The Top 5 Leadership Challenges of Mid-Level Managers

Being promoted into a middle management position provides the chance to learn and grow. It gives one the opportunity of leading and developing a team of people who will look to you for guidance and direction in the workplace. In addition, middle managers are required to support senior management in communicating and implementing the company’s vision. This dual mandate means that working in middle management is not without its challenges.  

 

Common leadership issues worldwide 

In 2023, a leading -based leadership research and development company, The Centre for Creative Leadership1, conducted a survey with 48,000 leaders across the world from which they determined the most common challenges that business leaders face. Their results have found that the most common challenge is centered around frustrations with people and time. These people-challenges include providing guidance to direct reports, overcoming resistance to change, dealing with difficult employees, and adjusting communication and feedback styles to collaborate more effectively with a variety of different people.  

 

These leadership challenges also appeared in the top five:  

• First time managing people 

• Deficient operational processes 

• Team performance 

• Personal improvement 

 

Middle management leadership issues 

People managers who are leading from the middle of a company hierarchy are a bridge between the senior leaders above them and direct reports below. They have the dual mandate of steering operational success and overseeing the productivity and well-being of their team. This adds a unique complexity to their role. The Centre for Creative Leadership research found that the most common issues for mid-level managers are: 

1. Personal limitations 
2. Challenging business context 
3. Ineffective interpersonal style 
4. Cross-functional influence 
5. Competing people and project priorities 

 

Being a middle manager can be tougher than holding a senior management position. It takes skill and experience to navigate the role’s wide-ranging demands while finding balance in also meeting the business and personal needs of employees.    

 

Here is a deeper look at each of the top five middle management challenges: 

1. Personal limitations 

One commonplace challenge for managers is battling their own personal limitations – or their feelings of inadequacy. An individual in a management role may be newly promoted into management, or they may have to overcome their own doubts about their abilities to lead well. At the same time, they must prove themselves to their supervisors and peers.  

2. Personal limitations can include: 

• Poor communication skills: Managers require effective communication skills both upward and downward in the company hierarchy to successfully do their job.  

• Low emotional quotient (EQ): A manager who has a low EQ will lack in understanding of the emotions of their employees – and battle to understand and regulate their own emotions. This can result in them being insensitive or unaware of their employees’ feelings.  

• Poor decision-making: Ineffective decision-making can hinder project progress and create issues within a company. Managers who lack the ability to evaluate complex situations will be poorly equipped to make well-informed decisions. This can result in problems, bottlenecks, wasted resources, and missed opportunities.  

3. A challenging business context 

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) work environment, managing people requires the careful allocation of limited resources, along with maintaining efficient processes and keeping employees engaged and motivated. In the face of a challenging work environment, mid-level managers can struggle to deliver results – particularly if they struggle with role ambiguity, where their own responsibilities are not clearly defined.  

Skilled managers display the following leadership skills in the face of a challenging business context: 

• They do not resist change and accept it as a constant and unpredictable feature of the working environment. 

• They regularly communicate team objectives and values which helps to develop a clear, shared vision of the future.  

• They understand the need for agility in changing circumstances and set their team members goals that can be amended when necessary. 

4. Ineffective interpersonal style 

Interpersonal skills hinge on a manager’s ability to communicate. The outcome of ineffective personal management style can range from a manager who dominates his team to someone who lacks the self-confidence to be assertive when need be. When a mid-level manager has an ineffective interpersonal style, they will struggle with productive relationships. On the other hand, an effective interpersonal style allows for open and honest conversation – with everyone feeling heard and valued.  

Here are three skills that enhance effective interpersonal management style: 

• Listening: This involves listening to what team members say without interrupting, judging, or assuming. 

• Empathy: This allows leaders to understand and relate to the perceptions and experiences of their employees and to lead with compassion and understanding.  

• Conflict management: This key management skill involves using different tactics depending on the situation, including negotiation and problem solving, to minimise interpersonal issues and produce an outcome that is satisfactory to all parties.  

 

4. Cross-functional influence 

People management requires the ability to influence colleagues across the company, outside of one’s department or team. Mid-level managers may find themselves facing the challenge of influencing colleagues from different company departments. Doing so requires building credibility and trust. This facility for cross-functional management promotes collaboration and innovation within the company. It has been proven to drive project completion in a fraction of the time of a siloed team. 

Here are three steps managers can take to building cross functional influence: 

• Be proactive in bringing your team together with other teams from the get-go. 

• Create a collaborative culture, sharing information and developing relationships 

• Get to know other departments’ processes and where your work overlaps.  

 

5. Competing people and project priorities 

It can be difficult for mid-level leaders to balance competing people and project priorities. This is aggravated by being the person responsible for both meeting project-based deadlines and ensuring their team members’ motivation and engagement. Success lies in allocating resources appropriately. For example, once competing project priorities have been evaluated, resources (such as time, tools, and team members) can be allocated accordingly. This entails knowing each team member’s strengths and assigning them to the highest priority tasks based on their skills and experience. 

 

It is vital to invest in manager training 

With today’s focus on healthy work environments and employee well-being, the qualities of good leadership and people management are in the spotlight. Whether they are advancing business goals or managing change, middle managers are on the front lines of employee engagement, performance, and retention. To stay up to date and well equipped to respond to a continually changing business environment managers, like their employees, need ongoing support and skills development. It makes sense to ensure that nurturing management skills is a strategic priority. 

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