What are New Expectations for Mid-Level Leaders? Evidence-Based Insights

Mid-level leaders (managers who have other managers reporting to them) play a critical role in organizations as a bridge between executive and first-line leaders. They are a conduit for information up, down, and across the organization. They have enormous influence that can either facilitate or impede the success and speed of organizational changes. And they play a critical role in recruiting, developing, and motivating the employees who get the organization’s work done. 

While they are often criticized as the source of bureaucracy and one of the first targets of downsizing initiatives, their role in helping consistently deliver on customer and investor expectations cannot be ignored. Recent research by Emily Field and colleagues found that companies with better mid-level leaders were four times as likely as their peers to have superior long-term financial performance and they experienced more sustained revenue growth during the pandemic, even estimating that the financial impact on the average Fortune 500 company of mid-level leader effectiveness was $2 billionⁱ.  There can be no doubt that improving the quality of mid-level leaders in your organization is a smart investment with a strong ROI.

The pressing question, particularly coming off the disruption of the last four years to how, where, and what work is being done, is what to invest in. What are the specific skills and behaviors that companies should invest in if they want to improve mid-level leadership skills that influence strong organizational outcomes?

To help answer that question, we turned to our database of more than 2.2 million leadership-behavior ratings from 2009-2023. We analyzed 143,065 ratings of mid-level leaders from the periods of 2015-2019 (pre-COVID) and 2021-2023 (post-COVID). Each leader in the database was evaluated by their manager, peers, and direct reports on 67 leadership behaviors drawn from five research-based leadership domains (Strategist, Executor, Human Capital Developer, Talent Manager, and Personal Proficiency) in the RBL Leadership Code® as well as four outcome measures weighting each leader’s organizational value contribution

How have expectations of mid-level leaders shifted? 

The table below identifies key shifts: what is still important, as well as what is more and less important, for today’s mid-level leaders who want to deliver strong value for their organizations (Fiigure 1).

Figure 1. Key Shifts in Mid-Level Leader Behaviors that Drive Organizational Value Pre-COVID (2015-2019) vs. Post-COVID (2021-2023)

Mid-Level Leadership Behaviors that Create Organizational Value

What’s the same post-COVID?

Like in the past, successful mid-level leaders are those who can use their influence and authority to get the right things done. They understand how to connect the dots between their part of the organization, the broader organization, and what customers and investors expect. They can clearly articulate how those pieces fit together and make crucial decisions that keep work moving in the right direction without micro-managing the process. 

They create alignment with the strategic direction of the organization and drive the changes needed to make that strategic direction a reality. Embedded in the notion of “the right things” or “needed changes” or “broader implications” is an expectation that they have done the analytical and strategic thinking required to be able to identify and prioritize the “right” or “needed” thing.

What’s different post-COVID?

The Great Resignation, “quiet quitting,” the more fluid location of work, the rapidly evolving skills required to do the work, and other characteristics of the post-COVID global business environment has brought a focus on building talent for the future front and center. Our post-COVID research affirms one of the clear positions we take in our original Leadership Code model -- that the leader’s job is not just getting the work done today but it is equally important they are making sure they have the people in place to do the work tomorrow. 

This research shows that it is increasingly important for mid-level leaders to identify talent needs for the future and then invest time in their employees to help them develop and prepare for that future. Here’s what our research suggests mid-level leaders must do better and differently today to drive strong organizational value: 

1. Look ahead to what talent and skills will be needed: To be successful in creating organizational value in a post-COVID world, mid-level leaders have to be able to know what skills and competencies their teams need to have for the future and make sure they are preparing people for the critical roles that will create value for customers and investors not just for today but for tomorrow.
2. Connect key employees through common goals: They need to not only align the work of their teams with the strategic goals of the organization but they need to help the people on their teams, especially key employees, understand how they can meet their personal career goals through staying with the organization. They need to be able to help them identify the right development areas to help them be prepared to achieve those goals.  
3. Be more collaborative and empowering in guiding the work: Today’s successful mid-level leaders are getting the work done less by hands-on direction and more by establishing clear alignment on outcomes and working to support and empower their teams to accomplish them. The data suggest a stronger expectation for establishing clarity about what needs to be delivered at the same time that it shows less emphasis on detailed oversight, constant communication, and rigidity of roles and purpose within teams. 

Taking the above together, it’s as if successful mid-level leaders are telling their teams “Let’s get the work done and if you’re helping me do that how it needs to be done, I can help you get where you want to go.”