“Managers are often ill-prepared for success in a leadership role. Many of them aren’t trained at all in how to engage, coach, or develop their teams. And if they are trained, it’s through programs that aren’t aligned with company strategy, lack the support of senior leadership, and are delivered as ‘once and done.’”

– From “The Root Manager Training Survey,” 2015

Middle managers are the glue that holds organizations together. They recruit, onboard, train and supervise critical customer-service and other employees. They serve as the conduit for information that flows back and forth between upper management and front-line employees. And more than personnel at other management levels, they also interface with vendors of all kinds.

Yet “The Root Manager Training Survey,” a new survey of 205 American executives conducted by Root and Kelton, finds that few companies are committed to training middle managers to perform well.

How Companies Are Failing to Train Middle Managers

Here are some opinions about middle-manager training that the survey uncovered:

• Middle-manager training is a very low priority. 69% of survey respondents stated that their company leadership doesn’t see a strong link between manager training and overall business performance. And 47% of respondents think their companies’ finance departments do not believe in training middle managers.
• When training does happen, it is focused only on short-term results. 43% of those surveyed stated that middle-manager training only supports short-term goals and ignores meaningful long-term objectives.
• Previous training programs for middle managers have failed to deliver. 89% of survey respondents stated that their organizations have wasted money on middle-manager training without achieving desired results.
• Training dollars go elsewhere. 83% of respondents reported that less than 25% of their companies’ training budgets goes to training middle managers.
• Even training directors realize they aren’t doing enough in this critical area. 62% of respondents who are involved in manager development say their companies aren’t doing enough.
• Training is haphazard or flawed. Only 24% of respondents stated that their companies embody “best practices” or evaluate middle managers’ genuine needs when designing training.

An Opportunity to Build Excellence

Are those findings troubling? Yes, they are. But doing a better job of training middle managers could represent an overlooked opportunity for many organizations – possibly yours? It is a cause we strongly support.