Middle management gets a bad rep—here HR experts share how to implement strategy around these critical roles.

By Simon Kent

“Middle management is where strategy meets reality,” says Omowunmi Adewusi, general counsel and human resource director for AXA Mansard Insurance in Nigeria. “If we get it right, we unlock organisational velocity. If we neglect it, we create a bottleneck.”

Adewusi’s assessment of the importance of middle managers is in no way an understatement. A business’s senior leadership can brainstorm as many great ideas and grand plans as they wish, but the only way in which those ideas become reality is if the middle management team—the people who are in the position to make things happen—actually execute. And this should not be taken for granted.

The fact is that this level of a company’s structure can often find itself inadequately supported. It is assumed that they will carry out the required actions as necessary without anyone always ensuring they have the tools, knowledge, or resources required to do so. Adewusi says their business is aware of this challenge. “We’ve observed this particularly when organisations pursue ambitious objectives,” she says. “Middle managers become the invisible load-bearers, expected to execute strategic initiatives, mentor their teams, optimise operations, and maintain business as usual.”

Mark Green, founder and CEO of Change Rebellion, a U.K.-based consultancy that challenges traditional approaches to organisational transformation, agrees that the plight often goes unnoticed. “Middle managers occupy one of the most unenviable positions in any organisation,” he says. “Senior leaders make the decisions. Frontline colleagues experience the consequences. Sitting uncomfortably in the middle is a group of people expected to explain, reassure, motivate, and answer questions they often haven’t had time to process themselves.”

Middle management needs the space to challenge assumptions, to ask difficult questions, and understand the reasoning behind decisions.

Green believes one of the biggest myths in organisational transformation is that middle managers resist change. What actually happens, he says, is that these managers carry the weight of change. Not only that, but they are frequently doing so without being given the resources they need to do the job. “The irony is that middle managers are often described as the engine room of organisational change,” he says. “We rely on them to translate strategy into reality, spot problems early, coach their teams, and maintain performance while everything around them is shifting. Then we treat them like a distribution list.”

Green advocates giving this level of management the space they need to challenge assumptions, to ask difficult questions, and understand the reasoning behind decisions. “Most importantly, they need time to process the change themselves before they’re expected to help everyone else because managers are people first.”

Adewusi agrees. “We’ve seen situations where middle managers were tasked with leading market expansion with limited budget allocation, training, or decision-making authority,” she says. “The expectation was high, the enabling resources were not. This creates burnout and disengagement.”

While Adewusi believes HR’s role is to ensure middle managers are visible, valued, and equipped to thrive, getting this right means more than just ensuring they have the necessary resources at any one time. At AXA Mansard Insurance, it has meant carefully framing where and how middle management sit and are viewed. “In our organisation, we encourage middle management to be viewed as a stepping stone to senior leadership because our business growth strategy requires a robust pipeline of leaders,” she says. “However, we also recognise that not everyone wants to progress further. Some thrive in middle management, and that’s equally valuable.”

To get this right, Adewusi believes individuals need to enter middle management with clarity on whether the position is a developmental role, one step toward leadership, or if they’re fulfilling their potential where they are. By taking on the challenge with this knowledge, they can be more engaged and effective in the job. They will have a greater understanding of the “why” and the reasons they are being asked to do those things. The tasks of middle management make more sense rather than falling between the stools of strategy and production.

“The irony is that middle managers are often described as the engine room of organisational 
change. We rely on them to translate strategy into reality, spot problems early, coach their teams, and maintain 
performance while everything around them is shifting. Then we treat them like a distribution list.”

However, Jenny Segal, London-based workplace culture expert and author, believes viewing middle management positions as purely stepping-stone positions immediately makes such roles transitional, therefore degrading their importance and the investment they attract. “People are encouraged to look up rather than into the role,” she says. “Capabilities specific to the work get coded as career staging posts rather than as a craft worth mastering.” As a result, she believes retention suffers, because the implicit message is that staying in the role is a failure to make progress.

By contrast, if middle management is treated as a destination, organisations can build capability frameworks around the roles and reward people for getting better at this kind of work. Consequently, the team is developed, motivated, and rewarded for delivering—not just for moving on to the next position. “The right question is not how to get people through the role faster. It is how to make it a role worth staying in,” says Segal.

Overall, middle management does require at least as much support and attention as leadership roles within organisations. While managers may be promoted to such position due to their expertise, it should not be assumed that they can just get on with the job without support or recognition from HR. Indeed, they may need more support than some levels of leadership. “We need permission to say ‘I don’t know how to handle that’ without career penalty,” says Segal. “Most managers default to performing competence rather than seeking help, because uncertainty is read as weakness. Reverse that, and the rest gets easier.”