As organizations plan for the coming year, they once again face a mixed bag of predictions. While it appears that the US may avoid an official recession and some of the frantic hiring of 2021 and 2022 has faded or stabilized, return-to-office policies, emphasis on productivity, and more cautious scrutiny over new ventures will impact corporate spending, employee experience, and goals.
In this continuing uncertainty, a recent Glassdoor report identified a trend that should concern senior leaders: ongoing misery among middle managers. Glassdoor found that while work-life balance ratings remained steady for employees at the top and the bottom, those from employees in the middle dropped sharply over 2023.
“There is a risk here for companies,” the report suggests. “Middle managers are often skilled operators that navigate the murky decisions between high-level business priorities and brass-tacks technical implementation.” Middle managers feel pressure from the top to enforce unpopular policies while asking more of frontline employees. Companies risk losing these employees to positions that allow them a better experience and more work-life balance.
While middle managers are sometimes derided as corporate “bloat,” research shows they provide a crucial function in most organizations. Leaders concerned about losing these critical employees should act now. Here are five ways to improve the middle management positions.
Boost Training and Development
While leaders may be hesitant to give middle managers more to do or to increase spending on development, many middle managers could benefit from additional development. Middle managers are sometimes promoted because they are excellent individual contributors, but the skills needed to excel as an individual do not automatically make someone a good manager.
With the right management skillsets, middle managers may feel less burned out and more able to handle everyday challenges and new disruptions. This training can also pay off for organizations; a McKinsey study found a strong correlation between good manager behaviors and bottom-line performance.
Examine Organizational Design
The modern complexities presented by technology, remote and hybrid work, cross-functional teams, and other systems common to organizations today require rethinking of organizational design. Hierarchies are less relevant, and managers do less direct supervising and more project management. Organizational structures that worked in the mid-20th century aren’t designed for the realities of modern business.
Senior leaders owe it to their organizations and their managers to revisit their current organizational design with an eye toward redefining the manager role to emphasize teams rather than tasks. They can also improve efficiencies by empowering middle managers to examine existing processes and look for ways to reduce workloads.
Listen and Empower
Middle managers often struggle with burnout partly because they “feel like pawns in a chess game,” according to a study from the University of Kansas. They feel like their ideas aren’t shared or considered, and they sense they are only present to execute requests from above rather than provide their expertise and value.
Middle and frontline managers are the closest people to the team members who get the work done—who make the products, interact with customers, and perform all the administrative tasks that keep the organization humming. These leaders in the middle likely have a lot to say and contribute about employee experience, organizational structure, operations, processes, and dozens of other functional aspects of the business. Senior leaders can listen more and use the information they gather to improve the company overall.
Change Perspective
Many senior leaders look at middle management as a stop on the way to something “bigger.” However, middle managers may not want to move up. Some may need the reliability or flexibility of their current roles because of family obligations, and others may simply love being close to where the work is done. They prefer close connections with their teams over higher, more strategic positions.
Rather than think about managers as being “stuck” in the middle, think of them as the “center of the action.” Instead of boosting them to higher positions or looking at them as less skilled or ambitious, focus on improving and supporting the current experience. Leave the door open to future promotions should those managers change their minds.
Encourage Delegation
When middle managers have been successful individual contributors, they are used to a list of tasks or responsibilities they can manage themselves without delegation. Even if they’ve been part of a team, work is often distributed by consensus rather than by delegation, and team members are likely not accustomed to simply assigning tasks to others.
Delegation is one of the most essential skills managers can learn, and it’s absolutely necessary as a way of managing workload. Whether middle managers stay in their positions or move up, they need to know how to effectively delegate to reduce overwhelm, improve work-life balance, and develop their own direct reports. Senior leaders can help by coaching their managers toward the practice of delegating.
The crisis among middle managers is no small challenge, and there is no single approach or practice that can fix it overnight. However, companies and senior leaders who ignore the issue risk their company’s long-term success. The new year presents a fresh opportunity to start addressing the struggles of middle management and set up a better future for these crucial employees.
The team at Stewart Leadership has the expertise in organizational design and employee experience that can help your organization address the crisis in management—or even avoid it altogether. Contact us to learn more about how we generate business and people results.
SELF CHECK:
- What is one way we can improve how we gather input and feedback from middle managers?
- Do we still rely on a hierarchical organizational structure? Why or why not?
- What is one skill our managers need to improve their work-life balance?
