Middle managers are often the unsung heroes in times of change. This is especially true as the pandemic has stressed organizations with operational challenges and talent shortages. Middle managers play a critical role in successfully navigating today’s environment. They are the ones who help ensure organizations are successful. However, their contributions and potential for positive impact often go unrecognized.

Let’s start with defining a “middle manager” as a leader who is in the middle of the reporting structure. Middle managers are not the top leader, CEO or owner of the company, but somewhere above the front-line employees or immediate supervisors of front-line employees.

Middle managers carry much of the burden to deliver results in the organization. However, they are frequently unsupported as top leadership and supervisors of the “boots on the ground” employees get more development focus.  Middle managers seem to be noticed only when they are ineffective in that role.

Shifting support and focus to the selection and development of great managers has been demonstrated to have a significant bottom-line impact.

Here are four characteristics that make middle managers great:

• Connectors – Middle managers are the connectors between employees and senior leadership. They achieve the next level performance by connecting the dots across the organization. Research shows that great managers create significantly higher profit for companies than average managers.  They also drive a positive impact to safety, quality, productivity, engagement and retention. 
• Translators – Middle managers with constructive leadership styles are more effective than average managers. Middle managers bring to life the senior leadership purpose, vision and mission to the rest of the organization, making it applicable to the work their teams do every day.
• Communicators – Communicating in all directions falls squarely on middle manager shoulders. They communicate in multiple directions – up, down, across and outside of the organization to suppliers and customers.
• Builders – They are masters at building relationships as they engage teams and work between multiple levels. They influence talent and results by allocating and building the right resources to achieve bottom-line results.

Because middle managers can make a difference to the success of the company, it is important to recognize and support them. To develop great managers who achieve next level results, create an action plan to help them.

Action Plan

• Develop an awareness of the relationships and behaviors currently existing in the organization by doing a baseline assessment. Determine what the definition of “great” is for your organization.
• Encourage acceptance for managers to own their own behaviors and feel responsible in this new context of work. Let go of what doesn’t work. Create a commitment to think and act differently to increase effectiveness.
• Support your great managers with space to practice new leadership behaviors and build relationships. Give feedback and adjust the approach as needed. Remember the role is not just achievement of deliverables, but cultivating critical relationships and skills to grow impact. 

Developing great managers is an investment that will benefit the entire company, directly impacting talent achievement, retention, and the company bottom-line. 

About the Author

Amy Forehand founded The Forehand Company with a mission to Grow EmployeeshipTM and Create Great Culture. Amy is accredited in the Human Synergistics Organizational Culture Inventory® and Organizational Effectiveness Inventory® (OCI /OEI) and Life Styles InventoryTM & ACUMEN® Leadership WorkStylesTM. She may be reached at 269-369-3972 or amy@theforehandcompany.org.