As human beings, we crave clarity. And it's no wonder.
Middle managers are burning out faster than ever before.
Sitting between the executive team and the frontline they act as a linchpin. Translating high-level strategy into actionable plans ensuring senior leadership goals are effectively implemented on the ground.
Since COVID that job has become even more complicated. Employees now have higher expectations on their boss requiring more emotional and career development support.
Throw in the complexity of leading teams and the demands of executives in turbulent times and middle managers are doing it tough.
This is unsustainable.
Recent research indicate that an overwhelming 75% of middle managers feel weighed down by their responsibilities, and 40% of those recently promoted are considering stepping down from their positions. More than half admit they are too overburdened to adequately focus on their direct reports.
Key Benefits of Middle Management
Middle managers play a crucial—and often under-appreciated—role in any organisation.
Without them, organisations would struggle to change. They communicate the "why" behind decisions and maintain feedback loops between staff and executives. Because middle managers have direct relationships with employees, they play a vital role in building psychological safety, culture and trust—key drivers of high performance and employee engagement.
When an organisation needs to transform or update skills, middle managers have a deep understanding of role requirements and personnel, making them ideally suited to conduct precise needs assessments and assist with training, development, and daily coaching.
Yet, a recent study conducted by human resources company Humu said that middle managers should be focused on “facilitating transformation, improving team agility, and leading a high-performing team.” Middle Managers, however, reported much more practical (and immediate) concerns: “helping teams combat burnout, retaining top talent, and hiring and onboarding.”
It's time for HR managers and executives to better support their middle managers. Empowering middle management to use best practices to optimise how they work.
Here are eight strategies to help middle managers that need the support from senior leaders:
1. Use Mornings to Focus on High-Pressure Tasks
Constantly switching between broad strategies and detailed tasks throughout the day hinders our ability to feel like we are making a meaningful contribution.
A study by Zhang and Spreitzer tracked the daily work activities of over 400 full-time knowledge workers from diverse industries involving intellectual work. They found that there are two complementary configurations that benefit our energy level.
1. High-pressure individual tasks accompanied by a low-pressure meeting.
2. Low-pressure individual tasks accompanied by high-pressure meeting.
This complementary effect is most pronounced during the morning rather than the afternoon.
Ideally, organisations need to empower middle managers and executives to work together to schedule challenging meetings or tasks in the morning and low-pressure activities in the afternoon. This works with people's brains and not against them.
2. Schedule breaks between meetings
A common mistake made by many middle managers is to schedule back to back meetings in the false belief this is being productive.
“Professionals take breaks. Amateurs are the ones who don’t take breaks.” Dan Pink, Author, When
Studies on context switching indicate that it takes approximately 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption. Scheduling successive meetings is a poor choice when these meetings can be all different in their content.
According to a Microsoft study, best practice is a 5-10 minute break between meetings to significantly reduce overwhelm and improve focus.Counter-intuitively, middle managers who ensure they have regular breaks, rather than powering through, actually sustain their energy throughout the day.
3. Prioritise and coach People
As a rule of thumb a great manager spends 70-75% of their time managing people. This involves building relationships and trust, managing work, overseeing career development, and dealing with problems.
This leaves a small 25% of their time to be spent on the technical part of their job. Few companies allow or even encourage managers the time to do this. At the same time, most managers don’t even know they need to approach their jobs this way.
A Gartner survey revealed that the typical middle manager is burdened with 51% more responsibilities than they can handle effectively. They spend over half their time on tasks meant for individual contributors, while the rest is consumed by administrative duties. To tackle this, it's essential to evaluate the tasks assigned to middle managers and simplify or delegate those that are of lower value and risk.
Sometimes this can mean bringing in external people to help.
For an insurance company that I work with, the general manager was swamped dealing with people and system issues, while still working to please clients. When we looked at where he prioritised his time it became clear that a fractional HR manager was needed to deal with tricky people stuff. Saving him not only one day a week, but lots of frustration and headaches.
4. Delegate small stuff
One of the most common reasons I find middle managers are over-whelmed is that they are doing tasks they can easily delegate.
Out of habit, comfortability or fear of overloading people with more tasks, many managers hold on to more activities than is required. Yet, it is a secret weapon for getting more time back and developing staff.
Middle managers need to scan all of their regular meetings and tasks and pinpoint what they can hand off to a team member that would help both themselves and their direct boss.
Delegating these tasks (while clearly outlining expectations and defining success) enables managers to dedicate more of their limited time to truly leading their team. Not only does this make them more effective, but their team as well.
Furthermore, it frees them up to do the important work of helping add value to their boss. The more middle managers can show that they are available to do higher level tasks for their manager, the higher the chance they will get promoted or assigned more challenging projects.
Senior leaders and HR can support middle management by clarifying roles, identifying support areas, and assisting with delegation. This is about guiding and developing their teams, not critiquing time management.
5. Balancing Dual Roles
Where most middle managers get stuck is they are fighting fires all day. Without a clear structure to work or boundaries, they can easily get sucked into the next urgent drama.
Blocking time and delegating more effectively ensures that not only are they juggling day-to-day emergent tasks, but making time for strategic thinking.
In my leadership development program, I teach managers how to make time for strategic thinking and how to do it well.
This is frequently one of the most challenging skills for middle managers to acquire because their promotion has typically focused on technical abilities and execution, rather than on managing people and providing strategic leadership.
6. Provide Leadership Development
A study by The Workforce Institute at UKG reveals that 70% of individuals say their manager significantly affects their mental health, comparable to the influence of their partner. Middle managers play a crucial role in enhancing employee well-being.
Research conducted by CEB shows that 60% of all new managers fail within the first 24 months of their new position. The primary reason for this failure is inadequate training in managing people from the start.
Transitioning from being an individual contributor to leading teams requires new skill sets, leadership behaviours and mindsets. It requires not only professional growth, but personal growth, as well.
According to Gartner, middle manager development should be the top priority for HR leaders. Most concerning is that only a small percentage receive adequate training upon promotion, with even fewer benefiting from continuous development.
After all, effective leadership is complex, situational and multifaceted. Specific leadership approaches that might work for one leader, can easily fail with another.
Effective leadership is one of the most important skills to move an organisation forward. Unfortunately, most companies either under-invest in leadership training, ignore it all together or choose leadership programs that fail to deliver.
Choosing the right leadership program becomes important here. The latest research shows that it is more than just attending classes. Best-in-class leadership programs combine classes with group coaching, assignments and one on one coaching. Read more about the 4 Key Features that Confirm a High Quality Leadership Program.
7. clear policies that support Middle manager health and well-being
It's important for the CEO and executive team to show their appreciation to their middle managers.
Clear policy decisions can support managers in safeguarding and enhancing their mental and physical health. This could include mandatory "disconnect" times, sabbaticals, or improved access to urgent mental health care resources. Ensuring managers have regular, supportive check-ins with their direct manager can also help alleviate feelings of isolation.
Not only that, but organisations also need to simplify and streamline administrative tasks.
Leaders must also model behaviours that prioritise health and reinforce workplace behaviours. This includes scheduling high cognitive demand meetings in the mornings, starting meetings with an emotional check-in or leaving work early to attend family commitments.
8. Using AI to help Middle Managers
Finally, reinvention of middle management is in drastic need of an overhaul.
According to Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends, almost three out of four (73%) organisations recognise the importance of reinventing the role of the manager, but just 7% are making great progress.
This is where smart use of AI can help.
Not only can AI help employees with being more productive, it can also free up middle managers to have deeper human connection to employees coaching them to success. It is believed that in the future, managers will be leading through a combination of both human interaction and activity augmented or automated by technology.
Bryan Hancock, partner at McKinsey & Co. and an author of “Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work” believes tech will help middle managers evolve into what it’s always supposed to have been—an inspiring people leadership role connecting with how their organisation delivers value to others. “The manager of the future is going to be a human leader and not an administrator,” he says.
Reimagining the middle manager role is so important. It involves thinking about individual career paths where people can grow in pay and responsibility, Hancock says. This allows workers advancement outside of management, leaving middle manager roles open for those with the right skills.
Reinventing the Middle Manager Role
The most crucial skill we can develop today isn't technical; it's equipping our people to learn continuously in a fast-evolving world, fostering resilience and adaptability that remain unshaken by any economic or technological changes.
Managers play a significant role in steering the organisation in the right direction by helping employees acquire new skills to remain relevant and evolve into future leaders.
This requires a fundamental shift: refocusing the organisation to reward managers not just for task oversight, but for becoming leaders who prioritise people, foster talent, and encourage innovative ideas from their teams.
