Here is an excerpt from an article written by Kris Routch for Talent Management magazine. He says it’s tough being a mid-level manager, but the role’s increasing complexity is the right stage on which to prep senior leaders.To read the complete article, check out all the resources, and sign up for a free subscription to the TM and/or Chief Learning Officer magazines published by MedfiaTec, please click here.

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CEOs have it tough, juggling strategic priorities and dealing with constant pressure from investors, regulators and other stakeholders. But the jobs characterized by ever-increasing challenges, unprecedented complexity and continually rising expectations are actually a few levels further down at the mid-level.

Senior leaders increasingly expect more from middle managers and rely on this group to connect business strategy and execution at the front line. Paul Osterman, MIT management professor and author of The Truth About Middle Managers, described the reality this way in a 2009 podcast: “As organizations get flatter, there’s much more for [middle managers] to do. They have to communicate down and up. They have to coordinate. There’s a lot of evidence that decentralized organizations perform better than very top-heavy ones … but for decentralized organizations to work, you need strong middle managers.”

The pressure seems to have created a fair amount of frustration within this group. A 2011 Bersin and Associates study, “Maximizing Middle Managers: Four Practices to Drive Business Results,” revealed that mid-level leaders had the steepest engagement decline of any employee population in the wake of the global recession.

Understanding and Influencing the Environment

In “Put Your Money in the Middle,” a 2010 study conducted by talent management consultancy Development Dimensions International (DDI), seven in 10 mid-level leaders reported their work stress had increased in the previous 18 months. The study also showed that nearly half of mid-level leaders feel stagnation in their job, and 54 percent would be willing to take a demotion to a non-leadership position for the same amount of money. DDI research also has shown that only one in 10 mid-level leaders report feeling well prepared to meet the current challenges of their roles.

Things weren’t always this way. Before decades of organizational flattening, restructuring and re-engineering, the mid-level manager had access to many organizational levels that enabled upward advancement. For example, before it started restructuring in 2000, Unilever had 36 organizational levels. Afterward, it had six. At each step along the former upward progression, a leader could gain mastery over the job and the skills required for success, and at some point expect to be promoted again. This approach was more ordered and leader-friendly than the more amorphous, stressful current reality.

This adds up to bad news for middle managers and their organizations. But in the cloud of pressure surrounding the work environment for mid-level leaders, there is a silver lining: Being a middle manager is hard, but experience in today’s difficult middle manager roles might pay off for those leaders who advance to the senior level tomorrow. Further, even those who aren’t destined for the senior level can grow and become more effective if their organizations take a few key steps.

For organizations to take advantage of the complexity and difficulty that define mid-level roles, they must do two things. They need to recognize the challenges that mid-level leaders are facing and they must provide opportunities to develop mid-level leaders’ skills within the pressure cooker-like atmosphere that defines their roles.

Both steps require that talent leaders understand and proactively influence the environment in which their middle managers lead. Some organizations have begun to do that, acknowledging the importance of the mid-level and addressing their middle managers’ needs. Of the companies interviewed for DDI’s 2011 “Strengthening the Middle” study, 75 percent indicated they were either increasing or maintaining talent management investments at the mid-level.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Kris Routch is an executive consultant at talent management consultancy Development Dimensions International. He can be reached at DDI.