Supporting Middle Managers Who Are Under Growing Pressure

Managers are carrying more weight than ever. To ensure organizational health, it’s time to rethink how best to support them. Because these are the people who shape how workers spend their days and how they experience our organizations. Productivity and retention are on the line. 

Gallup reports an alarming 9% drop in manager engagement in just two years – from 31% to 22%. Their role is getting harder. They’re leading larger teams, managing constant change, supporting employee wellbeing, guiding AI adoption and driving results in work environments that are increasingly uncertain. Plus, there’s organizational bureaucracy, something managers themselves say is their biggest frustration.

3 Ways to Support Middle Managers 

Management is a people job. That’s why it’s critical to find ways to cut unnecessary burdens, build capability and prioritize managers’ interactions with their teams.

1. Prioritize people leadership by reducing bureaucracy 

Identify and address the policies, administrative burdens and decision-making barriers that consume managers’ time. Bureaucracy is not inherently bad because systems and approval processes add consistency, compliance and fairness. 

But it’s important to notice where that bureaucracy has become more than a guardrail and is now slowing down work and eroding trust between leaders and teams. Examples include multi-layer purchase approvals, delayed hiring because of multiple sign offs or status meetings reporting that slows decisions. 

Bottlenecks in upper management or leadership are often a good indication of a problem. Are there routine decisions that should be delegated to management? Is upper management making over-arching priorities and direction clear? Are there reports that should be automated? 

By streamlining and rebalancing responsibilities and authority, managers move more quickly through tasks, freeing up time for them to spend on the most critical parts of their jobs: coaching, developing talent and leading critical initiatives.

2. Build management capability early and continuously

Management is a people job. But that’s not usually why we promote someone into a supervisory role. It’s because of their technical expertise, their ability to hit deadlines and solve problems. 

Organizations should treat management as a profession for people who want to excel in managing people. There should also be individual contributor career paths providing growth avenues to those who don’t want to manage.

It’s estimated that only 10% of workers possess “natural” leadership capability . Without training, the other 90% will struggle with coaching, listening, creating accountability or addressing unhealthy conflict – critical aspects of management. Their shortcomings create stress and negatively affect the workers they lead.

Once identified, begin preparing potential managers for a smooth transition by developing skills such as self-awareness, professionalism and communication. Current managers and leaders can create this environment by adjusting workloads and giving emerging leaders opportunities to use new skills and lead small projects. When these employees are promoted, organizations should offer targeted and continuous development to  improve management competency.  

3. Encourage managers to refocus on people

Management today is less about enforcing processes and more about keeping people moving through disruption and change. To do that well, managers must spend the bulk of their time on people development and coaching rather than administrative tasks.

Leaders can set the task-cutting tone by simplifying their own interactions with managers. Cut meetings and emails with unclear objectives. Clarify priorities and decision-making rights on projects. For example, “I trust Katie and her team to identify and vet two vendors who can meet the five criteria we identified together. We’ll invite those two in for presentations to the exec team. Following that, I’ll hear your feedback and decide.” 

Ask managers how to automate administrative or routine tasks. What can they delegate to an emerging leader? How can they streamline meetings or project communication? Make it clear that you value the time they spend coaching direct reports, providing feedback, celebrating achievements and creating an environment where people feel empowered and grow. Asking the question, “who on your team has taken on a bigger challenge?” helps show this matters.

Organizations cannot afford unengaged managers. We rely on them to keep our workforces motivated and producing at top level. By helping them build stronger management skills, cutting tasks that eat up time and showing them that their work with people is what matters most, we lighten their burden and better support their work. 

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About SkillPath

SkillPath is a 501(c)(3) learning and development organization and Graceland University affiliate, delivering strategic and innovative business training solutions to professionals worldwide since 1989.   

To learn more about SkillPath training, visit our website at www.skillpath.com or contact Chris Moon at cmoon@skillpath.com 

This article was first published in the SHRM Kansas City October newseltter.