Middle managers are the heartbeat of an organisation. Tasked with executing strategic plans and guiding people, these team members often experience high tension, both mentally and emotionally.
The strain may become even more pronounced as budgets tighten and the speed of change accelerates. If nothing is done to support this group, they could burn out and eventually leave, resulting in a significant gaps in the company. To find success in the future of work, organisations need to help middle management do more than simply cope with operational realities. We must empower them to thrive!
As part of our series on 9 Learning & Development Priorities for 2026 [1], let’s review what’s happening to supervisors today and how L&D can assist mid-level leaders in the year ahead.
The Management Squeeze Explained
The “management squeeze” occurs when department or team leaders feel pressure from above as executives set ambitious goals for the company and its business units, while direct reports push from below for more personalised, adaptive support and guidance.
Neither of these desires is inherently problematic. However, challenges arise as many middle managers attempt to navigate competing priorities with limited resources or coaching.
The Middle Manager Training Gap
L&D budgets are tight, with funding split across all levels of the workforce from executives to front-line employees. In the trade-offs, middle management may get overlooked. In fact, only 37% of new supervisors receive training upon promotion, and 74% report never receiving ongoing training after that [2].
This gap may occur because supervisors are usually promoted due to their own effectiveness in their prior roles. Leaders may then assume that these individuals already know how to get the best out of their departments and do not need additional guidance.
However, being good at your functional job does not mean you understand how to drive success for the organisation or amplify team motivation. Simply leading people is challenging enough, and as middle managers navigate the modern workforce, including distributed teams, technology overload and change initiatives, they can become overwhelmed.
The Hidden Risks When Supervisors Are Under-Prepared
If middle managers lack the capabilities to translate strategy into operational execution or promote employee engagement and team cohesion, the business impact can be significant.
Individual team members may feel disconnected and lack motivation. As a unit, they may struggle to align on priorities and collaborate. These challenges then result in underperformance, missed targets and higher attrition rates, which all affect organisational health. Additionally, the supervisors themselves are more likely to experience stress and burnout when their direct reports are struggling.
If we want our businesses to achieve ambitious goals, we must be willing to close training gaps and invest in our leaders at all levels. L&D teams can get started by prioritising a handful of necessary skills and designing a holistic development programme.
5 Competencies Middle Managers Need to Succeed in 2026
#1 – Adaptability & Change Management
As the pace of change accelerates, middle management must understand how to adjust to evolving priorities and support their staff (and themselves) through constant transition [3]. L&D professionals can elevate these competencies by helping supervisors embrace curiosity, apply change management models and learn to prioritise competing interests.
#2 – Coaching & Effective Communication
Employees who report to managers with coaching skills are 40% more engaged and 20% more likely to stay at their organisations [4]. When mid-level leaders clearly communicate about top priorities, deliver constructive feedback and help direct reports grow, they cultivate an environment where workers feel empowered and encouraged to take on greater responsibility.
#3 – Strategic Thinking & Creativity
Turning executive directives into action requires strong systems thinking and the ability to think differently so they may reach their goals despite resource constraints. Middle managers who elevate their own strategic and creative competencies by embracing cognitive diversity [5] will be better positioned for success.
#4 – Resilience & Self-care
I like to compare the idea of self-care to an oxygen mask on an airplane. You cannot attend to anyone else’s well-being if your own tank is empty. To support mental wellness [6], invest in building their personal resilience, stress management skills and capacities to set boundaries.
#5 – Motivation & Emotional Intelligence
Supervisors with strong EQ often achieve better outcomes because they build meaningful working relationships with their employees, create a sense of belonging [7] within their teams and inspire staff to take action. Elevating self-awareness, empathy, motivation and social skills [8] will be essential to elevating long-term performance.
3 Tips to Design an Effective Middle Manager Development Programme
While workshops are a great starting point for management development, it’s important to take a holistic approach to reinforce their knowledge. Consider applying the 70-20-10 learning model [9], where 70% of learning occurs on the job, 20% through social interactions and 10% from formal and structured programmes.
#1 – On-the-Job Learning
Use action learning and embed just-in-time resources into the flow of work to support ongoing training. Action learning encourages individuals to identify an area of opportunity and begin practising behaviour changes to realise a different outcome.
For just-in-time resources, consider integrating micro-learnings, on-demand lessons and downloadable tools to help middle managers address common workplace challenges, like communicating effectively with direct reports or encouraging employees to adapt to change.
Technology can also be your friend in these efforts. Use AI, chatbots and digital applications within your learning management systems to suggest potential content as well as embed bite-sized training into everyday tasks.
#2 – Social Learning
In addition to one-to-one coaching and check-ins facilitated through L&D or HR, support 20% of learning through initiatives like mentorship programmes, lunch and learns with experts as well as sharing circles, where attendees can discuss real-world examples of their obstacles and successes. When you create a culture where learning from mistakes is normal, it facilitates open, honest conversations as well as new ideas for implementation.
#3 – Formal Training
In-person or virtual classroom training still plays a pivotal role in your programming. These sessions set a common foundation for skill building in in-demand competencies. Identify the core talents you wish to prioritise for middle management and centre your formal efforts around these capabilities. Then, be sure to utilise on-demand resources and social learning experiences to reinforce the training.
How Emergenetics Empowers Middle Managers
Emergenetics can easily align with your L&D experiences and help your supervisors build a variety of skills. Through our Profile and workshops [10], managers discover their preferred ways of thinking and behaving as well as those of their teammates. This data delivers new insights to communicate and collaborate more effectively with their employees.
Our digital app, eLearnings and on-demand resources fold into their daily work, providing strategies to apply the Attributes to enhance performance management, motivate staff and boost emotional intelligence. Our tools and training also support supervisors in using Thinking and Behavioural Attributes to drive results, manage change, support innovation and more [11]!
A Few Words on Senior Leadership
While most of this blog post has focused on middle managers themselves, it’s important that L&D leaders collaborate with executives [12] to cultivate a culture where supervisors thrive:
- Partner with senior leaders to set people goals around middle management. This way, supervisors will feel more assured that they are being considered and cared for.
- Promote psychological safety [13] by helping leaders celebrate diversity of thought and build relationships with staff at least two levels removed from them.
- Boost communication skills within senior leadership. If top executives can effectively articulate their vision for the organisation and explain the business’s priorities, supervisors will be better equipped to align their work with key objectives.
- Discuss what sort of culture is needed to drive your 2026 strategy. Are you striving to boost innovation? Agility? A customer focus? Identify the needs and build your management programming to advance these goals.
Looking Ahead: Turning Middle Managers into Champions
Sitting between top-level leadership and front-line staff, managers can be a linchpin for organisational success. By equipping them with in-demand skills and investing in their development, L&D teams will empower supervisors to do more than simply carry out tasks and plans. They will give this important group the competencies to translate vision into action, inspire their teams and realise results that reverberate across the business.
How can Emergenetics help your middle managers? Fill out the form below to discuss the possibilities with one of our team members.
FAQs about Middle Management Training
1. Why is middle manager development often overlooked?
Because supervisors are often promoted for their effectiveness in their former roles, many leaders may assume that these individuals already know how to get the best out of other staff members within their departments, resulting in less training investment.
2. How can I measure the ROI of a manager development programme?
To measure training effectiveness, identify the business outcomes [14] that you are seeking. For example, perhaps you wish to boost your leadership pipeline, reduce turnover or increase productivity. Quantify what these outcomes will do for your business. For instance, reduced turnover saves on hiring, while increased productivity saves hours of work that can be channeled to other activities. Use these priorities to shape the specific metrics that you will measure.
3. Can Emergenetics support middle managers?
Yes, Emergenetics helps supervisors build a variety of future-focused skills. The Emergenetics Profile [15] reveals how people prefer to think and behave, and how those preferences impact leadership, communication and collaboration styles. Through our workshops, mobile app, eLearnings and on-demand resources, middle managers learn to apply these insights about themselves and their team members to improve performance, boost engagement and empower staff to do their best work.
4. What skills can Emergenetics help managers build?
Emergenetics’ essential workshops influence self-awareness, empathy, emotional intelligence, communication and collaboration skills. Our targeted resources, next-level workshops and eLearnings build on this knowledge to boost skills in a variety of areas tailored to your needs. A few examples include change management, team development, conflict resolution, coaching, motivation and more.
5. How can Emergenetics improve management effectiveness?
Emergenetics gives middle managers the tools to communicate and collaborate more effectively with their staff. By understanding the innate strengths of their employees, supervisors can tailor how they coach their people as well as help them use their gifts and consider blind spots to improve performance.