The term middle manager reminds me a bit of what it must feel like being vice president. The job is to represent the policy, not to make it. Your time gets taken up absorbing criticism for work product you didn't create yourself, or defending policies you had little influence over.
It's not glamorous. But it's critical. Without middle management, every company would just be thousands of people responding to the last all-hands email from the CEO about their pet project. But it also doesn't have to be that way.
When Middle Management Is Miserable
If middle management feels truly miserable, that's likely an indication of issues above more than anything else.
When middle managers are given directives with marching orders rather than alignment on priorities and latitude to find the best solution, the only path to success is conformity. The organisation can't outperform the strategy from above because no one is empowered to improve upon it.
Contrast this with organisations that ensure their middle management is aligned with corporate objectives but give them the latitude to introduce their own personality and strategies. These organisations can go above and beyond what senior leadership envisioned, because they've created space for initiative at every level.
Trust as a Two-Way Street
The latitude to operate independently requires trust, and trust is a two-way street.
You need to keep upper management aware early when things may be going sideways. Knowing that you're going to be candid about issues early — and that you know when to call in for help — allows upper management to let you continue moving with minimal approval.
My group within my organisation has long operated as a bit of a skunkworks: working in parallel with, but not always in coordination with, the rest of the firm. This has allowed us to take the less-travelled path on numerous projects. Sometimes we've found solutions or strategies that could never have happened at the scale of the full enterprise. But once those approaches were proven in our group, they could be scaled into solutions that benefited the entire organisation.
I'm able to operate this way because my group has earned the freedom to work outside onerous instruction. That freedom came from consistently delivering results and being transparent about challenges along the way.
The Value You Provide Your Team
As much as middle managers can provide value to the organisation, the value they provide to their teams is even more important.
I'm a strong believer in servant leadership. My most important role is to give my team cover from the organisation's political pressures and fluctuations. But it's also about providing a level of support that senior managers in a large organisation never could.
A while ago, I heard a statement that really resonated with me: the best therapist in the world will never have more impact on your mental health than your boss.
Think about that. The person who assigns your work, evaluates your performance, and influences your daily experience has more power over your wellbeing than almost anyone else in your professional life. That's a tremendous responsibility.
The Privilege of Being Present
Over the years, I've had people on my team go through personal dramas, medical crises, and family challenges. It's been an honour to be able to take some of the stress out of those stressful situations — to say "don't worry about that deadline" or "take the time you need" and actually mean it.
While I'm excited and passionate about the software my team develops, at the end of the day there often isn't anything too earth-changing about it. We're not curing diseases or solving climate change.
But the positive impact I'm able to have on the work lives — and lives — of those I work with is what gives my work meaning. That's not a consolation prize for not being a senior executive. It's the whole point.
The Renaissance
Middle management gets a bad reputation, often from people who've only experienced the conformity-driven version of it. But when done well, middle management is where strategy meets reality, where organisational objectives get translated into achievable work, and where individual humans get the support they need to do their best.
The role isn't about climbing to the next rung. It's about being the bridge — absorbing pressure from above so your team can focus, and channeling insight from below so leadership can make better decisions.
In an era obsessed with flattening hierarchies and "empowered teams," the argument for middle management is simple: someone has to hold the space between vision and execution. Someone has to care about both the mission and the people doing the work.
That someone is you.