The middle layer is where strategy turns into execution. Managers translate priorities into daily decisions and shape how employees experience the organization.
When the middle struggles, you see the impact: unclear direction, inconsistent accountability, decisions that keep getting pushed upward, and senior leaders pulled into problems they thought were delegated.
And right now, the middle is under enormous pressure.
By the end of 2026, 1 in 5 organizations will eliminate more than half of their middle management positions.
We’re already seeing major companies move in that direction. Amazon cut roughly 14,000 corporate jobs, and Meta, Google, and others continue to reduce management layers.
The rationale is efficiency, with AI increasingly part of the equation. There’s no question that AI will change how organizations operate.
But taking work off a manager’s plate is different from replacing the work of leadership. Leadership happens between people. After someone misses a target. When feedback needs to land without shutting someone down. When a manager has to challenge someone, resolve a conflict, explain a decision, or help a team move through change. We need our managers to handle those moments every day.
Gallup found that managers account for 70% of the variancein team engagement. And that manager engagement fell nine percentage points from 2022 (31% to 22%).
Managers have more to do, less support to do it, and growing pressure to prove the value of their role.
Organizations have every right to expect effective management. But we also have to look at how we prepare people to manage in the first place.
Someone succeeds as an individual contributor, so we give them a team. Now we expect them to coach, delegate, navigate conflict, communicate change, hold people accountable, make good decisions, and develop others.
Most organizations never teach them how. Then, when managers struggle, we start questioning whether we need the layer at all.
We would never put an athlete on the field without practice, film review, and a coach in their corner. But in business, we hand someone a team and a title and call it a promotion.
If we expect managers to lead, we need to train them to lead.
The Practice
Have one development conversation with a manager this week. Ask: “What part of leading your team do you want to get better at?” Then help them identify one real situation this week they can use as a practice rep.
Use the conversation to better understand where they need more practice, coaching, or support.
This Week From the Lab
Strategy lives at the top. Execution lives in the middle.
The Turn Plans Into Action™ toolkit gives your managers a simple framework for keeping work moving when the plan meets reality.
