Middle management roles have evolved, now’s the time to embrace them

What is the purpose of a middle manager? Are they in the role purely because it’s a stepping stone to senior management and beyond, or is it a position where they can truly engage with and support their people to achieve quality outcomes?

Like many looking from the outside in, the former might be a common response. So too is the belief that middle managers are just “good” managers who aren’t quite good enough to progress further. That’s the kind of thinking that Bill Schaninger, Senior Partner Emeritus, McKinsey & Company, wants to overcome. 

Mr Schaninger, who also released the book Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work this year, told Forbes that there is a baseline of perception of middle management where they are portrayed as a product of the corporate machine. Their role is to lead meetings and complete paperwork, and although they may be viewed as having a good heart, colleagues may view them as incompetent. 

“The idea that the middle had gotten so bloated… fat everywhere and it was laid at the feet of the people in the middle. For a long time that was in an era where you needed individuals to carry the message, but as we went through the 90s and the interaction cost of communication nosedived then you start saying why do we need these people,” Mr Schaninger explained.  

The last few years have undeniably impacted general perceptions of middle management. As most jobs and non-essential roles were forced out of the office due to the COVID-19 pandemic it accelerated a transformation in how workplaces operate. Suddenly, managers who had previously relied on routine and set structures found themselves working remotely or being forced to adapt.

“The person who’s supposed to be the conduit to figuring out how the strategy is delivered is the manager and their directs and their teams. Suddenly that person got the shining light on them and senior managers were asking ‘Do you actually know what your team’s doing’, ‘Do you know what the customer wants?’,” Mr Schaninger added.

Managers, on the whole, adapted very well to change and many excelled as the pandemic brought up hurdle after hurdle. Those who didn’t adapt may not have themselves to blame, though, with the idea of promotion often putting unnecessary pressure on an organisation’s most skilled employees. 

Promotion may dilute employee strengths 

Mr Schaninger made an interesting comment as he said there is the risk of taking a top individual contributing and doing nothing for them in making them a manager. Just as there is the risk of promoting a manager to a point where their skills will no longer develop, so too can someone be promoted to where their skills are wasted. 

Management roles where meetings, administration and organisation overtake people-centred management, collaboration and hands-on work are prime examples.

“Giving you a [role] span that’s so big it doesn’t allow you to still use your skillset would be a mistake. One of the examples [in the book] was people saying their purpose was still achieved by doing the work they wanted to do and they wanted to help people,” Mr Schaninger explained. 

“For other people, all the joy of their work went away because they were doing budgets. I think the challenge for middle managers is we homogenised many of them because it was convenient for cost-cutting. We started loading them up with forms, meetings and ever-increasing tasks.”

Management roles are crucial to keeping employees engaged and happy and if your manager loses their passion for the job, so too will their team. To overcome this, take a look at what your middle managers are doing. Unpick their job roles, analyse their tasks, find out what they want to be spending time on and spend time negotiating expectations. 

More freedom and autonomy could be the perfect starting point, while you might find the best outcome for your employees and managers – no matter their level – is to leave them where they are. Just don’t forget to reward them for their efforts. 

“For some people, their best purpose is to stay right where they are. Upgrade the title or if the team they’re leading has more value pay them more,” Mr Schaninger added. 

“For the human experience at work, we want to feel like we’re connected to what matters, that we’re contributing, that we’re supported and can have a sense of accomplishment. The people who are good at helping people see and experience that are worth their weight in gold.”