Middle Management is Dead (But Leadership Isn't)
I came across this article about how middle management is dead. While it reads a bit as an "advertorial" it does make a compelling argument. The future is not about building skills in managing people. Growth is not about how many direct reports you have.
Orgs trees are flattening and growing wider. AI (+ plenty of productivity technology, and the many years of learnings from the evolution of Waterfall to Agile to Kanban/Continuous Improvement) has made the direct management (as in the organization, coordination, and progress measurement) less and less a thing needed to be done by people.
People Management is increasingly becoming unnecessary overhead while Management of Tools, Processes, Strategy, Products - with a clear end goal of a value focused impact is what matters.
That being said - Management and Leadership are two very different things. People Leadership still matters and, arguably, it matters more. We need to think more about how we probive guidance, mentoring, training, support and directional alignment.
I draw a parallel to soccer: Coaches run team practices that focus on improving the team's dynamic on the field. The coach will structure the positions, the style, the formations depending on each game. Sometimes the team is more defensive, sometimes it needs a strong middle. But every individual player is in charge of developing their own skill. Developing every player's skill level simply doesn't scale. The coach may highlight focus areas for team members, and set a direction so that team members will know the ways in which they need to grow - but the rest is up to the players.
If you've been a people manager and have become removed from the "building," now's the time to get back to "doing." While it may be daunting at firts, it's just like riding a bike: You may be wobbly at first, but the muscle memory is there - and you'll be pleasantly surprised how the bikes have gotten better.
