level.
4. Therapist : Change can make people panic faster than you can say “org restructure.” Enter the middle manager—the therapist, the listener, the shoulder to cry on. They’re the ones who make sure the team doesn’t spiral into a vortex of despair. They know their people and they get their concerns. They create a safe environment where they are not just ‘managing’; they’re caring, guiding, and making sure the human element isn’t lost in the shuffle.
5. Pacesetter - They know when to push ahead on the change, vs ease up to give the team space to breath. Their pacesetting protects the BAU work, all whilst getting the change to actually stick. It’s why you so often see middle managers rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty as they know what must be done to support their people and the change.

Ironically just like what happens to middle managers, we didn't listen to Quy too much. Perhaps its because the skills he named are all interpersonal skills. But I encourage you to check his work out, including the HBR article: In praise of Middle Managers

Not convinced? Then how about McKinsey’s 2023 Global Survey that found a a direct correlation between strong middle managers and better bottom-line performance.

How screwed are you?

So you’ve just figured out those middle management are critical to your change ambitions. Now comes the question ‘is that freaking you out or not?’

Chances are you’re a touch anxious as you haven’t exactly set your middle management up to thrive. In fact I’m willing to bet:

1. Capacity - you started with the question do we really need that many middle management?You kicked off a ‘Spans and Layers’ chat to arrive at a magic number. You then fired up an Excel spreadsheet to work the numbers, and then overrode that rationale when you liked a few middle managers more than others.
2. Responsibilities - With less middle managers, but a crapload of work you created a vague, generalist job description that asks middle management to be magicians.
3. Capability - You starved them of training, unless it was compliance related, or you were launching something new. You may have gone a step further and made leadership training available, but you sadly had no capacity to free them up to actually go to the training.
4. Role Models - You told yourself its okay as they will learn on the job from the upper management. Pause. Just look at your colleagues and how they handle change. I mean would you trust half of them with changing out the coffee machine?
5. Inclusion - You involved middle management in briefing sessions on change, amd may have gone as far to involve them in a change exhibition to ask for their “feedback”. None that you would actually take it too seriously if it clashed with your vision of change.
6. Consultants - With things going sideways you clutched for the get out of jail card and hired some blue suits to guide the transformation and funny thing… they started with a spans and layers chat, promising quick savings by getting rid of those middle management

Or am I way off?

How to give your middle managers a fighting chance

Heres how to look out for and after your middle management, priming them to be your best change guides:

1. A Role with Kick-Arse Purpose: Make it less of a drive-thru gig and more a place where talent wants to settle in. Simplify things down so it’s crystal clear: this roles primary purpose is about people—guiding, caring, and unleashing their team’s potential.
2. Kill the Bureaucracy: Free up their time by obliterating the admin BS. Slash the reports no one reads, nuke the pointless meetings, and set fire to Larry’s budget-tracking template that requires a PhD to decipher.
3. Invest in them: Level up their leadership skills to navigate the real-world crap no one warns you about. Think conflict resolution, graceful exits for staff, recovering from commercial mess-ups, saying “no” with finesse, leading hybrid teams, handling dipsh*ts, and most importantly, self-care. I’m just warming up here … and so are your middle managers so show them some love.
4. Inner Sanctum VIP Access: Loop them into what’s really going on. Give them a platform where they can speak up and actually be heard. Share the constraints you’re facing with them and invite them in to solve with you.
5. Freedom to give it a crack: Let them make the calls where they’re closest to the action. Hand over tangible opportunities that stretch their skills, with the reassurance that they’ve got backup if they need it. Less micromanagement, more trust—crank it up.
6. Got my back chats: Don’t assume they have a sixth sense for this stuff. Give them hints they’re on track. And yes, this includes making sure they’re taking care of themselves.

Thats a Wrap

Middle management can make or break your transformation. So get to know them well, and build talent that can one day confidently sit where you are now.

To all the the middle managers pondering why you signed onto this gig. You’re not alone, its tough and there’s no definitive playbook, so it’s okay to ask for help.

I’m on a mission to change business for good. Help me do this with a repost or even a comment. Thank you.

Matt