How to Overcome the Middle Management Crisis?

For the past two decades, a theory arguing that middle management hinders organizational development has become widespread. While some believe the ‘liberated company’ is the prime archetype of this, this is not the case: without managers, the company (liberated or not) cannot survive. On the contrary, it is middle management that radically supports and boosts innovation and performance within organizations.

Middle management is, however, in crisis, and for many reasons. The first is the lack of clarity associated with this role. Indeed, many don’t really know what a manager does day-to-day: since they are neither operational nor strategic, it is difficult to clearly define their daily tasks and scope of activity.

The second is the lack of recognition for middle management within the organization. Indeed, they are the most neglected group in the company (Boston Consulting Group study), in terms of allocated resources and training; which leads to a significant loss in employee performance because it is also the most important group in the company (for 50,000 employees, BCG calculated that there are on average 7,000 middle managers who are therefore responsible for approximately 43,000 people).

It is therefore not surprising that they are also the unhappiest employees in the company. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. Poor management: this is the main reason for employee dissatisfaction in general, and not just for a middle manager. Poor management is generally synonymous with a poor leader. This reveals a lack of transparency, a lack of skills, and/or a lack of interest in their employees.
2. No prospects for advancement or development: generally combined with a lack of meaning in their work; they see no impact of their work on the company or no impact of the company on society, which is a source of disengagement – hence the need to clearly define the company’s mission and involve employees, and even more so, managers).
3. Lack of appreciation for them and their work: indeed, middle managers still suffer from a reputation as foremen, solely guardians of their teams’ performance and perceived simply as supervisors.
4. Inconsistency in company discourse: advocating on one hand for a healthy work-life balance while simultaneously increasing workloads. This situation is a source of frustration: it is the company’s role to provide its employees with the means to apply its recommendations.

Yet, middle managers play a crucial role within the organization: they see the on-the-ground difficulties in implementing the company’s strategic vision.

They are the primary drivers of employee engagement and performance.

So what are the solutions?

The first step is to clarify the role of middle management, both for employees and, especially, for the manager themselves. Because their functions change from one company to another, there isn’t a typical job description for middle managers. However, it is possible to outline the main aspects of this role, and that’s when we realize they are essential to the organization:

• They play a significant part in the organization’s communication strategy
• They are the ones who help employees prioritize their objectives
• They facilitate collaboration
• They pave the way for progress and development by supporting the deployment of roles/careers
• They ensure alignment between processes, tools, software, and the company’s overall strategy (and its objectives)

Middle managers are indeed the company’s facilitators, in charge of the two major pillars that support the entire organizational structure: transmission (vertical link between different groups) and execution (strategy implementation).

It is therefore essential to restore meaning and value to middle management.

To achieve this, we offer:

The Sales Engagement and Performance Application

With Incenteev, we don’t offer a miracle solution, but a new way to motivate and empower your teams (managers and sales representatives). The ideal underlying our approach is to guide our clients in transforming their sales organization towards more effective and autonomous management; a management style focused on engaging and motivating sales teams.

A Sales Engagement and Performance Application Specifically Enables You to:

• Empower your middle managers: a common interface that simplifies objective and data management for them allows them to free up valuable time that they can use to coach their teams. They will also be more autonomous and have greater visibility into their actions – and thus their responsibilities.

• Include them in strategic decisions: especially those related to team leadership. Middle managers need transparency and visibility regarding strategic objectives since they will be responsible for communicating and implementing them in the lower tiers of the organization. Thanks to Incenteev, you centralize on one platform all the resources (key indicators, figures, results, objectives, etc.) that managers need to effectively coach their teams.

• Improve and facilitate their training: middle managers often lack training. Indeed, poor management is the primary cause of sales staff turnover. It is therefore essential to invest in their training to retain your teams. With Incenteev, you train your managers in sales coaching and can dedicate training resources to them with astonishing ease.

• Facilitate information sharing: middle management is often disparaged because, as an intermediary, it makes organizational agility more difficult. However, for organizational agility, it is important to reduce intermediaries. However, the root of the problem is often misidentified: it is more about information sharing not being efficient enough.

Do you also want to empower your middle managers? Learn to coach your teams.