Great decisions are (hopefully) made by us all, and at every level of an organization. It's unfortunate, however, when those beneficial decisions (in our opinion at least) crush team members and leave them frustrated and burned out. In my experience, that happens more often, and in ways, we didn't foresee or prepare for. If you could identify the individuals most at risk of these demoralizing and costly moments, who would they be? I'll offer my observation to you: it's not the top, and it's not the bottom, it's the middle manager. What causes the pressure to mount and the stress to rise? Here are a few situations and problematic scenarios.
Information Marginalization. Middle management has varying levels of responsibility and varying levels of preview into executive decisions. Often they get handed actionable requests, or updated KPIs to meet with potentially unreasonable deadlines. Not necessarily because they cannot physically attend to the new demands, but because they did not receive enough margin between the starting line and the deadline to properly mentally engage. They may be in complete agreement with the decisions handed down, but without time to process their positional obligations concerning the outcome, they can feel immediately discouraged and overwhelmed.
Sweating the Small Things. Isn't it great to have a manager you trust so much that you can delegate, hand off to and watch excel at their tasks? My personal sentiment: I'm glad I don't have to live in the weeds, and they get to. Unfortunately, their interpretation is sometimes different: "They don't know how this will work and what it will take". Rightly so. They sweat the small things so executives don't have to. But what if I don't spend time evaluating my decisions with the people that know everything about the details? What happens when I disconnect my executive decisions from their daily experience? They feel marginalized at best, and abused at worst, by being given a task without leaders truly understanding the demands upon them. It may not be realistic (nor wise) to live with middle managers in the weeds too often - but major trust deposits are banked when inviting them into the discernment process early enough to receive their critical feedback on granular elements.
Interdepartmental Obligations. Workflows can be tricky, and it's common for a specific department to serve one team before, and a different one after, their place in that systematic process. That generally means that middle managers feel pressure from both sides as they are responsible TO and FOR different departments. Although it's an unavoidable situation, please be careful to acknowledge the uncomfortable situations that can arise between the parts and pieces. The middle manager may want to listen and support the teams they serve (because they often get an earful), while simultaneously not wanting to disappoint the executives they report to. They can't really choose sides, but being stuck in between can create dissonance and disruption to the healthy culture you're working so hard to establish. Check in with them often to find out how they're handling that tension, and if there's anything you can do to support their efforts to keep everyone they work with happy and productive.
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