When the Middle Thrives, We All Move Forward
On middle managers, the weight they carry and what happens when organizations finally see them.
Some of the best leaders I have ever seen in action were not at the top of the org chart.
They were in the middle. Translating executive strategy into something their teams could actually work with. Fielding questions they did not always have answers to. Holding the morale of a group together through uncertainty while simultaneously being asked to deliver results, hit deadlines and absorb the anxiety of a change initiative that was decided well above them.
They did it without a lot of recognition. Often without a lot of support. And in my experience, they are the single most important factor in whether organizational change actually lands or quietly falls apart.
This post is for them and for the organizations that have not yet figured out how much they are leaving on the table by not investing in them.
Investment is not the problem. What the investment is missing is.
Let me be precise here, because the data matters. Organizations are not ignoring this layer. Many run formal leadership development programs when managers are hired or promoted. The intention is real. But intention and impact are not the same thing.
Harvard Business Publishing’s State of Leadership Development report found that despite good intentions, many organizations' learning and development initiatives are falling short. Leaders report these programs do not lead to better outcomes for the business and fail to help managers build the skills necessary to excel in their roles. Eighty percent of respondents said learning techniques need to be more innovative and just 52% said programs are relevant to current business challenges (Harvard Business Publishing, 2018).
The stakes of closing that gap are significant. McKinsey research found that organizations with high-performing middle managers achieve 21 times greater total shareholder return than those with weak managers (Field et al., 2023). That is not a soft outcome. That is a business result with a number attached to it.
Middle managers are not just conduits for information moving up and down the organization. They are the people who shape how their teams experience every single day. Gallup’s State of the American Manager report found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units (Gallup, 2015). They set the tone for whether feedback is welcome or feared. They determine whether a new system feels like an imposition or an improvement. They are the ones whose teams look to first when something changes, and whose reaction in that moment carries more weight than any communication the project team sends.
That is an enormous amount of influence. The programs that exist often address skills and competencies in isolation. What they rarely address are the structural conditions the manager walks back into after the training ends: the pressure from above, the absence of ongoing support, the culture that either reinforces or quietly undoes everything they just learned. A course can teach a framework. It cannot change the environment that surrounds the person using it.
This is not about blame. It is about a gap that can be closed.
I want to be careful here, because this is not a conversation about failure. The managers I am describing are not failing. They are doing their best with what they were given, which in many cases is not enough.
Burnout in the middle layer is real. So is disengagement. So is the quiet exhaustion of being asked to absorb pressure from above and protect your team from it below, indefinitely, without anyone asking how you are doing. When a manager reaches that point, it does not show up as a dramatic moment. It shows up as a gradual withdrawal. Fewer questions asked in meetings. Less energy in one-on-ones. A team that starts to sense something is off but cannot name it.
The root of it, in most cases, is not a character flaw or a lack of commitment. It is the combination of being underprepared for the people side of leadership and undersupported by the organization around them. Both of those things are solvable. Neither of them gets solved by simply asking more of the person already at capacity.
What changes when someone finally invests in this layer
I have seen what happens when an organization decides to genuinely invest in its middle management layer, not with a one-time training module but with real, sustained attention to their development as leaders of people. The difference is not subtle.
Teams become more cohesive. Communication becomes more honest. Change initiatives move faster because the people closest to the work are genuinely engaged rather than quietly compliant. And the managers themselves show up differently. There is a visible shift that happens when someone feels seen in their role rather than simply measured by it.
That shift does not require a large program or a significant budget line. It requires intentionality. It requires executive leaders who are willing to ask what their managers need rather than only asking what their managers are delivering. And it requires someone in the organization who understands that the people side of leadership is not a soft add-on to the strategy. It is the strategy.
A note to the executive leaders reading this
If you have managers on your team who are holding a great deal together right now, I want to ask you something direct: when did you last ask them what they need to lead well, not just what they need to hit the next milestone?
The organizations that grow sustainably are not the ones with the most sophisticated systems or the most ambitious roadmaps. They are the ones whose leaders at every level feel equipped, supported and genuinely invested in. That starts at the top. But it has to reach the middle.
The leaders in the middle of your organization are already doing more than most people realize. Imagine what becomes possible when they feel genuinely equipped and supported to do it.
References
Field, E., Hancock, B., Smallets, S., &Weddle, B. (2023). Investing in middle managers pays off literally. McKinsey & Company.
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/investing-in-middle-managers-pays-off-literally
Gallup. (2015). State of the American manager: Analytics and advice for leaders.
https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/182792/managers-account-variance- employee-engagement.aspx
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. (2018). The 2018 state of leadership development: Meeting the transformation imperative.
https://www.harvardbusiness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/20853_CL_StateOfLeadership_Report_2018_Nov2018.pdf
Heather | Bloom Consulting & Coaching
Business Transformation, Optimization & Change Advisory
