The middle manager’s playbook for staying sane and moving up

Being a middle manager often feels like living in two worlds at once. On one side, executives cascade big goals and sweeping strategies. On the other, teams look to you for clarity, advocacy, and daily guidance. You’re constantly reconciling top-down demands with bottom-up realities, often with too little time and too few resources to satisfy either side.

The paradox of the role is stark: Middle managers carry enormous responsibility for execution but don’t always have the authority to make critical decisions. You’re expected to deliver results on budgets you don’t control, within structures you didn’t design, and through policies you didn’t write. This tension is one of the biggest sources of chronic strain.

One survey found that middle managers reported higher burnout rates (36%) than non-managers, while another showed that 71% are “sometimes” or “always” overwhelmed at work. But here’s the good news: The middle isn’t just where pressure piles up. It’s also where strategy becomes reality, where culture is lived (or lost), and where agility gets tested in real time. If you can reframe the squeeze as an opportunity, middle management becomes less a grind and more a proving ground.

Here are four ways to turn the pressure into potential:

BUILD YOUR COALITION

If you think of your team only as your direct reports, you’re missing the larger playing field. Work today is inherently cross-functional, which means your effectiveness hinges on your ability to influence sideways and upward, not just to manage downward. Peers hold the resources and expertise you need. Leaders above you control priorities, approvals, and air cover. Without credibility in those directions, even flawless execution within your own group can collapse at the edges.

Research shows that misalignment between teams is one of the biggest drivers of wasted work. When priorities or interpretations differ, teams can spend weeks pulling in opposite directions. Middle managers who proactively build peer alignment surface these gaps early and save everyone time and frustration.

The fix isn’t complicated, but it is intentional: cultivate your network. A short, well-timed conversation with a peer or senior leader can prevent the kind of breakdowns that leave your team spinning. Think of it less as “networking” and more as preemptive damage control. The middle managers who thrive are the ones who invest in relationships that make the work move.

MASTER THE ‘PRACTICE’ OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership is often packaged as a set of sweeping competencies or treated like a fixed trait you either have or don’t. In reality, leadership is shaped over time, forged through daily choices, interactions, and repeated practice.

While traditional leadership development focuses on broad skills taught in workshops or courses—what we call horizontal development at Sounding Board—many real-world challenges require something deeper. Vertical development helps managers think more complexly, adapt to evolving contexts, and lead with lasting impact, not just quick fixes.

This kind of development happens through practice, not theory. Neuroscience supports it: Consistent, real-world repetition strengthens the neural pathways that anchor adaptability and retention. At BTS, we’ve seen that transformational leadership often hinges on unlocking specific mindset shifts, patterns where leaders typically get stuck and need to evolve to grow.

So, how do you start? Find smaller moments to experiment. Instead of waiting for a performance review, try a quick debrief after a call with a direct report. Test a new communication approach in a team meeting before the next town hall. You can even name your intention to those around you. Letting others know you’re trying something new sets expectations and invites helpful feedback.

LEVERAGE AI FOR ON-DEMAND SUPPORT

Your toughest challenges don’t show up as theory; they show up in the form of messy, human situations: a disengaged direct report, a senior leader who keeps moving the goalposts, a peer who won’t align. These problems don’t have one-size-fits-all solutions, which is why coaching is so powerful.

For decades, personalized coaching was a privilege reserved for executives. But with AI practice bots paired with guidance from real coaches, middle managers can get development that’s personalized and scalable when they need it.

These tools let you rehearse tough conversations, like giving feedback or delegating more effectively, in a low-stakes environment. Coaches help you translate insights into actions and longer-term mindset shifts. The result is leadership growth that’s less abstract and more actionable.

The smartest move? Start small. Pick one conversation you’ve been avoiding and rehearse it with an AI conversation bot. You’ll uncover blind spots, test new approaches, and walk into the real thing with more confidence and control.

MAKE UNCERTAINTY YOUR PLAYGROUND

The defining condition of modern work is uncertainty. Markets swing, technologies disrupt, priorities pivot. If you wait for clarity, you’ll always be behind. The managers who thrive aren’t the ones who resist ambiguity, but those who use it as a catalyst to experiment and learn.

One biopharmaceutical company I worked with recognized this when it expanded leadership development beyond senior executives to include middle managers. After providing leadership training focused on managing ambiguity and integrating AI into workflows, the company paired each manager with a coach to help translate learning into action. The result was faster decision-making and stronger cross-functional collaboration during a major pivot.

When you stop treating uncertainty as a threat and start treating it as a laboratory, you shift from surviving change to shaping it.

With these practices, middle management isn’t a burden, but a launchpad for growth.