TL;DR: McKinsey research shows middle managers now spend nearly a quarter of their time on administrative work that has nothing to do with leading people. Gallup data shows manager engagement dropped in 2025 for the first time in years. The middle manager squeeze is real, and in most organizations, senior leadership is the one creating it.
Everyone has an opinion about middle managers right now.
They need to be more strategic. They need to coach better. They need to develop their people, drive execution, manage up, manage sideways, and somehow still hit their own numbers while the organization restructures around them for the third time in two years.
What nobody seems to want to talk about is what senior leadership is doing to them in the process.
McKinsey’s research shows managers now spend roughly 25% of their time on administrative work that has nothing to do with leading people. That number has been climbing for years, ever since administrative support roles got cut and that work quietly landed on managers’ plates. Gallup also reported a notable drop in manager engagement in 2025. When managers start disengaging, something structural has gone wrong. And the structure that has gone wrong is usually at the top.
When you’re in the eye of the storm, it can feel like it’ll never end, but it always does. Stress is only a drain.
– Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group
What the Middle Manager Squeeze Actually Looks Like
I was working with a VP of Operations recently who kept telling me her middle managers were not stepping up. They were not thinking strategically. They were too in the weeds. She wanted to know how to develop them into stronger leaders.
When I dug a little deeper, the picture was completely different. They were running status update meetings for senior leadership three times a week. Pulling reports nobody read. Sitting in alignment calls that never produced decisions. They were message-carriers between executives who would not talk directly to each other.
These were not underdeveloped leaders. They were buried leaders. And the organization had built the burial mound one request at a time. By the time senior leadership noticed the problem, the best managers were already burning out or quietly updating their resumes.
Why Senior Leaders Are Usually the Source of the Problem
There are three ways senior leaders create the squeeze without realizing it.
Exhaustion and exasperation are frequently the handmaidens of legislative decision.
– Barber B. Conable, Jr., former U.S. Congressman and President of the World Ban
Decision avoidance passed downward. When senior leaders will not make calls, middle managers absorb the ambiguity. They spend their time managing confused teams, fielding questions they cannot answer, and navigating priorities that shift weekly because no one above them has drawn a clear line.
Administrative overflow. Every time a senior leader adds a reporting requirement, a standing meeting, or a new dashboard, that work lands somewhere. It almost always lands on the manager in the middle. Nobody ever removes the old requirements when new ones get added.
Span overload. As organizations flatten and headcount gets cut, managers end up with more direct reports, broader scope, and less support, all at the same time. Coaching, development, and strategic thinking get dropped first because urgent administrative work fills every available hour.
When someone pushes you down you must get up and stand on your own two feet even if you’re scared to do it. Only you can set limits to your success.
— Sunny Leone, Actress and Entrepreneur
What Strong Senior Leaders Do Differently
The senior leaders who have healthy, high-performing middle management layers do a few things consistently.
They make decisions clearly and on time. They audit administrative load regularly and ask: what are we requiring of our managers right now and does it actually serve the business?
They cut ruthlessly. Every standing meeting, every report, every process that does not directly support execution is a candidate for elimination.
Most importantly, they protect manager time for the work only managers can do: coaching, developing people, driving accountability, removing obstacles. That work requires time that has to be deliberately carved out and protected.
The Real Cost of Letting the Squeeze Continue
Nothing lasts forever. The tough moments, the pressure, the setbacks, they all pass.
— Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group
Gallup’s data has shown for years that managers account for the majority of variance in employee engagement. When managers are too stretched to coach and develop their people, engagement drops. When engagement drops, performance drops. And when performance drops, the organization looks at its managers and wonders why they are not stepping up.
If your middle managers are struggling right now, before you send them to another leadership development program, ask yourself: what has senior leadership built around them that is making it harder for them to lead? That question is usually where the real work is.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the middle manager squeeze and why is it happening now?
It is the result of years of accumulating responsibility without removing old demands. Administrative work has grown as support roles were cut, spans have widened as organizations flatten, and decision ambiguity from above lands squarely in the middle. The squeeze is structural, not a skills problem.
How do senior leaders contribute to middle manager burnout?
Primarily through three behaviors: passing decision ambiguity downward, adding administrative requirements without removing old ones, and increasing spans without additional support. Each seems manageable in isolation. Together they create a weight that eventually breaks the people underneath it.
How do you fix middle management performance problems?
Start by looking up, not down. Audit what senior leadership has built around managers before assuming they need more development. Remove the weight first. Then invest in capability.
