Who are middle managers, anyway? The off-beat Michael Scott, the droll “Dilbert,” the micro-manager Bill Lumbergh are popular caricatures of this often-misunderstood group. Bryan Hancock, partner at McKinsey & Company, spoke about middle managers from personal experience in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference.

Middle managers manage people, while upper management decides how the company operates. The corporate-like stereotypes associated with middle managers are not always accurate 

“Middle managers are more the victims of bureaucracy than the perpetrators of it,” Hancock said. Resolving misconceptions of middle management is why he, along with Bill Schaninger and Emily Field, wrote Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work.

“They’re not saying, ‘Gosh, if I could only pack in one more meeting today, that’s what I want.’ They’re looking to motivate their teams to be there,” said Hancock.

The idea for the book came from a few things. Hancock and Schaninger host a podcast called McKinsey Talks Talent, and in one episode they talked about the vanishing middle manager. During the pandemic, employees were displaced and felt disconnected. As a result, more was required of managers to keep people working.

“There were all of these additional pressures that managers were having,” Hancock explained. “But they didn’t have time to do it.” What happens if a manager doesn’t consistently check in with their people? Distress, low productivity, and high turnover. Turns out, middle managers matter a lot. They always have; it just became more apparent during Covid.

The Weighty Burden of Administration

When it comes to reworking the workload, one perhaps less-visible burden for middle managers is administrative work. As companies adopt new technologies, who trains people to use them? Who takes care of the paperwork? Who coordinates with outside contractors to help integrate them into what the company needs? The answer to each question: middle managers.

“One of the things that we found through our research is that middle managers, on average, spend half of their time on either individual contributor work or administrative work. And that is squeezing out their ability to do some of the more strategic work thinking through the talent on their team,” Hancock said.

“One of the clients that we’re working with now has this idea of a concierge bot,” he added. For some companies, AI could help make life easier for middle managers. “Managers are critical in reimagining what the work of the future looks like.”

Some companies also look in the wrong places for managers. Companies value employees who are good at what they do. In order to keep that person, a company will typically increase their pay and give them a managerial role. That can be a pitfall, Hancock says.

“Now they’ve got a team. And they may or may not be natural team leaders. We’re selecting them because of what they did great as an individual contributor.” Middle-manager roles and skills are different.

In the book, the authors talk about Waffle House’s approach. The core of the organization is the short-order cook, or “Elvis on the grill.” They cook $5,000 worth of food in one shift. Waffle House recognized that they need to keep those rockstars on the grill, not promote them to managing people and making schedules. These cooks are still advancing and making more money, sometimes more than an assistant manager.

“The question I have across the organizations that I work with is, what’s the equivalent for you?” Hancock said. “What is that critical individual contributor role where you want to create a track of increased pay and responsibility for them, but you don’t need to have them be a manager?”

On the flip side, when selecting middle managers, search for those who are good at managing and leading people. “We found that organizations that had role clarity, and had managers who were skilled at not micromanaging, but having tough conversations and had good performance rhythms, are the ones that outperform. But it’s a skill.”

Empowering Managers

Helping managers do their jobs better helps the entire company, from employees to productivity to operations. But how do you help them succeed? The best thing business leaders can do, Hancock says, is involve their managers in the decision-making processes of the company. Their input is invaluable because they know their people and the day-to-day work better than upper management does. The key is open, effective communication between all levels of leadership.

The book includes a story about an employee who clearly isn’t a good fit for a specific team. The manager invests time over a year, offering counseling and feedback. But the person still isn’t a good fit.

Come review time, it's time to counsel this person to find another opportunity. Unfortunately, HR needs the paperwork, but the manager never filled out a performance improvement plan. Maybe the manager didn’t know they were supposed to do it. Maybe HR never told them.

Notice the breakdown in communication? Companies must figure out how to flip the time of their managers and their HR so they can have more productive conversations and be on the same page, Hancock says.

Another way to empower managers is to define a clear company purpose. Available talent ebbs and flows. So how are you going to attract and keep people who have options? They need something beyond a paycheck; they need purpose. And a good manager will help incorporate that into everything the team does.

Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner McKinsey & Company, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Carrie Snider is a Phoenix, Ariz.-based journalist and marketing copywriter.