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The Missing Middle: Supporting Middle Managers in the New World of Work

June 10, 2025 · Work/Shift Insights Issue #9

Frederic Libet Descorne

Global Growth Strategist | Workplace Strategy & Change Enablement Expert | Empowering Cross-Cultural Teams | Leader in Complex Project Delivery | Market Expansion Architect

Middle managers are often called the glue that holds organisations together. But we’ve stretched that glue to breaking point.

We expect them to deliver strategy, manage burnout, support team culture, hit performance goals, and keep everything aligned. Often without the tools, training or authority to do any of it properly. And still, they’re the ones we lean on when change gets messy.

I came across a recent Gallup study that found managers account for 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement. At the same time, they’re the most likely group to feel burnt out and disengaged themselves. That should stop us in our tracks.

We are not just talking about an overloaded role. We are talking about the very people who hold the centre of our organisations being pushed to the margins.

What it Actually Feels Like to Be in the Middle

Middle managers live in the tension between big-picture strategy and messy reality. They interpret ambition, clean up ambiguity, coach through conflict, and carry the weight of emotional labour on behalf of others.

Unlike executives, they rarely have support around them. Unlike frontline teams, they rarely have structure beneath them. They’re expected to connect everyone else, but they’re often the most disconnected themselves.

So instead of writing them off as overstretched or underperforming, maybe we need to look at what’s missing from the system around them.

Three Ways to Strengthen the Middle

If we want teams that work and leaders who last, we need to stop treating middle managers as a catch-all safety net. They need real support, not just good luck. That starts with three things: the right tools, spaces that reflect their role, and systems that don’t punish the very behaviours we say we value.

1. Tools that Build Confidence and Clarity

Let’s drop the vague leadership theory. Middle managers need practical help.

That could mean check-in templates to track team wellbeing, conversation guides for coaching, prioritisation checklists that help them focus when everything feels urgent, or shared planning templates to align across teams without thirty emails and five meetings.

The point is not more stuff. It is clarity. Tools that help managers make better decisions, reduce noise, and stay connected to people without getting lost in the weeds.

2. Spaces that Reflect Their Unique Role

Workplace design has gotten very good at looking cool and very bad at supporting the people doing the actual work.

Middle managers need visibility, but also discretion. One Australian financial services firm redesigned its floorplate to give team leads shared coaching rooms and informal stand-up zones. It meant managers could dip in and out of daily team flow, have private chats without booking a boardroom, and stay connected both up and down the line.

They also need horizontal connection. Imagine weekly drop-in sessions where product, sales and ops leads meet in a shared space to flag roadblocks and align timelines. No slide decks. Just shared focus. It is informal, flexible and effective.

Not every company can rebuild their office. But creating a regular space where middle managers can connect with each other, not just report upwards, sends a powerful message: you are not alone in this.

3. Systems That Actually Back Them Up

Too many managers are stuck navigating KPIs that pull them in opposite directions.

You cannot reward someone for billable hours and then expect them to also mentor junior staff, run onboarding, and lead the culture club (yes, you should have one!). When performance measures reward individual output over team development, you are forcing managers to choose between doing what is valued and doing what is measured.

What would better measurement look like? It could include team health scores from engagement tools, internal promotions or retention within their teams, and feedback from both direct reports and cross-functional peers. You might also consider evidence of coaching, collaboration or innovation initiatives. No single measure tells the full story, but together, they show what middle managers actually do and what makes them effective.

This Is Where It Breaks or Holds

Middle managers are not the problem. They are the human connectors who translate vision into traction. The ones who make work actually work.

But no one, no matter how committed, can hold the centre alone forever.

If we want healthy teams, aligned leadership and change that actually sticks, we need to stop treating the middle as the missing piece and start designing around it with intent.

So here is the challenge. If you are shaping policy, space, structure or strategy, what will you do to support the people in the middle?

Because if we do not, we know what happens next. The glue cracks. The centre frays. And everything we built on top starts to fall.