How coaching helps middle managers beat burnout

Are you surprised that the number of middle managers planning to stay at their jobs this year has fallen by 20%?^[1]

Exhausted and overwhelmed, middle managers are the super glue that keeps company culture and performance intact.

Putting out daily fires to keep businesses progressing, they are drowning with competing business demands and changing priorities. And they’re given little help to grow their skills and knowledge.

Learn how one-to-one coaching can give your middle managers the support, skills, and inspiration they need to thrive as leaders.

Why middle managers are burning out

Two-thirds of American managers and 61% of their UK peers say they are experiencing burnout.^[2]

Pre-covid, a study of 21,859 full-time employees across numerous industries found that middle-ranking staff had higher rates of depression and anxiety than lower and higher-ranking employees.^[3]

Causes include long hours, overflowing workloads, broken workplace relationships and a technology-driven ‘always on culture.’ Added to the mix, 91% say they are having trouble working remotely.^[4]

A key part of any middle manager’s role is to absorb the incessant demands of C-Suite bosses, while responding to their own team’s needs.

This requires a constant switching of roles and emotional states throughout the working day - being passive to bosses but more dominant to subordinates.

Research by Arizona State University suggests these ‘micro-transitions’ underlie the struggles of middle managers, as they eventually become exhausted and lack the support to cope.^[5]

How coaching enhances middle manager wellbeing and performance

Managers become change agents, rather than blockers

Whether it’s new technology, leadership or a socio-economic crisis, middle managers are essential to stabilising the workforce. They do this through clear, empathetic communication and meticulous planning and organization.^[6]

During the process of change, coaching gives middle managers the clarity they need to minimise the disruption, identify their priorities and master the behaviours that are necessary.

Nurture high-performers for C-level roles

Companies are struggling to find managers with the right skills to lead their organisations,^[7] and the average CEO’s tenure is less than 7 years.^[8]

Coaching for middle managers allows companies to nurture their future leaders internally with the exact skills they need to thrive.

From knowing how to structure an organisation to communicating strategy changes effectively, coaches help learners to adopt better skills to progress through the ranks.

Managers learn how to gain trust

Do your employees feel safe enough to tell their managers the truth? The answer likely indicates the performance of your organisation.

Compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report:

• 74% less stress,
• 106% more energy at work,
• 50% higher productivity,
• 13% fewer sick days,
• 76% more engagement,
• 29% more satisfaction with their lives,
• 40% less burnout.^[9]

But gaining trust isn’t easy. Coaches take coachees through each step of how to have uncomfortable conversations with employees, give and receive feedback, and ensure everyone feels included.

Better navigate conflict and toxic colleagues

Tensions can quickly turn to toxicity. Nearly half of employees reduce their effort at toxic organisations. 12% leave their jobs and 25% take out their frustration on customers.^[10]

Coaches ensure that this pressure is not bared alone. One-to-one coaching can help managers prepare and react with the right leadership approaches to disputes that need to be resolved.

Interested in giving your managers the coaching they need? Discover why most leadership coaching fails and the solution to getting it right.

References

1. “2022 Employee Experience Trends,” Qualtrics (February 3, 2022)
2. Naomi Thompson, “Managers Are Quitting as Covid Burnout Strikes,” theHRDIRECTOR (March 26, 2021)
3. Seth J. Prins et al., “Anxious? Depressed? You Might Be Suffering from Capitalism: Contradictory Class Locations and the Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety in the USA,” Sociology of Health & Illness 37, no. 8 (March 2015): pp. 1352-1372, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12315.
4. Lee Clifford, “Why Middle Managers Are Feeling the Most Stressed out during COVID,” Future Forum (Fortune, December 21, 2020)
5. Blake E. Ashforth, Glen E. Kreiner, and Mel Fugate, “All in a Day's Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions,” The Academy of Management Review 25, no. 3 (July 2000): p. 472, https://doi.org/10.2307/259305.
6. Antonio Giangreco and Riccardo Peccei, “The Nature and Antecedents of Middle Manager Resistance to Change: Evidence from an Italian Context,” The International Journal of Human Resource Management 16, no. 10 (2005): pp. 1812-1829, https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500298404.
7. Marc Zao-Sanders, “The Downstream Damage of the Leadership Skills Gap,” MIT Sloan Management Review (August 28, 2019)
8. Matteo Tonello and Jason D. Schloetzer, “CEO Succession Practices in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500: 2020 Edition” (The Conference Board, December 2020)
9. Paul J. Zak, “The Neuroscience of Trust,” Harvard Business Review, (August 31, 2021)
10. Michael Housman and Dylan Minor, “Toxic Workers” (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School, 2015).