are high. Workers are feeling overwhelmed and undervalued. But if you look closely, it’s not the lowest-ranking employees reporting the greatest levels of stress and anxiety. Nor is it the leaders tasked with running companies during an unprecedented period of workplace transformation. It’s the poor souls stuck in the middle. These middle managers—the butt of the joke in so many office comedies for their outsize ambition, assumed mediocrity, or embrace of the status quo—actually play a crucial role in most workplaces. They get stuff done. They motivate to get stuff done. They provide the vital link between the C-suite and the rest of the company—two groups that often have vastly different desires and motivations. Serving as this go-between has become harder recently, as the strategic priorities of executives diverge even further from
