The Boston Consulting Group called middle managers a “neglected but critical group” after surveying thousands of employees about the drivers of success at their firms.
Google infamously tried to eliminate their engineering managers only to learn that managers mattered — a lot.
I recently delivered a half day “Personal Energy Management and Resilience” workshop with 8 different frontline teams of a medium sized organisation. A key part of the workshop was for every person in the team to complete a “Personal Energy Audit” which enabled them to assess themselves against 20 tailored statements designed to give them an immediate window into how well they were managing their energy. If a person scored high on the audit (eg, 15 out of twenty or higher), it was highly likely they were on the verge of burn out if not burnt out already.
Across all 8 teams, the majority of team members scored between 5 and 10 out of 20, which meant they were “moderately energised” or at worst had “fading” energy levels. Alarmingly however, 7 of the 8 Team Leaders scored 13 or above out of 20 which meant they were in the “watch out” zone or extremely close to burn out. In my opinion, the Team Leaders were doing a great job of protecting their employees from burnout but failing to manage their own burnout.
Leading a Team Takes its Toll
Middle managers are often good performers who have been at their organisation for five to ten years. So why are middle managers so burnt out?
Middle management stands at the front lines of an organisation’s success, facilitating and overseeing the day-to-day duties of their teams, whilst often attempting to implement change initiatives decided upon by senior management.
They feel that constant pressure from senior management, are often stressed from an overloaded plate, and emotionally drained from constantly keeping their employees happy and engaged. If your managers are unhappy, chances are good they’re making those they manage unhappy as well. Eventually, they start taking things out on their staff, snapping at them every time they ask a question, irritated that they would dare approach their desk when they are busy.
The impact is considerable and costly, for employees as mentioned above, but also for the businesses. For example, burnout impacts companies where it matters the most—their talent. Excessive turnover among middle managers can empty out leadership pipelines and undermine succession planning, not to mention the financial implication of replacing managers.
Personal Resilience Plans
Start tackling this issue by focusing on the resilience of your middle managers. Just as it pays to build a personal development plan, it’s important to help them build a systematic individual resilience or “energy management plan’ – which should sit right alongside their development plan.
Getting managers to think about what they personally need to do to be able to manage themselves and equipping them with the right skills and support to be sure they are capable of showing up at their best when under enormous pressure, can help prevent and reverse burnout.
To create meaningful and lasting changes however, I strongly advise taking a whole team approach. I believe it is critical for teams to understand the unique pressures that are faced by their manager and collectively identify strategies for easing the burdens that come along with that position.
Teams can help to prevent and reverse burnout in their managers by helping their leader to prevent and manage their burnout. Preventing and combating burnout is a skill set that can be developed. But as with any new skill, it takes time to develop and practice. Helping managers develop the skills that combat burnout requires ongoing practice, reflection, and integration. Having a trusting and supportive team environment during this process is crucial and will help accelerate progress, especially when the team is able to help their manager to stay accountable to their goals.
All eight teams that I mentioned earlier committed to helping their manager figure out how to work more effectively so they could be productive but also have time for their lives. They launched into an intensive discussion of boundaries, and how they can help their manager manage their work-life balance in the face of work (or life) emergencies.
Are your middle managers burnt out? When was the last time you checked?
